Tannis Boivert recovering after her accident on Mt. Hood

During this past summer I travelled to Mt. Hood, Oregon, with the Ontario Ski Team for our summer training camp. The training was absolutely amazing, and our team was fortunate enough to have great weather for the full three weeks that we spent there. Towards the end of the camp, our coaches met up with one of the Global Rescue advisors in the area, who explained the membership benefits and how to utilize them. With a full understanding of the program, our coaches were very glad to be on board, but only hoped they wouldn’t have to use it for their athletes.

On the last day of the training camp, the snow was very soft and unstable. About five turns into my warm up run, my right foot struck a hole half way through a turn, and at full speed, my feet stopped and my body kept going. As I was flying through the air, I immediately felt a horrible searing pain go through my Achilles and my whole foot. I knew right away this was bad.  

On the toboggan ride down, I was already very nervous and upset knowing that I had injured myself. After my coach and the ski patroller carefully pulled off my ski boot, an ambulance was called and I was transported to the closest hospital in Oregon. In the first hour of being at the hospital I had 3 x-rays taken of my foot, and two different doctors analyzed the results. The whole time I was just hoping that I had just sprained my ankle, or done something minimal enough that it wouldn’t take any time away from my training. But, when the doctors notified me that I had in fact broken my Calcaneus (my heal), I was mortified. I instantly started thinking of the training I would miss and the long and painful road to recovery.

Thankfully I didn’t have enough time to think about the après injury process because within 30 minutes of knowing my injury I had a foot specialist in my hospital room telling me my options, and explaining that the best one for me was to have surgery and get a screw put through my heal.  Being 18, I could make the decision on my own, and I decided on the surgery. But before I could get surgery I had to get my insurance cleared, and not being in Canada, insurance companies needed time to get the clear, which I didn’t have. Not having any luck contacting my parent’s insurance company, my coaches contacted Global Rescue, and from that point on everything happened so quickly.

The ability of Global Rescue’s response team was amazing and words cannot explain how thankful both my coach and I were at that moment to have them helping us. Because of Global Rescue I was able to get surgery on my foot 3 hours after arriving at a foreign hospital with one of the United States top orthopedic surgeons who was at the hospital for that evening only.

If I didn’t have Global Rescue’s help and guidance I most likely wouldn’t have been able to get surgery as quickly as I did. I might have even had to fly back to Canada and wait weeks to get the surgery that I got in just hours in the States because of Global Rescue. They were not only with me during the surgery but were there for me to organize my flight home in first class. After two months of therapy, pool workouts and routine phone calls from Global Rescue to hear about my progress, I am ready to get back on the slopes and begin what I hope to be my best race season yet!

Global Rescue isn’t just there when you’re injured, but is there until your back on your feet too, and as an athlete, the peace of mind that I have knowing that they’re there for me is worth every single penny.