'He would have died': Father finds injured son at Nakiska hours after fall
A Calgary father who found his injured son at Nakiska on Boxing Day says it took nearly three hours for the 17-year-old snowboarder to be located, following a mishap on his first run of the day.
Don Thomson says his son Pasha suffered major head trauma and remains in a coma in hospital.
"It's been pretty devastating and we're just hoping for the best," Thomson says.
"We got some more positive news today that the damage may not be as bad as they originally thought, but we won't know until he wakes up."
Pasha was snowboarding Monday with his 19-year-old cousin, who was visiting for the holidays from Vancouver.
Thomson says he dropped the cousins off at the ski hill and headed to the nearby Delta Lodge to work. The boys took their first run around 12 p.m., on an easy-to-intermediate section.
When Pasha didn't show up at the bottom of the run, his cousin waited about 15 minutes before taking the run again to look for him. He searched the lodge and other nearby runs, then contacted the hill's ski patrol, Thomson says.
Son missing
Thomson got a call that his son was missing and headed back to the hill to join the search. He tried calling and texting his son's phone, but got no answer.
"I went and talked to people at ski patrol and told them where [his cousin] had last seen him," Thomson says.
"Nothing was happening. I finally went to the guy in charge and said 'do you mind if I go up there? I need to go find my son. It's an hour away from darkness.' "
Thomson estimates it took him about 20 to 25 minutes to climb the hill. "I got to get there, I got to get there, I know he's there,' " he kept telling himself.
"I trucked up that hill as fast as I could go and got up over the steep part and turned left and there he was. I found him right away," Thomson says.
'He would have died'
Thomson crashed through the trees on the side of the run to check on his son.
He was lying on his back and groaning a little, unconscious but still breathing, Thomson says.
"He had gone off the ski run and obviously lost control and he hit the left side of his head against the tree and then toppled back in, under, to the back of the tree, and got his feet kind of twisted," he says.
Thomson discovered his son around 3:30 p.m. and estimates he had been lying there for nearly three hours.
"If I hadn't have gone up the hill by myself, because no one else seemed to be finding my son, he would have died. It was -17 degrees and no one had found him."
Flown to hospital
Pasha was wearing a helmet, Thomson says, and his goggles were slightly askew.
His gloves were off and his coat was unzipped; Thomson guesses his son had tried to get out his cellphone to call for help.
After finding his injured son, Thomson says he ran onto the run and "started screaming like a madman."
Ski patrol members arrived with a sled and brought Pasha down the hill to an ambulance. He was driven to the Stoney Nakoda Resort and Casino and then flown to Foothills Hospital.
Pasha remains in the intensive care unit in a coma, Thomson says. He describes his son, a Grade 12 student, as a warm-hearted and gregarious person who likes acting.
He has been snowboarding for three or four years and "loves it," Thomson says, adding the family has a family pass to Nakiska.
Despite the time it took to find his son, Thomson says he thinks everyone tried their best under the circumstances.
"I don't blame anybody," he says.
"I just want people to know [Pasha] had a good helmet on and he's a safe snowboarder. It's just an unfortunate accident and unfortunate circumstances."
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