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Thread: cr johnson update in the Sierra Sun

  1. #1
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    cr johnson update in the Sierra Sun

    www.sierrasun.com
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    C.R. Johnson nearing 100 percent recovery

    Truckee skier to resume career next year

    By Sylas Wright
    Sierra Sun, swright@sierrasun.com
    March 23, 2006

    Just three and a half months removed from a skiing accident that left him in a coma at a Utah hospital, Truckee resident C.R. Johnson is returning to his old form.

    The professional skier even got in some powder turns after recent storms.

    “It was awesome,” Johnson, 22, said of skiing at Squaw Valley twice in the last two weeks, both on fresh snow days. “It was really good for peace of mind, just to know that everything is going to be OK. My skiing didn’t really lose a step. I’m skiing at full strength.”

    But not full bore.

    “I’m keeping it mellow,” he said, adding that hitting any kind of jump, cliff or dicey line is out of the question this season.

    Next year, however, he said he will resume his career that has been put on hold.

    “Right away when I come back I know I’ll have hesitation, but at the same time I know I’ll overcome that,” he said. “That’s a weakness in your skiing.”

    Better all the time
    Johnson has been staying with parents Lorraine and Russ in Truckee since his release from the hospital on Jan. 10. (See “Dec. 8 — The accident” below.)

    That is soon to change, though, as Johnson said he plans to move back into his own house in Tahoe Donner on April 10. He also received a doctor’s permission to drive about a month ago, as he was strongly advised not to operate a vehicle following his head injury.

    “My biggest thing was becoming independent again, and getting my driver’s license back was the biggest step towards independence,” he said.

    Physically, Johnson said he is 100 percent, except for the right pinkie finger he still cannot straighten all the way. He is still doing occupational therapy with Ladd Williams, of Bear Bones Physical Therapy, and has been lifting weights in a gym.

    Although his long-term memory is sharp, Johnson said he has yet to fully recover mentally.

    “My memory is what I’m having the most trouble with. It’s the last lingering problem,” Johnson said, explaining that the part of his brain that stores information was damaged in the accident.”

    Because of this, it has been difficult since the injury to turn occurrences into memories. Johnson does not remember anything from two weeks before the accident to four weeks after.

    He also has found that it takes him a moment to remember on-the-spot things, such as what he did the day before, if asked. But that part of his memory has improved considerably in the last two weeks, he said.

    Friendly concern
    Johnson’s speedy recovery, both mentally and physically, is a relief to concerned family members and friends.

    “I’m just stoked to see him doing so well and recovering so quickly,” said Tanner Hall, 22, a professional skier and good friend of Johnson’s.

    Asked if he misses Johnson’s company on the mountain, Hall said, “Definitely, man. That’s my homey. That’s like my best friend there … I love skiing with him. But I know I’ll be skiing with him again soon.”

    On what type of skier Johnson is: “He’s just an all-around skier,” Hall said. “To me, he’s the best skier in the world. He can do every aspect of it. He’s good to be around because I feed off his energy; he pushes me.”

    At the Winter X Games in late January, Hall, with a television camera in his face immediately following a first-place finish in the superpipe competition, dedicated his win to Johnson.

    “That made me feel really good,” said Johnson, who attended and even did some TV commentating during the slopestyle portion of the X Games, but returned home for the latter part of the Games. “Tanner is one of my best friends in life. It showed that even in his time of glory, he’s still considerate of his friends.”

    While he said he enjoyed taking part in the event, Johnson is more accustomed to competing than watching.

    “It was a bit frustrating, just because it was the first time in eight years that I haven’t been in it,” he said. “But it was fun seeing my friends again.”

    Dec. 8 — The accident
    Johnson and several other skiers and snowboarders were working on a film at Brighton Ski Resort in Utah on Dec. 8 when Johnson’s injury occurred.

    In a sequence in which each athlete hit a small natural feature in succession — described by pro skier Evan Raps, who was skiing with the group, as a “three-foot dip with a lip” — Johnson somehow fell at the front of the line.

    Raps, who was in the back of the line and did not witness the accident, said by the time he reached the scene Johnson was lying on his back unconscious, with his head facing downhill. Kye Peterson, 15, had trailed Johnson, Raps said, and in following in the same line collided into him.

    The collision opened a small gash above Johnson’s eyebrow and knocked him unconscious for about three to five minutes, Raps said. When Johnson awoke he seemed OK, but then became “upset” when ski patrol began securing him in a sled, Raps said. Johnson’s father Russ said acting combative after head trauma is common.

