Erik’s Story

Site created on September 23, 2019

Welcome to Erik's Caring Bridge Site. 

On September 21, Saturday, Erik was riding a motorbike on a dirt trail near our home in Kittitas County with a friend. He hit something on the trail causing him to get thrown down the hill and off his bike. When he landed, he was unable to move his arms or legs. Two hikers found him after hearing him call for help. He helped talk the two hikers through rolling him over and taking off his helmet that was making it hard to breathe. The hikers were able to alert other riders in the area including his friend of his location. One of the hikers ran 1.5 miles down the trail, drove down the dirt road 7-8 miles to get cell service and alerted 911. Erik was transported to the road by the local fire departments, sheriff’s office and search and rescue on a stretcher. The awaiting ambulance then took him to the Cle Elum airport where he was airlifted to Harborview in Seattle.

After a full evaluation, it was determined that Erik has suffered a cervical spine injury called Central Cord syndrome. The MRI found that there was spinal cord compression and he underwent surgery to fuse C2-C6 to stabilize the spinal injury and is now recovering. It is expected that he will be in the ICU another day or two then transferred to the inpatient rehab unit. This new journey will bring significant challenges for Erik and our family. The full extent of his injuries and their ramifications are not yet completely known, but we do know that we see little victories every day.  

With rehabilitation and support Erik can return to independence and mobility. Returning normalcy to Erik’s life will be a long process and one that he cannot accomplish without a great deal of care and assistance.  For now, we ask that you keep Erik in your thoughts and prayers. At this time, we are asking for no visitors. In the future as he progresses through his healing and rehabilitation, he will need visitors - both to raise his spirits and to play an active role in his recovery.

We feel incredibly overwhelmed to have such a rich and caring network of family and friends who have offered their thoughts, prayers, and services. 
As we learn more about his diagnosis and follow his progress, we will post information here. Erik is on a long journey now and we will use this site to keep you all updated on his progress.


Thank you for taking the time to check in on him. We truly appreciate your concern and support.

Please leave Erik a message in the Guestbook and please invite others to visit the site to do the same.



Newest Update

Journal entry by Hilary and Erik Hotchkiss

We are home! We spent three days driving home, long rides in the car for both of us and so glad it is done. We did enjoy the time together and seeing parts of Colorado, Utah, and Idaho that we haven't seen before. We avoided Wyoming and Montana since we have done that drive a few times now. I was even able to cue up the wild animals occasionally for Erik so he could enjoy looking out the window. Erik did well on the car ride, although he got pretty stiff and had lots of pins and needles throughout the ride, but he is never one to complain. We were able to see Taylor on our last day of driving and both kids will be home this weekend. Sunday we got home and set to unpacking the truck. So much stuff in there, it's always amazing what you collect and then have to find a place for in the house. Erik helped unpack but I had to keep watching his weight limit so he didn't overdo it. It was definitely a little reality check when we got home to the new journey we are on but we are ready to face it together. We ate dinner with what we could find in the house and took long hot showers to relax. Yesterday we went to the local physical therapy office to get started on what we need for referrals. A trip to the local grocery store so we have some food to eat this week. At least 7 loads of laundry done, today it all is waiting to be put away along with the laundry that was waiting from two months ago! Today I made lists of things to do, groceries to buy, thanksgiving feast list, paperwork, bills, changing passwords thanks to the darkweb, and just getting used to being home. We are so thankful to be home, to have Erik upright and walking, and to be home for the holidays with family. We both want to thank all of you for your kind words, emails, texts, cards, packages and so much love, prayers and healing energy sent our way. We can't express enough our gratitude for the love and financial support from you that has helped us deal with this awful tragedy. We will never be able to thank everyone of you individually and really make you all understand what everything has meant to us. Erik is now gearing up to do home exercises, physical therapy, swim therapy, electrical stimulation therapy and gym workouts to get stronger. I hope to someday let you all know that he has made it back to work, he has no limitations and that life has resumed to normal. 
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