Ski accident left TV reporter near death
KGO-TV news reporter Luz Peña was skiing at Heavenly Ski Resort in Lake Tahoe four weeks ago when tragedy struck. She crashed head-on into a tree, and when her husband and brother-in-law found her, she was motionless, her face blue and her eyes wide open.
“I was making snoring noises,” Peña recounted Tuesday on a KGO-TV broadcast. “That noise is called a death rattle. It’s a sign that a person is approaching death.”
Peña, who has been off the air for about a month as she recovers, shared her harrowing story with viewers.
“My last memory of that day is just having an incredible day and waking up at the hospital,” Peña said on the broadcast.
The impact left Peña twisted and face down on top of a tree well. Her husband and brother-in-law turned her torso but decided not to touch her legs, which was crucial at the time, although not known to them then.
Shortly after, while Peña’s husband held her in his arms, she stopped breathing. He estimated she was unconscious about 10 minutes until she arched her back and took a breath.
“He said I let out a cry that sounded like when a baby is just born,” Peña said.
A skier stopped to aid Peña and her family, and happened to have a satellite phone with the coordinates of their location. Peña said she was convinced that he was “one of the angels on the mountain that day.” Minutes later, a member of the ski patrol arrived at the scene and called for a helicopter evacuation.
After she was taken off the mountain, she was airlifted to Renown Regional Medical Center in Reno, where doctors examined injuries to her leg and other parts of her body. She needed surgery immediately to repair a broken tibia — a bone fragment that was a centimeter away from cutting an artery.
“The neurosurgeon said I had a major concussion, but it was a miracle I didn’t have any internal bleeding,” she told viewers.
Peña advised skiers to buy a helmet equipped with a multidirectional impact protection system, or MIPS, technology, which she said helped her avoid a major head injury.
What’s next for the Emmy-winning reporter? Well, she has a long road to recovery and won’t be able to walk for months but is taking little wins in stride.
“Every time I bend my knee a little bit, is a victory. Straightening my knee, a victory. Lifting my leg on my own for the first time, a victory,” she said on the broadcast. She added that there was no reason to feel sorry for her because she was so happy to “be alive and get an opportunity to make a difference in this world.”
Peña, who has eight screws and a plate inside her surgically repaired leg, said she is grateful to God for “giving her life again” and to all of the people who helped her on that fateful day on the mountain.
“Being so close to losing my life gives everything deeper meaning,” she said. “I believe there are many angels around us, and I’m grateful that so many of mine were skiing at Heavenly that day.”