BILLINGS — A Pennsylvania cardiologist is recovering after a ski trip at Big Sky nearly cost him his life when a tree branch hidden beneath powder snow impaled him in the chest.
Watch his story of survival below:
Dr. Roger Kerzner was on an annual ski trip with friends in March when the accident happened.
"We do a guys' ski trip every year. So this was the second one I've been on to Big Sky," Kerzner said.
The trip quickly took a dangerous turn when Kerzner fell and landed on a concealed branch.
"I thought I'd landed on a branch across my chest and then sort of got up. And I was like, a lot of pain in my back. And I thought I was just like super winded," Kerzner said.
Imaging at the emergency department in Big Sky revealed that a large piece of the branch had penetrated his upper chest.
"The thing that actually impaled me was about six inches long and about an inch in diameter," Kerzner said.
Kerzner was flown to Billings Clinic by Billings Clinic MedFlight, where a multidisciplinary trauma and surgical team was waiting.
"I was met by like five surgeons when I arrived and operated on me that night," Kerzner said.
The surgical team included multiple specialists.
"Myself, the vascular surgeon, a dedicated thoracic surgeon, and a dedicated cardiac surgeon," Dr. Gordon Riha said.
Riha, a trauma surgeon and Assistant Trauma Medical Director at Billings Clinic, said the injury was unlike anything he had seen before, but unusual injuries are not uncommon in Montana.
"Very common to have unusual modes of injury here in Montana...we have a number of patients who are involved in ski and snowboard accidents," Riha said.
What stood out most to Riha was Kerzner's condition and attitude when he arrived.
"I was actually very surprised when he arrived that he was laughing and joking with us," Riha said.
Kerzner was discharged less than a week after the accident and made a full recovery within two months.
"Within two months, I was fully recovered, exercising just as aggressively as I ever had before," Kerzner said.
Billings Clinic was redesignated by the State of Montana as a Comprehensive Trauma Center in August, following verification by the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services' Office of EMS and Trauma Systems. The designation indicates the highest level of trauma care available in Montana. Billings Clinic first earned that verification in 2023 and was re-verified in 2026.
Billings Clinic treated nearly 1,500 trauma patients in the past year, and half of those patients were transferred from communities across the region, just like Kerzner. Around one in four of the 1,500 were classified as severely injured.
In a rural state like Montana, where patients may be hundreds of miles from specialized care, access to advanced trauma services can be the difference between life and death.
