Alberta teen recovering in Colorado hospital after bronc riding accident
Posted Jan 25, 2024 11:36 am.
Last Updated Jan 25, 2024 11:38 am.
A family from southwest Alberta is trying to make sense of a terrible accident that happened in Denver, Colo. over a week ago.
Austin Broderson, a 19-year-old from Turin, just north of Lethbridge, had a ride he will never forget.
His uncle Braden Van Nistelrooy, said it was the teen’s first professional bareback riding event.
“His hand was kind of stuck in it and he couldn’t get his feet where they needed to be and he kind of got caught up and definitely got stomped on a bunch of times,” he explained.
The injuries have been extensive.
“T-7 vertebrae was fractured, he bruised his spinal cord, he had some brain bleeding, he had some abdominal bleeding,” Van Nistelrooy added. “He broke his hip, his nose.”
The teen’s uncle says the injuries are hard to grasp.
“He’s just really banged up, and his arm, the arm that was actually caught in the rigging, he has no feeling at all and still to this day, can’t move at all,” Van Nistelrooy said.
Now, the family is thankful for a massive outpour of support.
“The GoFundMe — it’s over $80,000 now — so that helps take some pressure off,” Van Nistelrooy said. “All the support he’s been getting, he can hardly believe it and neither can we.”
Broderson continues to improve and, according to a GoFundMe, he could soon make his way back to Alberta.
