Teenage boy refused concerned mother's offer of skiing lessons during winter sports vacation... then horror struck just hours later
Ayden Slipsager, 18, of Atlanta, was in the middle of a ski trip with his father and his friend in Colorado when he struck an object and knocked himself unconscious.
A Georgia teenager was left with life-altering injuries from a skiing incident after passing up on his mom's offer of lessons.
Ayden Slipsager, 18, of Atlanta, was left unable to walk after getting injured during a Colorado ski trip with his father and his friend on December 17.
Just hours beforehand, his mother, Tami Slipsager, had begged him to take private ski lessons as she was worried about his novice skills, but he told her: 'I'm doing okay.'
'Well, about two hours later, I got a phone call that he was at the urgent care, that they were putting in a port for breathing, and he was bleeding severely,' she told WSB-TV.
The slopes got icy and Slipsager hit something and knocked himself unconscious. He was out for for 40 minutes until a stranger spotted him and called for help.
'We don’t know what he hit because all the damage that happened to him, probably came from trees, but they said they didn’t find him anywhere near trees, so we don’t know if it was ice or a stump or rock. We don’t know,' Tami told Atlanta News First.
The University of Georgia freshman suffered spinal cord injuries, as well as, a fractured skull, broken ribs, a collapsed lung, and a broken collarbone, Atlanta News First reported.
'It was scary. He wasn’t awake, tubes and braces, and intubated, and I wasn’t even sure he was in there,' Tami told the outlet. '[It was] the worst day of my life.'
Ayden Slipsager, 18, of Atlanta, was in the middle of a ski trip with his father and his friend in Colorado when he got injured, leaving himself unable to walk on December 17
Just hours beforehand, his mother, Tami Slipsager, had begged him to take private ski lessons as she was worried about his novice skills, but he told her: 'I'm doing okay'
Although Slipsager has made progress during his recovery, the college student now needs to be medically transported back to Georgia, where the family got him into the Shepherd Center, one of the best spinal cord rehabilitation centers in Georgia.
However, the transportation costs could be between $100,000 and $150,000, which the family cannot afford.
A friend started a GoFundMe page to help the family with the enormous cost.
'This is an expense that insurance does not fully cover, and it’s a financial burden his family cannot take on alone,' according to the the fundraiser, which has raised $44,000.