As far as recovery is concerned I am still a work in progress; I started racing cross country and downhill events around central NY. I got sponsored when I was 19. Turned pro. Racing was very different then. Winners of events in pro elite class would win maybe 1k and the rest of the riders would win parts. I had been posting times within a minute of the pros. I gained a lot of attention by it. I got to go to events, meet and race with and ride with Tinker Juarez, Ned Overend, Hans Rey, Tattoo Lou Dejournas, Missy the Missile Giove, Brian Slopes Lopes and John Tomac. Primarily the last 4 only did downhill events of course. I was in 2nd place behind Hans Rey at a cross country race in NY when he crashed, broke his collarbone punctured a lung, and came very close to dying. He still talks about that crash. That was the crash that retired him from racing. Mostly he is well known for trials style riding. Most people didn't realize he also raced cross country and downhill. I didn't finish the race because I stayed with him until emergency crews arrived. Unfortunately I did not travel or travel far so I was limited where I could go and race. I didn't even own a car at that point. Sponsorship at that point for a relatively unknown up and comer didn't even necesarily mean you got a ride to events. Many of the earlier racers did all their own transpo. there wasn't a lot of money in it. It wasn't yet an Olympic sport. John Tomac was the one that really turned it around and starting making MONEY. I did it because I loved it. It was my passion.
Unfortunately I crashed at a race at Mt Snow, VT July 4th weekend of 91. Downhill courses were just in their beginning at that point. For the most part it was straight down a triple black diamond ski slope with a few bermed turns to reduce speed. The 2 preliminary runs previous I had achieved 72mph. That was also the speed I wrecked at on the 3rd race run. I got charging hard moved into first placed forgot about the bermed turn. Didn't slow down, couldn't slow down for it. Most were slowing down to 35 mph to take it. I hit the backside of the bermed banked turn at speed rotated down in midair and hit the back side of the next log built berm headfirst. I broke my neck C4-C5 compression fracture. Got 140 stitches out of it on my chin. Burst my helmet into a hundred pieces. Hit so hard I stopped my heart. The compression fracture put pressure on the nerve bundle going to my heart. Shut off all electrical stimulus to it. Turned it off like flipping a switch. It wasn't until the repositioned my head and neck putting me on the stretcher into the flight for life helicopter that my heart started beating again. That was 4 minutes later. My heart again stopped at the state border when they transferred me from the flight for life to an ambulance when enroute to the Albany head trauma center. For over 3 minutes. I was in a coma for 13 days. I don't remember any of it. The last thing I remember is seeing my Nishiki Alien AL on the back of the skilift chair next to my friend Bob's Nishiki Alien AL and remarking that that was a wild thing. I woke up 13 days later. I damaged my heart. I was not expected to survive. I had a little slurring of speech. Very mild. I did not have a halo or any form of neck stabilization. To put it blunt... I was not expected to survive and if I did since my heart had been stopped for so long I was expected to be a vegetable. They put me off in a secluded quiet room and were waiting for me to die. I woke up seeing myself in a hospital bed and was like uh oh what did I do? The stitches in my face had been taken out at 10 days. I had also had a small tree branch poke thru the side of my eyeball and had already had the stitches from that removed. I freaked out got up and left the hospital. The Drs didn't have any say in it. I just left. It took me about 9 months to fully recover mentally. Interestingly enough I remembered everything I had learned previous to the wreck. Sometimes when people wake up from a coma they don't remember how to use the bathroom or eat or read etc. I remembered all of that. I got home to Syracuse. Hopped on my mountain bike and rode it down the steepest offroad hill in Syracuse. With a still broken unhealed neck. To prove I wasn't scared and could still do it. I sold that mtn bike the next day.
