Life After... A Near-Death Experience

So much of the news is about what's happening at the moment. But after a major event, people pick up the pieces, and life goes on. In this new series, The Straits Times talks to inspiring everyday heroes who have reinvented themselves and turned their lives around.

- Lee Li Ying

The sled tore through the frigid winter night in the middle of the Swiss Alps, slicing through slippery ice-crusted snow.

On it was snowboarding guide Shane Ang, 37, who was winding down after work. He had spent a week leading tours in March 2022 in the alpine ski town of Laax, Switzerland.

It was his second run down the slopes, and despite being a first-time sledder, his natural athleticism made the ride effortless.

The wind roared as he weaved through corners, speeding past locals on the dimly lit course.

Lulled by the idea that sledding was a family-friendly pastime, Mr Ang had left his helmet behind.

It was freeing. It was exhilarating.

Until the moment it wasn't.

The downhill course tapered, bending right. Mr Ang never made the turn.

Instead, he trundled off course and was flung right into a tree, looming like a sentinel in the dark.

His head slammed against the unyielding wood, the impact cracking his skull and snapping eight vertebrae, two of them in his neck. As the force transmitted down his spine, his breastbone also broke.

For about three hours, he lay in a pit, a few metres away from his sled, before he was found.

Inside his fractured skull, his brain was bleeding. As the pressure built, his brain was slowly shutting down.

He was dying.

THE RESCUE

Speaking to The Straits Times nearly three years after that fateful night, Mr Ang said he has absolutely no memory of the accident.

The last thing he remembered was switching on his headlamp as he readied himself to take to the slopes in the wintry dusk.

Today, there's little sign of the extensive injuries that doctors warned could have left him with permanent disabilities, amnesia or epilepsy — if he even woke at all.

But he defied the odds.