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Sisters man recovering from injury
By Jim Cornelius

Bryon Burleigh, with his sister Amber, is recovering from a snowboarding accident.

Bryon Burleigh knew as soon as he landed wrong after his snowboard jump that his life had changed.

The 22-year-old Sisters resident was on his lunch break at Hoodoo Ski Area on February 28 when he made a jump that didn't work out quite right.

He overshot his landing, fell on his back -- and couldn't get up.

"I sat there, lying on the mountain and I thought, 'I know I broke something.'"

He was right. The snowboarder had shattered the sixth cervical vertebrae; he had a broken neck.

Air Life took Bryon off the mountain and flew him to St. Charles Medical Center. Bryon's mother, Donna LaCroix, believes that the airlift may have saved Bryon from more dire injury or death.

Swelling is a big danger with spinal injuries and LaCroix said the medical crew in the helicopter administered steroids right away and kept the swelling down.

That may account, at least in part, for the remarkable recovery Bryon has made. The snowboarder was able to move his arms a little right after the accident, but by the time he got to the hospital, he was apparently completely paralyzed.

After 7-1/2 hours of surgery and weeks of rehabilitation at Sacred Heart Medical Center, Bryon has good use of his arms and can walk a few steps.

"I could have died and I didn't," Bryon said. "So right there, that's pretty good. I seem to be getting better every day."

Bryon came home from the hospital last week. He does exercises every day and will go to St. Charles for outpatient rehab three days a week. Spinal injuries are mysterious and recovery is unpredictable. His family says it will be two years before they have a real ability to determine how much recovery Bryon can expect.

So far, things are going well.

"My recovery has been phenomenal," Bryon said. "All the hospital staff I've talked to say I've far over-shot their expectations for recovery."

Bryon's attitude may have something to do with that. He said that he realized that he had a serious injury as soon as it happened and he started to build his determination for recovery while he was lying on the mountain.

He accepted his injury, he said, and decided he had to move on. That, his family agrees, is typical of the young man's spirit.

The ordeal has been tough on his family, a fact which Bryon readily acknowledges.

"I think they were more freaked out about it than I was," he said.

His mother, Donna, doesn't dispute that, describing the week her son spent in intensive care as "a week of quiet terror."

Despite the trauma of the ordeal, Bryon and his family are thankful he is doing as well as he is. Donna believes that, without current medical technology, her son would probably have died.

And Bryon believes that one $104 piece of equipment spared him even worse injury -- or death.

"I think the biggest thing was that I had my helmet on," he said.

"I think I'd be in a lot more sorry state if I hadn't."

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