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Chapter 20
The next day was again a beautiful day with sunny skies and a little bit of fresh snow that had fallen during the night. The whole group was enjoying themselves, although Chris still seemed to be in a bad mood because of Jess showing her double headgear last night and more and more I got the feeling that I was the bad guy in this matter.
Chris wasn’t the best skier, but by far the most uncouth one. He started bullying the whole group, but me the most, both verbally and physically. Spraying snow over us, when we were waiting or cutting us off when we were sliding down the slopes.
While others told Chris to stop his childish behavior, I kept quiet. I didn’t want to upset him any more than he already was.
During lunch he took a couple of beers and started making remarks that I was a looser and that Jess was his girl and more of that shit. He even made a comment that he expect me to be disappointed that Jess wasn’t wearing MY steel structure on her head while skiing. Of course it was out of the question to ski wearing headgear. When we resumed skiing after lunch a few members of the group told him that it would be better not to join the group, because he was annoying and that his bad mood clearly didn’t get any better because of his alcohol intoxication. Unfortunately Chris didn’t take those requests very well, but headed off, calling me names, because I should have set them up against him.
After Chirs left, we had a few nice runs in perfect conditions. We had stopped at the side of the slope to discuss to have a drink in the bar a few hundred meters below us, when we heard some yelling. The moment I looked up I saw a dark spot closing in fast and before I knew what was happening, I felt a huge impact. The impact was so huge I got launched and flew through the air hitting something with my head before I rolled in the snow until stopped when my legs smacked into a giant boulder. Then everything went black and quiet.
After some time I heard people screaming and yelling and I noticed people coming towards me, telling me not to move. Not before long paramedics came around, taking care of me and when I saw a helicopter landing on the slope, I knew I was in a serious condition, as I knew the French only came to a crash-site with a helicopter when it was really serious.
The paramedics wrapped me in a vacuum matrass and carefully brought me to the helicopter. Just before I was loaded in, I saw Jess. She cried and I saw paramedics taking care of her head.
I was flown to the hospital, but to be honest, I was out most of the time. When I woke up I heard some muffled voices telling me not to move and I felt a hand on my lower arm. I blinked my eyes a few times and vision became clear. I looked around and saw Jess and a nurse next to my bed. I thought Jess looked strange, like she was wearing a mask or so.
I tried to figure out in what state my body was. It felt like my body was held rigid and I felt something pulling on my left leg. I could wiggle my toes and move my right leg, but I didn’t feel my left foot.
Thankfully I could move both my arms and all my fingers.
I noticed Jess tried to say something, but I couldn’t make anything of the grunts she made. The mask seemed to muffle her voice. Then the nurse said: “Welcome back Ron, you have been in a serious skiing accident and you have been flown over to the hospital in Grenoble. You might have noticed that some parts of your body have been immobilized. You have fractures in two of your vertebraes. They are clean fractures that won’t need any surgery. We will immobilize your spine and we expect that in two to three months your back will be fine again.
Your left leg however is in a much worse condition. The bones in your lower left leg have been shattered in the accident and ligaments and nerves have been ripped. We expect you have no feeling in your left foot right now, do you?”
I saw the nurse touch my left foot, but I didn’t feel anything of it. I saw my left leg was in traction, which I felt on my upper leg, but I didn’t feel anything of that in my lower leg.
“For now we have you fixed on a gypsum board, so your spine is immobilized. In a few days, when the swelling has gone down, we will get you a corset. I don’t know what the plans are for your leg. The doctors will come tomorrow and discuss the possibilities, I guess.
Please take some rest now and try to get some sleep. You will need all your energy for your recovery”.
I whispered a thank you to the nurse and try to ask what was going on with Jess, but I couldn’t get any words out of my mouth, so I just pointed to Jess.
“Ah,” said the nurse: “You are curious about your girlfriend? Well, I expect you know she was in the same accident. She is bruised by the impact all over her body, so nothing to worry about. However she got a major impact on the bottom half of her face. We expect your helmet has hit her. The impact was so big that her bottom jaw is more or less shattered and her upper jaw has more or less broken of the rest of her skull and shifted sideways. Personally I never have seen such injuries in my career. The doctors made a mask to immobilize her jaws. They will have to work out a plan how to reconstruct her jaws.”