    “He had a lot of emotion coming out,” Raps said. “He was trying to rip the neck brace off. It took four of them [to strap him down]. It was ugly. He was fighting real hard.”

    Johnson was sedated and airlifted to the University of Utah Hospital in Salt Lake City, where he remained in a coma until opening his eyes on Dec. 18.

    Post coma
    When Johnson awoke on Dec. 18, he could not speak or move his arms or legs, his father Russ said. He also had developed pneumonia.

    On Dec. 26 Johnson became able to sit up in bed and speak in a whisper, said his mother Lorraine, as well as eat solid food for the first time since the injury.

    Shortly after, he started therapy (occupational, speech and physical), and soon progressed from having to use a wheelchair to a walker to walking under his own power.

    Released from the hospital on Jan. 10 after a 34-day stay, Johnson returned to his parents’ home in Truckee and began rehabilitating with Ladd Williams, of Bear Bones Physical Therapy.

    “I’m extremely glad. It’s nice to be home,” Johnson said after returning to Truckee. “I finally feel comfortable.”

    Johnson said he was anything but comfortable in the unfamiliar environment of the hospital.

    “It has been confusing because you go from awake at one time in one spot, then you wake up again and you’re in a whole different spot,” he said after his stay. “I was never too stoked [after waking up from the coma] because I was so disoriented ...

    “I’d wake up in the middle of the night and look at my surroundings and not know where I was. It was completely disorienting.”


    I'd never heard of this kid until I read about his wreck here. Pretty amazing recovery.
    assbag

  2. #2
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    Thumbs up

    Good to see.
    Elvis has left the building

  3. #3
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    Awesome news.

  4. #4
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    Wow, sweet. Glad to hear that he's coming along so well.
    "It is not the result that counts! It is not the result but the spirit! Not what - but how. Not what has been attained - but at what price.
    - A. Solzhenitsyn

  5. #5
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    awesome
    "... she'll never need a doctor; 'cause I check her out all day"

  6. #6
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    Great news. So awesome to see he'll be back in action next year, and that there aren't too many life-altering complications after this.
    The Griz

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    great recovery. happy for him and his family.

  8. #8
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    Thumbs up

    Welcome back dood.

  9. #9
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    Thumbs up

    That's some very good news. Hopefully his memory continues to improve.

  10. #10
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    Awesome news...

    CR is one of my favorite newschoolers...

  11. #11
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    yes! glad to see he is making a strong recovery.
    Quote Originally Posted by Roo View Post
    I don't think I've ever seen mental illness so faithfully rendered in html.

  12. #12
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    Good to hear. Thanks for the update.

  13. #13
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    Good to hear, really good news
    Its not that I suck at spelling, its that I just don't care

  14. #14
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    Quote Originally Posted by grskier
    Awesome news...

    CR is one of my favorite newschoolers...



    Not to be a dick but don't fucking pigeonhole him as a newschooler. You might hate the rest of the movie but go watch Pop Yer Bottlez, fast forward to the last seggy if you have to and watch him slay one of the sickest pillow lines aside from that Wobbles one, whichever that one at Mica that Jeremy Jones first dropped.
    "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro."

  15. #15
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    Way to go CR!
    Every man dies. Not every man lives.
    You don’t stop playing because you grow old; you grow old because you stop playing.

  16. #16
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    Right on, CR is a cool cat. Can't wait to see him back in action!!
    "You must be the change you want to see in the world." -Gandhi

  17. #17
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    Is Kai Peterson doing OK too? I know he was OK physically, but I hope he's handling it well mentally. I can imagine something like this leaving a big impression on a 15/16 year old.

  18. #18
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    Quote Originally Posted by ak_telemike
    “I’d wake up in the middle of the night and look at my surroundings and not know where I was. It was completely disorienting.”
    I had this happen a bunch. It is really not fun.

  19. #19
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    Thumbs up

    One lucky mutha. Hope that your healing continues as well as it has since the injury.
    Aliases: B-Dub, B-Dubya, & B. White

  20. #20
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    Interview with CR Johnson
    ==================================
    Newsletter Signup


    by Rocky Thompson
    Tramdock.com, April 6, 2006

    On December 8, 2005 CR Johnson suffered severe head trauma in a freak accident at Brighton Resort in Utah. Johnson went into a coma after colliding with another skier while filming for a Bigger Picture film called Show-n-Prove. Within 10 days, Johnson had woken up from his coma, and by the 26th day he was able to sit up in bed, talk in a whisper, and eat solid food. He quickly began walking, and after 34 days in the hospital he returned home to Truckee, California. By the end of March, Johnson was back on the snow at Squaw. We caught up with him for this interview on April 5, 2006.


