For the past five decades, nature and the rugged expanse of the American West have played a huge role in the life of Mike Cottingham. But a recent outdoor encounter not far from his Wyoming home nearly cost him his life.
On a gorgeous autumn day in Jackson in late September, Mike clipped his bike shoes into the pedals of his carbon road bike for his usual 15-mile route that would take him from his neighborhood to a pathway through the Jackson Hole valley, then north toward Grand Teton National Park.
Nature had other plans.
It was about 4 p.m. on Sept. 28 as Mike was rounding a corner dense with spruce trees when a bull moose charged out from his neighbor’s yard straight into Mike’s path.
“I didn’t have a chance to brake or to swerve. There was just no way. If I was 25 years old, I would have had the same accident,” he said. “I don’t remember the impact. All I remember was seeing him and then someone saying to me, ‘You need help.’ I knew I was badly hurt, but I didn’t know then how bad it really was.”
An adult male moose can weigh up to 1,600 pounds and stand more than six feet tall. Estimates put the number of moose in the Jackson Hole area at about 500, and residents are accustomed to seeing the large creatures, which are a popular tourist attraction for visitors at the nearby national parks.
This moose had been a regular in the neighborhood that fall, and a neighbor’s camera captured video around the time of the collision. It showed the moose being rejected by a female tending to her two calves before running into Mike’s path. Unfortunately for the moose, and Mike, that time of the year is “rutting” or mating season for moose.
“It was a one in a million thing,” Mike recalled.
An avid outdoorsman, Mike – then a few months shy of his 81st birthday – racks up stats that those half his age would envy, as he typically bikes up to 1,000 miles a season.
He and his wife Helen, residents of Jackson since 1975, transitioned from backpacking to biking as their primary source of exercise about 25 years ago. The couple have journeyed throughout the world on bike trips in Europe, South America, Africa and Southeast Asia.
But after his accident, it was unclear whether Mike would be able to walk again, let alone bike.
From a blind date to Wilderness Ventures: Shared passions shape their journey
Mike and Helen met in South Bend, Indiana in 1968 on a blind date when he was a senior at University of Notre Dame studying sociology and she was a junior at St. Mary College studying education. An anti-war advocate, Mike did some political organizing for Sen. Robert Kennedy and waited for Helen to graduate in the spring of 1969. A few months later, they were married.
They moved to Mike’s hometown of Cincinnati with teaching jobs, both realizing their passion was working with young people.
“I fell in love with teaching. I wanted to change the world and do some type of community advocacy and organizing,” he said.
After a year in graduate school at the University of Cincinnati, he grew more interested in the idea of alternative education, specifically how the outdoors could open new vistas for students, feeding and fueling their mind, body and spirit. Partly spurred by his own adventurous spirit, he envisioned a program where children would have the freedom to explore and learn from the outside world without the constraints of a classroom setting.
“The idea sprouted that we could start our own summer school and teach students how to backpack, rock climb, mountaineer, white water raft, canoe and sea kayak in the wilderness from Colorado to Alaska.”
After some due diligence, the couple in 1973 launched Wilderness Ventures as an eight-week program in the northwestern United States for students in grades 9 through 12. Two years later, they moved their home base from Cincinnati to Jackson Hole. They built a life there centered around the program’s growth and stewardship, as well as raising their two sons, Chris born in 1982, and Nick, who came four years later.
For the next four decades, Wilderness Ventures grew from 10 students to over 1,000, along with an adult staff that peaked at 125. Along the way, over 4,000 students climbed Wyoming’s Grand Teton and Washington’s Mount Rainier, with like numbers rafting white water rivers in Idaho, Colorado and Oregon, and sea kayaking Washington’s San Juan Islands and Alaska’s Glacier Bay and Prince William Sound.
“Our mission was to introduce young adults to wilderness so they could learn to be proficient in living in these kinds of environments,” Mike said. “As the program matured into its third season, we began to see very quickly that our overriding goals had to be adjusted; that the students had to be learning how to live compatibly in their communities, which would help them mature while also developing leadership skills.
“We differentiated from other outdoor programs in that we just didn’t focus solely on hard skills but also soft communication skills. It gave us a great deal of satisfaction to help our students become self-actualizing as they went out into society – a lot of them were inspired and influenced in very positive ways.”
Helen said that they have stayed in touch with many of their students, even some from the “original” groups in the mid-1970s, and through the years they welcomed second- and third- generations to the program.
After running Wilderness Ventures for 44 years – or as Helen said with a laugh, “It actually ran us” – and serving 24,000 students, the couple sold the company in 2016.
Retired since then, Mike and Helen have been healthy, active and enjoying the beauty of the Teton Valley.
Mike’s critical injuries lead to UCHealth for optimal care
When the moose barreled into him, Mike was still clipped into his bike pedals. He fell hard to the ground after hitting the back end of the male moose. As Mike is 6 feet 3 inches, it was a long way to the ground. Luckily, a local EMS responded within minutes, and Mike was transported to the nearby hospital, where he was stabilized with blood transfusions. Staff members quickly realized the extent of Mike’s injuries and knew he would require more advanced care.
