Last June (2019), Max was on an epic 30-day camping trip with his school touring California, Utah and Colorado. While on the river portion of the trip, a makeshift slip-n-slide was set up using the underside of a raft with the kids running from the shore, sliding across the underside of the raft, people lifting the nose of the raft and then kids launching off the raft into the water. Somehow Max was launched in such a way that he landed head first striking the river bottom. Max was initially airlifted to Grand Junction, CO where MRI & CT scans showed that Max had crushed several neck vertebrae and had sustained a spinal cord injury. Max was then flown to Denver Children’s Hospital where he had spinal surgery fusing his C4 through C7 vertebrae. Max was eventually transferred to Craig Hospital in Denver for rehab. He spent four months in rehab and returned home to Loomis in October 2019.