Durango resident Fang Her, 30, lost feeling in both of his legs after landing on his neck in a mountain bike crash May 27 at Angel Fire Bike Park in New Mexico.
Her, a network support technician at Fort Lewis College, fractured his C6 and C7 vertebrae and is currently unable to move his legs, arms and fingers.
Her is married to Megan Moua, a labor and delivery nurse at Mercy Hospital, and father to two young children, ages 6 and 8. Their family moved from California to Durango four years ago.
“Right when I hit the ground I couldn’t feel my legs,” he said. “I tried to move off the trail but I couldn’t.”
Her often takes his wife’s younger brother, Michael Miles, and his friends on bike rides around Purgatory and other surrounding trails. Miles and his friends are juniors at Durango High school, and parents said Her loads the boys’ bikes in his Toyota tundra and spends the day riding with them.
On May 26, he surprised the boys with a trip to Angel Fire Bike Park, about a 5-hour drive southeast of Durango. Her rented a VRBO in the park for a fun weekend.
On May 27, during their second lap down the mountain, the boys took a trail called Chutes and Ladders. The black-diamond route lives up to its name, with large drops followed by steep inclines.
Her said the first half of the downhill went fine, but things fell apart when he overshot the landing of a steep drop.
“When I was approaching the shoot, I didn’t think it was going to drop off that steep,” he said. “I came in at a decent speed and then launched off and fell about 15 feet down.”
He did a front flip over his bike, his wrists hitting the ground first followed by the back of his head and neck. Miles immediately called 911 after realizing his brother-in-law was unable to move, while another boy rode down the mountain to call for help.
Lying on the trail, Her instructed one of the boys to call his wife. He told Moua that he crashed and couldn’t feel his legs. His two children asked when he was coming home.
Emergency responders transported him down the mountain on an ATV and took him to Holy Cross Medical Center in Taos, New Mexico. Because of damage to his spinal cord, Her went into neurogenic shock. His body was unable to regulate his temperature and his blood pressure and heart rate dropped.
A CT scan confirmed his spinal cord was not completely severed, categorizing the injury as incomplete. He was airlifted to the University of New Mexico Hospital in Albuquerque, where he underwent a six-hour surgery to decompress his spinal cord.
Moua describes the recovery process as arduous. She said her husband has experienced panic attacks and is unable to sleep through the night. Her has gained some strength in his upper arms, and he is able to feel slight sensation in his lower legs and arms but still cannot move them.
He was to begin rehabilitation treatment at Craig Hospital in Englewood on Monday. Moua said she will fly with him to Craig and help him settle in but will have to return to work soon. The UNM neurosurgeon said it will take him two full years to recover.
Her is an outdoor enthusiast who loves to mountain bike and snowboard. A week before his accident, he received his bachelor’s degree in Information Technology from Western Governors University in Utah.
He said it is mentally challenging to know that he might be a quadriplegic.
“I just kept telling the EMTs on the way down, ‘I don’t want to be in a wheelchair; I can’t be paralyzed,’” he said.
Her’s sister, Pakou Her, set up a GoFundMe for their family. Donations can be made at https://tinyurl.com/33dx825k.
“At the end of the day, it’s only an incomplete injury, so time will tell if I can walk again,” Her said. “I am praying that if I work hard to be strong I will get back.”
glanderyou@durangoherald.com