“All I kept hearing was I needed more blood, as I was bleeding internally, and that we needed a helicopter to transport me. Then I knew I was in really bad shape.”
His wife added: “His oxygen level was dropping along with his blood pressure. I thought to myself, ‘We are in trouble.’”
Mike’s injuries included two smashed pelvic plates and a shattered hip socket, several fractured ribs and blood clots in both legs. He was transferred via helicopter to a medical facility in Idaho Falls, with Helen and their two sons arriving the next morning. When the surgical team there put his odds of surviving the accident at 20% or 30%, “I thought, ‘No way.’”
When doctors in Idaho recommended a possible transfer to surgeons in Colorado who could better handle the complexities of Mike’s case, both he and Helen had a good feeling.
Both were very familiar with UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital as they had both undergone oncology treatments several years prior. So on Sept. 30, two days after his accident, Mike made his second airborne journey and was flown to Denver.
With much of his lower region in pieces, he would undergo a very complicated surgery the next day.
Reconstructing Mike’s critical injuries from a moose-bicycle collision involved a complex pelvis surgery
The pelvis is the ring of bones located in the middle part of the body that supports our upper weight, providing the stability that allows us to stand, walk, run and move. It also contains a vast system of vascular support, as the arteries there supply blood to nearby tissues and organs, as well as blood to the lower limbs.
Mike’s pelvic ring was critically injured on both sides. He also had sustained a left hip socket fracture (the hip socket is attached to the pelvis), which is a break in the socket portion of the ball-and-socket hip joint.
Because of his age, surgery was tricky and carried a higher mortality rate with complications that can include high blood loss. There is also a potential for future hip arthritis because of scarring in the area.
“Bones bleed when they break, and the pelvis in particular because it’s very vascular, bleeds even more,” said Dr. Nicholas Alfonso, Mike’s orthopedic surgeon at UCHealth. “This type of surgery is like a reconstructive, complex 3-D puzzle with land minds in your way. All the bones were dislodged in different ways, and they were surrounded by nerves and vessels that are very important, so you don’t want to bother or disturb them.
“How well you put those puzzle pieces together definitely impacts the patients, and the more perfect you get the puzzle, the better off the patient’s outcome will be,” said Alfonso, also an assistant professor at the University of Colorado School of Medicine on the Anschutz Medical Campus.
The two discussed whether Mike should get a hip replacement but ultimately determined that repairing the injury was less risky and worked best with his lifestyle. During a lengthy surgery, Mike’s left hip socket was reconstructed with plates and screws, and rods were placed on both sides of his pelvic ring to keep it stable.
After recovering for a week at Anschutz, Mike spent two weeks at the UCHealth Rehabilitation Unit – Broomfield Hospital undergoing acute physical therapy. He and Helen then temporarily relocated to Boulder for 10 weeks while he completed more PT at the UCHealth Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Clinic Boulder.
Three months of rehab in Broomfield and Boulder make Mike stronger
“Mike was invested 100%, so he wanted to do everything he could in his power to get better, as fast as possible, and he did,” said UCHealth Boulder PT Harry Fotiou. “It’s a testament to the physical condition he was in before the accident that he did so well. I had a lot of faith in him because of his activity level and discipline.”
Along with Mike’s “warrior mentality,” Fotiou credited his family for the encouragement and confidence they gave him during rehab.
“It all comes down to understanding the person, their strengths and limitations, and working with the family as well so they can provide support. The more they understand, the more they can help us and ultimately help their loved one.”
Along with PT, Fotiou emphasized the emotional aspect of healing and other important components like nutrition and diet, sleep, and proper pain medication usage.
As Mike had so much hardware inserted into his hip and pelvis, he had to be careful about using the weight-bearing exercise machines typically involved in PT that build strength and stamina.
“We didn’t want to upset the balance as the bones were trying to heal, and we wanted just the right amount of stress on them,” Fotiou said.
Eventually, Mike was able to use the leg press and knee extension machines, and he progressed through his PT regimen as the weeks passed.
“He was very positive, always smiling and always ready to do work regardless of being tired,” Fotiou said.
Mike’s remarkable recovery: From a moose collision to a future cycling adventure
A little more than two months after his run-in with a moose, and in time for his Christmas Eve 81st birthday, Mike was walking. The first few months of the new year, had him working out at his local gym, riding a stationary bike and regaining some of the 15 pounds he had lost.
He was also pondering the future: Two days before the September accident, he had signed up for a June bike trip through the Bordeaux region of France. He has his fingers crossed that he and Helen will still be able to make it.
“You have to have a goal,” Mike said. “For me, having that goal makes me want to go to the gym and work hard, and that’s really important.”
Alfonso agreed that motivation plays a huge role in a patient like Mike’s recovery.
“Good surgery only goes so far. Right now, he is doing remarkable for his age. He’s been an incredible patient.”
Helen is proud of how hard her husband has worked to get to this point and acknowledged that 50-plus years of healthy outdoor living paid off in a big way.
“He is defying all the odds of people who heal from this type of accident and surgery. If he hadn’t been in the shape he was, he would be in a nursing home instead of where he’s at now.”