Vic's big ski accident 1st February 2023 - Part 1
Vic Landon
What follows is my recollections of my ski accident, I’m pretty sure that the witnesses will have a different take on it. Apologies if this offends anyone or is too much information, it’s just that I’d like to tell you the whole story.
My personal helicopter off the mountain
So many of you have messaged, sent cards, pressies and generally just been there for us both so there are also a lot of thank yous that I need to add as well, but for now here’s what happened on the 1st of February 2023.
My poor mug, Geoff will not get rid of this now!
Hindsight is a wonderful thing, they say bad things come in 3’s, maybe if i’d put these two together I would have said maybe not today but… 1. The night before my accident I managed to put a big hole in one of the original shower cabins so we’d done a quick fix so that it lasts until the end of the season and vowed to replace it sooner rather than later. 2. That morning Geoff managed to knock my ‘V’ mug off the counter and break the handle off 3. Happened just before lunch that same day.
View from the new cafe above the clouds
The day started off well, we were collected by Niki and Jonathan to head up to Superbagneres and parked in the bottom car park. We headed over to the new cafe there for a pre ski beverage, we were all super chuffed with the new place and the clouds lifted as we took our first sips. The views were incredible.
The four of us on our first chair
We donned our skis and helmets and off we went. It was only our 2nd day on skis this season but it was one of those picture perfect magical days, fresh snow, blue sky and very few people to get on our way.
The Tunnel piste, quiet and in great condition
I’m not a fast skier, I am in control and a lot of my ski ability is to do with how my head is, today was a good day and I was loving skiing, we’d made our way over to the Marmottes piste, one of my favourites as the views are something else, all was good and on the next chair lift we decided to tackle my nemesis run - Hounte-Estrete so that we could go and see Seb and Lozza at their restaurant at the bottom. I always describe it as a very dark red piste
I’ve had a couple of run ins with this slope in the past and i’m always very cautious on it. Once a snowboarder decided to use my hips as his brake when returning from off piste to en piste, it was a busy day and everyone around me stopped to ensure that I was OK, he learned a few English swear words that day. The other time was entirely my fault - I ignored the ‘where you look is where you go’ rule and kept looking at the icy rocks and then ended up sliding down them and ripping my trousers, I eventually managed to duct tape them back up with the help of Lozza! As I said it’s not my ‘go to’ piste but I do like to conquer it now and again.
I usually take the flatter dog leg but braved the super steep bit at the beginning and was happy with how I’d skied so I carried on, thinking I’ll just ski this at my own pace, the others were behind me so I’d see them at the restaurant. It’s quite a long run but there was no one around so I was happy going at my own pace and little by little showing Hounte-Estrete that I was not afraid.
The bottom section of piste in question - photos never really show the gradient but it’s steep
I’d made it to the last section, still steep but you can see the end and I was determined to just carry on and ride this ski wave. I was aware of a bloke that didn’t look entirely comfortable on this piste and thought I’d give him a wide berth but we managed to get quite close on a turn so I altered course, he did too and for my next turn I have recollections of him appearing ridiculously close from my right hand side and me shouting (probably the F word). The next thing I remember is me sat on the back of my skis facing backwards and continuing down the slope and thinking ‘just relax, don’t tense because that won’t help, you can’t stop yourself now just wait until you stop’.
Me in the blood wagon, the guy on the left gives an indication of how steep it was here
The next couple of hours were a blur, I’d managed to hit my head and properly damage my helmet (a million thank yous to my helmet), this caused a small bleed on my brain and I lost consciousness and had a small fit. The guy that collided with me managed to flag down some pisteurs (amazing heroes, again more thanks are due here) before Geoff, Niki and Jonathon arrived on the scene. My three buddies can probably fill you in on the almost 3 hours that I was lying on the snow, apparently I was unable to talk for the first part and then I could at least indicate where was hurting, more by grunts than words. Realising that I’d injured my back as well as my head brought complications for moving me.
Apparently there was no Doctor on duty at the ski station that day and once the pisteurs realised the severity of my injuries they put an announcement over the tannoy to see if there was a Doctor anywhere at the ski station, as luck would have it there were 3! As I understand it a wonderful lady who had just moved back to France after being an A&E doctor in Canada was the one that came to tend to me and I will be forever grateful for her kindness and professionalism despite having limited kit and working in the freezing cold, I’m not sure that I would ever recognise her though. But I hope that she managed to enjoy another day courtesy of the ski station.
