Abby’s Sled Wreck….why we use helmets

No smart, quirky title, no long rants, not even a glimpse of humor.

Just quick example of why we use helmets and how keeping them around for even just the “ordinary” adventures has made the difference in the level of how bad something could have turned out.

I have had my share of head thumps. A helmet made the difference in motorcycle accidents, mountain bike colisions with trees, and falling rocks. This week it saved my daughter’s life.

This last Sunday was a beautiful sunny day. Heading out to one of our favorite sledding spots we loaded the jeep and hit the road. As we were about to leave I had Abby grab her snowboarding helmet.

An hour later we were on our sled hill in one of the remote backcountry towns we love, and After throwing on ski bibs, jacket, and helmet Abby was heading down the first hill of the day.

I did not grow up sledding so looking at the hill she was about to tackle did not register as being a fast hill. The bump aka….jump…did not register either.

Abby came down the hill at a faster rate than I had ever seen her come down, hit the jump and was vaulted over 5 feet in the air. At some point her body rotated and she landed face/head first in hard packed snow and ice.
(pictures of the sequence can be found at the link below) Abby Sled Wreck
After a brief check we determined it was safe topick her up. We loaded the jeep and proceded to the ER an hour away with a snow-filled ziplock bag to reduce swealling.

In the ER she was run through a bettery of test and after a cat scan was determined to have a categort 1 concusion.

The docs told us thet without the helmet it would have been much worse.

I shudder each time the accident replays in my head and I hate to think what would have happened if we had not grabbed the helmet at the last moment

She is feeling better but is not out of the woods yet.

Be sure you protect your head and those of your kids.

Lastly….go to the provided link and on the facebook page leave her a few words of encouragement. You may have to “like” the page first. Your comments would be good for her.