The next day was again a beautiful day with sunny skies and a little bit of fresh snow that had fallen during the night. The whole group was enjoying themselves, although Chris still seemed to be in a bad mood because of Jess showing her double headgear last night and more and more I got the feeling that I was the bad guy in this matter.
Chris wasn’t the best skier, but by far the most uncouth one. He started bullying the whole group, but me the most, both verbally and physically. Spraying snow over us, when we were waiting or cutting us off when we were sliding down the slopes.
While others told Chris to stop his childish behavior, I kept quiet. I didn’t want to upset him any more than he already was.
During lunch he took a couple of beers and started making remarks that I was a looser and that Jess was his girl and more of that shit. He even made a comment that he expect me to be disappointed that Jess wasn’t wearing MY steel structure on her head while skiing. Of course it was out of the question to ski wearing headgear. When we resumed skiing after lunch a few members of the group told him that it would be better not to join the group, because he was annoying and that his bad mood clearly didn’t get any better because of his alcohol intoxication. Unfortunately Chris didn’t take those requests very well, but headed off, calling me names, because I should have set them up against him.
After Chirs left, we had a few nice runs in perfect conditions. We had stopped at the side of the slope to discuss to have a drink in the bar a few hundred meters below us, when we heard some yelling. The moment I looked up I saw a dark spot closing in fast and before I knew what was happening, I felt a huge impact. The impact was so huge I got launched and flew through the air hitting something with my head before I rolled in the snow until stopped when my legs smacked into a giant boulder. Then everything went black and quiet.
After some time I heard people screaming and yelling and I noticed people coming towards me, telling me not to move. Not before long paramedics came around, taking care of me and when I saw a helicopter landing on the slope, I knew I was in a serious condition, as I knew the French only came to a crash-site with a helicopter when it was really serious.
The paramedics wrapped me in a vacuum matrass and carefully brought me to the helicopter. Just before I was loaded in, I saw Jess. She cried and I saw paramedics taking care of her head.
I was flown to the hospital, but to be honest, I was out most of the time. When I woke up I heard some muffled voices telling me not to move and I felt a hand on my lower arm. I blinked my eyes a few times and vision became clear. I looked around and saw Jess and a nurse next to my bed. I thought Jess looked strange, like she was wearing a mask or so.
I tried to figure out in what state my body was. It felt like my body was held rigid and I felt something pulling on my left leg. I could wiggle my toes and move my right leg, but I didn’t feel my left foot.
Thankfully I could move both my arms and all my fingers.
I noticed Jess tried to say something, but I couldn’t make anything of the grunts she made. The mask seemed to muffle her voice. Then the nurse said: “Welcome back Ron, you have been in a serious skiing accident and you have been flown over to the hospital in Grenoble. You might have noticed that some parts of your body have been immobilized. You have fractures in two of your vertebraes. They are clean fractures that won’t need any surgery. We will immobilize your spine and we expect that in two to three months your back will be fine again.
Your left leg however is in a much worse condition. The bones in your lower left leg have been shattered in the accident and ligaments and nerves have been ripped. We expect you have no feeling in your left foot right now, do you?”
I saw the nurse touch my left foot, but I didn’t feel anything of it. I saw my left leg was in traction, which I felt on my upper leg, but I didn’t feel anything of that in my lower leg.
“For now we have you fixed on a gypsum board, so your spine is immobilized. In a few days, when the swelling has gone down, we will get you a corset. I don’t know what the plans are for your leg. The doctors will come tomorrow and discuss the possibilities, I guess.
Please take some rest now and try to get some sleep. You will need all your energy for your recovery”.
I whispered a thank you to the nurse and try to ask what was going on with Jess, but I couldn’t get any words out of my mouth, so I just pointed to Jess.
“Ah,” said the nurse: “You are curious about your girlfriend? Well, I expect you know she was in the same accident. She is bruised by the impact all over her body, so nothing to worry about. However she got a major impact on the bottom half of her face. We expect your helmet has hit her. The impact was so big that her bottom jaw is more or less shattered and her upper jaw has more or less broken of the rest of her skull and shifted sideways. Personally I never have seen such injuries in my career. The doctors made a mask to immobilize her jaws. They will have to work out a plan how to reconstruct her jaws.”