My awesome team of an off duty doctor and the pisteurs were happy that they’d stabilised me enough to move me. They’d already called for a helicopter by this point and they loaded me into one of the ‘bloodwagons’ as us skiers call them - more of a sledge that is guided by skilled pisteurs. We headed towards La Hount Restaurant. By this point my ski buddies had headed down there already to try and warm up and have a toilet stop. Once Lozza found out it was me she was in pieces and was told she couldn’t see me looking like that as I needed calm. I do remember as I was lying in the sledge her face popping over and she looked awful but had apparently pulled herself together by this point!
I was then loaded into (luckily into not on the side of) the helicopter and after a few minutes we set off towards Tarbes Accident and Emergency 2 hours drive from Superbagneres but not long in the helicopter. I was then poked, prodded and scanned before being admitted to the high dependency unit for constant surveillance. Geoff and Niki arrived a few hours later, none of us really understood the severity of the injuries at this point.
Not long after I’d arrived - all the wires and a morphine drip that I wasn’t allowed to use more than once every 7 minutes!
In the first few days I was ripped to the tits on morphine and didn’t really grasp my head injury but understood that I’d broken multiple ribs and my Dr didn’t tell me what I’d done to my vertebrae other than there were some fractures. Geoff was fully aware of the head injury and was even given the “if she hadn’t been wearing a helmet we’d be having a very different” conversation, again thank goodness for helmets - I cannot recommend them enough.
“Always wear a helmet - no matter what your sport is.”
Everyone at the hospital was wonderful and reassuring, it’s been challenging at times to be doing all of this in my second language but I’ve got by. My scans were sent off to the top neuro and spinal surgeons in the south west to determine whether I needed surgery, the answer from them all was not yet and we’ll monitor the situation, it’s still not been completely ruled out but my Dr seems to be confident that the progress that I’ve made won’t need it, so fingers crossed and watch this space.
It was clear that I would need to wear a specially made corset to support my spine, they are 3D printed after measurements and injuries are taken into consideration and I also got to choose the pattern that I would be wearing for the next 4-6 weeks. I was shown a sheet of A4 with about 50 different designs on and in my morphine induced state couldn’t remember the French for most of the designs, my eyes kept refocusing on le flamant rose - the flamingo design and that is the one that I chose. To be honest even without morphine I would have gone for something outlandish, you’ve all seen my leggings!
Minus a few wires and with corset
Now that I’ve read the list of injuries and I’m also 8 weeks into my hospital stay I truly realise how lucky I am to be here. For those of a medical nature that would like to know what actually happened, here’s a list
Small bleed to the brain
Fractures to the 1st, 6th, 8th and 11th ribs on the right hand side
Fracture to C6 vertebrae
Fractures to the right hand side of T10, T12, L1, L2, L3 and L4
Fracture of T6 with slight movement
Fracture of T9 without movement
Fracture of T12 with movement
Fracture of L4 without movement
As everyone has said I don’t do things by halves. I am very happy to be here, I am very happy to be walking, I am very happy that I can type out my account of what happened - sorry that it’s really wordy.
One of my most recent scans showing a few breaks for the eagle eyed
<EDIT> I’ve now had my second scan and there are a couple of additional fractures that weren’t picked up on the original scan - maybe they just got bored or listing them. I also have fractures to T3, T4, T5, T7 and T8. That’s 14 of my 22 vertebrae fractured and 2 vertebrae have 2 fractures. I’m trying not to think about what could have been and just concentrating on what did happen. Given the number of fractures I have requested a bone density scan (thanks Paula and Niki for suggesting this).
Side view, luckily all the bits were in just about the right place just not all together!
I’ve had some highs and some lows (5 that stand out) whilst I’ve been an inmate here in the French hospital system. Almost everyone that I have come into contact with has been so caring, positive and gentle with me, it’s been a really refreshing experience.
That's all for this first part of my blog, once again huge thanks to everyone that has taken the time to send messages, presents, visited, helped out around the house/garden/bathroom and thought of both of us - it hasn’t been an easy time but the outpouring of love has certainly helped.
With the right equipment, skiing isn’t any more dangerous than any other activity, I’ve been skiing for over 20 years and this is the first time that I have been in hospital following a fall (I’ve had plenty of bumps and bruises!). We’ve also looked after people on their winter holidays for 12 years now and in all this time we can probably count on our fingers the number of injuries.
I’d like to add a special Thank you to Geoff, he really has been a rock and I know it’s not been easy for him having to take up the slack and now deal with a whole load more life admin as well as 100% of the business. Thanks ducks x
Recovery Yoga for Geoff and Chunky cat