    Q: How did your sponsors treat you after the accident?

    A: Well, my Smith team manager came and visited me in the hospital in Utah. They put the most energy into me. Spyder has continued to support me as they originally planned to do; they’ve shown a lot of support, as well. Smith has by far been the best.


    Q: According to the some online reports, Kye Peterson landed on you while you were picking up some gear you lost after a cliff drop. Do you know what happened?

    A: That’s not what happened. We were hitting a windlip rapid fire, like really fast, just one after the other. I fell and Kye Peterson—he was coming behind me—and I tumbled on out to the right and lost my skis. I was picking them up, but he was only a couple seconds behind me. He hit the windlip to the right in case I fell, but since I tumbled out to the right he landed on me.

    Q: Do you think your helmet saved your life?

    A: Um, no. It definitely helped me, but where he impacted me, he hit me with his hip, pushed my helmet up and goggles down. I got a cut on my forehead, I think he hit me with his belt. I got what’s called Coup-Contrecoup. Your brain is basically whiplashed in your skull. My brain slammed the opposite side of the skull, and it had nothing to do with the helmet. Impacting the inside of your skull kind of takes the helmet out of the equation.


    Q: What’s your first memory after coming out of your coma?

    A: Six weeks later. About 38 days later when I was home. I remember a lot of the dreams I had when I was in the hospital, but I don’t remember any of the reality. I just remember getting home. My first memory was waking up, and I’d thought—I’d dreamt that I had been kept in a really small shack in the middle of the Salt Flats, and was being held captive there against my will. And I escaped it, ran across Salt Flat, and caught a train. Just jumped on it, and I work up in Truckee thinking I’d rode the train, and that my dad picked up at the train station. That was the first thing I remember, even though him and I took a flight home together from Utah, but I didn’t remember that.


    Q: How did you make such an incredibly fast recovery?

    A: I don’t know if it was any one specific thing that attributed to my recovery being so quick. Coming out of a coma, I was incapable of anything: speech, movement. I started being able to move and talk a little bit. Once I started coming along, I did really quickly. Nurses kept saying I was lucky to be young and healthy. If anything, I would have to say my youth and health contributed to my quick recovery.


    Q: Are you still feeling any effects from the accident?

    A: Uh, yeah. Physically the only problem I have right now is I can’t fully straight my right pinky, but mentally my memory doesn’t work very well. It’s coming along, and recently it’s starting to work better and better. Before, I couldn’t remember what I had for breakfast by the middle of afternoon. I still have a little memory difficulty.


    Q: Did your doctors clear you to go skiing this season, or were you doing it against their advice?

    A: I’ve gone skiing twice. My doctors cleared me to ski. I can ski, and I can ski at full capacity, I just can’t take the risk of falling. I’m not taking jumps and skiing lines. I can ski at full speed and full strength, but I just can’t take risks.

    Q: What plans and goals do you have for next year?

    A: My plans and goals for next year are basically Tanner Hall, Evan Raps, and myself working on our film company the Bigger Picture. Film for a movie were making next year. For competing, I’d like to do the X-games again.

    CR Johnson is currently living in Tahoe. His sponsors include Spyder, Smith, and Grenade Gloves.

  21. #21
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    Quote Originally Posted by CR, via SquawMan
    My doctors cleared me to ski. I can ski, and I can ski at full capacity, I just can’t take the risk of falling. I’m not taking jumps and skiing lines. I can ski at full speed and full strength, but I just can’t take risks.
    Apparently, Schmidiots didn't count.

  22. #22
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    Yeah, I saw that too and I was thinking "someone just posted a pic of him dropping tino schmidiots aout a week ago." That's KIR.
    "Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. The winds will blow their freshness into you, and the storms, their energy. Your cares and tensions will drop away like the leaves of Autumn." --John Muir

    "welcome to the hacienda, asshole." --s.p.c.

  23. #23
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    Glad to hear CR is doing well, funny there was no mention about Salomon in the Tramdock interview. I wonder if they haven't been very supportive of CR during his difficult time?

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