Wawanesa mom calls for review after son breaks leg on skiing trip

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This article was published 23/03/2015 (4126 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

WINNIPEG — Cole Hein’s leg is still in a cast more than six weeks after the 13-year-old from Wawanesa fell on a school ski trip at Minnedosa’s Ski Valley.

“It’s a broken leg,” his mother Mandi Hein said from Wawanesa on Sunday.

“How many accidents are going unreported?” she asked.

Cole attends Wawanesa School. Wawanesa is about 50 kilometres southwest of Brandon.

Hein went public with her son’s injury one day after the Winnipeg Free Press confirmed that an 11-year-old boy suffered multiple injuries last week when he fell from a ski lift at Asessippi Ski Area & Resort. The boy fell from the lift after he leaned over to adjust the bindings on his boots, Asessippi general manager Newell Johnston said.

It was two weeks ago that 13-year-old Kelsey Brewster of Pilot Mound died four days after she was injured falling on a challenging hill at Holiday Mountain, on which she was not qualified to ski.

The provincial chief medical examiner has not yet determined whether he will order an inquest into Kelsey’s death.

Hein said she didn’t know her son had fallen until the bus dropped him off and he had to be helped into the house by his brother and a friend. “You could see how swollen it was and how blue it was already,” she said.

Hein said her family wants Manitoba School Boards Association risk manager Keith Thomas and school officials to review the entire broad policy that governs school ski trips.

“What we want is for Keith Thomas to review it for all of Manitoba — we want the whole policy reviewed,” she said.

Hein said Cole was evaluated at the ski hill — as school ski trip policy requires — and was on a hill that met his capabilities. He’s receiving treatment regularly in Winnipeg, she said.

Thomas said this weekend he was not aware of the Asessippi mishap, but may find a report on his desk today.

Johnston said the boy fell about 4.5 metres to the snow-covered slope and there were “multiple injuries.”

The incident was witnessed by a number of people. The resort’s ski patrol was at the scene in minutes, Johnston said.

“The ski patrol administered first aid and called for an ambulance, and then they monitored him and transported him (from the slope) to the ambulance and the EMTs,” he said.

“There is a safety bar that’s on the chairs, and observers said the student was reaching down to adjust his snowboard bindings, all things I would advise against. When the restraining bar is in the down position, it rests between waist and chest height. You wouldn’t be able to reach your feet if the restraining bar is in place,” Johnston said.

The boy is expected to recover.

The child did not lose consciousness, said Johnston, who could not confirm reports the child suffered multiple fractures, only that there were multiple injuries.

Johnston wouldn’t identify the school the boy attends or to which hospital the boy was taken.

The resort manager said he has spoken to officials at the boy’s school but has had no update on the child’s condition.

“I don’t know if he’s home by now,” Johnston said.

He confirmed reports the boy was a student from a school with a package deal popular with a lot of local schools. It permits classes to ski or snowboard once a week for six weeks in a row.

The boy was hurt just before the chairlift was about to dock into position on top of one of the ski runs.

“We’re a valley ski slope. He was more than 75 per cent of the way up the slope when the incident occurred, near the top, probably the last 10 per cent to 15 per cent of (the way up),” Johnston said.

Johnston described the chairlift as rising about 91 metres over a span of 1,000 metres, which is the distance from the base of the chairlift to the top of the slope.

“It’s a gentle slope,” Johnston said.

» Winnipeg Free Press