Big Sky Ski Patrol Thanked For Saving Son’s Life

On Dec. 7, 2016, my 28-year-old son Nich was snow boarding at Big Sky Resort. As he was coming off a lift, he collapsed due to what is called “sudden cardiac death.“′ He needed to be resuscitated by ski patrol three different times on the mountain, tobogganed down, then airlifted to Deaconess hospital in Bozeman.

Once at the hospital in Bozeman, he was put into a medically induced coma and induced hypothermia to keep his organs cooled. He went into cardiac arrest once again while at the hospital and needed to be resuscitated again.

It was then determined that in order to get his heart to begin working properly again, he would need a pacemaker. More than 48 hours after arriving in Bozeman, medical staff prepared Nich for a flight to a hospital in Missoula, where he would be getting the pacemaker. As he was preparing to get on the flight, he went into cardiac arrest again and had to be resuscitated once more. Recently, Nicholas Rennspies had a pacemaker/defibrillator inserted in his chest so the above won’t happen again.

What saved my sons life was the rapid response (less than 5 minutes) by the Big Sky ski patrol.

I don’t know how I will ever be able to thank you enough realizing that, day in and day out, what you do proves that you are the true heroes of Big Sky. You should be regarded as such. Again, my profound thanks. Keep doing what you are doing, and know that there are many people out there who respect and admire you.

I also want to thank doctors, nurses, and staff at Bozeman Deaconess hospital for the incredible care they provided my son. They were also truly amazing.

Story Credit: http://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/opinions/letters_to_editor/big-sky-ski-patrol-thanked-for-saving-son-s-life/article_6804afbb-0ccc-5dcc-a854-a571856a6ac5.html