Vail man fights for life after rare internal decapitation from dirt bike crash
GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (KDVR) — A staple in the Vail Valley community is fighting for his life after a serious dirt bike accident.
On Monday morning, Brandon Causey suited up to ride his dirt bike solo, like he’s done so many times around the paths in Gypsum, just hours after dropping off his wife at the airport. His daughter, Ciera Causey, said he was found unconscious on the road shortly after.
Soon, you can fly to this country from DIA
“He was taken to Valley View Hospital in Glenwood, and they didn’t have the level of care required for his injuries. So they Flight for Life him here (Grand Junction). I thought that I was going to arrive here and he wasn’t going to be here anymore,” Ciera said.
He suffered brain bleeding, fractured vertebrae in his neck and ribs and an internal decapitation. His family said Tuesday that he was undergoing surgery called an occipitocervical fusion to reconnect his skull to his spinal column, and then they will proceed with more imaging and further progression in his care plan to address his other injuries.
“It’s a miracle he’s alive. His injury is crazy. The people that sustain those kinds of injuries don’t actually make it to this point of getting surgery,” Ciera said. “There is a plate that they use for the fusion for the surgery and they had actually sent it back to their career service because they didn’t have a use for it, because they haven’t performed this surgery in, I don’t know, a decade.”
Fundraiser aims to help with recovery
Brandon is well-known in the Vail Valley community. He’s been a chef at multiple Vail resorts and is now a personal caterer, all while serving as a ski instructor too.
“He’s best friends with I think every single person in the Vail Valley. We’d walk around with him and he knew five to 15 people wherever we go. He’s very affable, very kind, funny, charismatic, a pretty big name in the valley just because of his reach,” Ciera said.
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Doctors have told Brandon’s family that the out-of-pocket costs for this kind of emergency are astronomical — nearly a million dollars. There has been a GoFundMe to help offset those costs. Find that fundraiser here.
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