‘He threw his pole at me:’ teen still recovering from Grouse Mountain ski injury
Posted May 22, 2019 4:40 pm.
Last Updated May 22, 2019 6:55 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
NORTH VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) — A North Vancouver teen’s life still hasn’t returned to normal nearly two months after a ski pole left a three-centimeter-deep hole in his skull.
His family is begging witnesses and the person who could be responsible to come forward.
RELATED: RCMP looking for skier after teen seriously hurt on Grouse Mountain
David Keir says his 13-year-old son Max saved up to buy a ski pass to Grouse Mountain for spring break and was on a run called The Cut with a friend around 7 p.m. Mar. 30 when he came across an adult skier near the bottom third of the hill. Max was not wearing a helmet at the time.
“He was skiing, some other guy was skiing. They came together briefly. Max thought he was skiing erratically. He skied left, next thing he knows this guy was in front of him and in Max’s own words ‘he threw his pole at me,'” Keir said.
Ski patrol treated Max for a cut to his face and his parents took him to the hospital where he was patched up with stitches. Later that night, Keir says his son became dazed, confused, agitated and was vomiting, so they took him back to the hospital.
“We had a CT scan done at the hospital and the CT scan revealed a bullet-sized hole in his skull,” he said, pointing to his temple. “When the doctor on-call showed me the CT scan and I saw the fragments, the hole in his skull, the pool of blood in his brain, you freak out as a parent.”
(Source: North Vancouver RCMP/Grouse Mountain)
Max spent the next four day in intensive care and almost needed emergency brain surgery.
The pole damaged a section of Max’s brain responsible for memory, recall and information processing. His balance and motor control have also been impacted.
In the two months since the incident, police haven’t had any luck finding witnesses or the person involved. Officers are searching for skiers who were on the hill or the Screaming Eagle Chair lift around 7 p.m., along with a woman who apparently helped Max on the hill.
“We’ve been unable to gather any evidence to indicate whether this was intentional or accidental,” Sgt. Peter DeVries with North Vancouver RCMP said, adding police have obtained some video from Grouse Mountain.
RELATED: Grouse Grind opens for 2019 season
North Vancouver RCMP says it initially didn’t release many details about the incident due to youth privacy concerns and because police didn’t want information to taint the memories of potential witnesses.
“If somebody knows that person, talks to that person. That person realizes what they’ve done, because chances are they don’t know,” Keir said. “Maybe that person says ‘you know I’m going to do the right thing and come forward or at the very least I’ll go out and get some help.”
Keir says his son is doing alright now and has been able to go to school for an hour or two a day, but hasn’t been able to play the sports he loves like skiing, or baseball.
“You have to be optimistic. You have to believe that’s how things will work out. He’s a great kid, a strong kid and everything is moving in the right direction,” he says. “We’re hopefully that six, nine, 12 months from now we’ll be able to see the light at the end of the tunnel.”
