Mark McMorris, after regaining consciousness, thought we was going to die following slamming into a tree while snowboarding March 25, according to the Canadian Press.
“I didn’t think I’d ever snowboard again when I was laying there after I hit that tree,” McMorris, the Olympic slopestyle bronze medalist, said, according to the report. “I was awake and was waiting. As soon as the helicopter got there [90 minutes later] I went to sleep. I remember the whole time waiting, just trying to survive because ruptured spleen and all that, and my jaw was just hanging. I was puking. I thought I was going to die — literally.”
McMorris suffered a broken jaw and left arm, ruptured spleen, stable pelvic fracture, rib fractures and a collapsed left lung from the backcountry crash in British Columbia.
“I broke everything, like 16 bones or something in one hit,” McMorris said, according to the Canadian Press. “That’s like a car crash.”
McMorris does plan to snowboard again, hopefully at the PyeongChang Winter Games. He was limited physically for one month after surgeries to control bleeding and repair the broken bones. He was on a liquid diet for six weeks, according to the Canadian Press.
McMorris already has a provisional spot on the Canadian Olympic team and could earn medals in slopestyle and the new event of big air.
McMorris’ older brother, Craig, was the first to find him after the crash on March 25. By then, McMorris had regained consciousness, but he was struggling to breathe with blood in his mouth, reports said.
“When you get injured usually it’s like, ‘Oh man I’m so bummed, but I can’t wait until the next time I can snowboard,’” McMorris said this week, according to the Canadian Press. “This time I was like, ‘I can’t wait until the next time I can move again or like — live.’”
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