The ski patrol looked at Zoey McVoy and told her she was probably fine.
But she was not fine.
And three surgeries and a helicopter ride later, the Boca Raton honor student is fighting to save her senior year – and her future.
Zoey McVoy's Vail Ski Accident Left Her With Three Skull Fractures and a Ruptured Spleen
Zoey McVoy had never skied before.
The Saint Andrew's School senior traveled to Vail, Colorado, as a guest of a friend for spring break – the kind of trip teenagers dream about all winter.
It ended Monday when she crashed on the slopes.
Ski patrol and nurses at the local hospital looked her over and told her the injuries weren't too serious.
They were wrong.
Doctors quickly realized they were dealing with something far more severe and called in a medical helicopter to transport her to Denver Health Hospital.
What they found when she arrived was stunning.
Her spleen had suffered a grade 5 rupture – the worst possible – and threatened her life immediately.
Eight of her ribs were severely broken, which caused her lung to bruise and collapse.
She had a brain bleed and a concussion.
Three bones in her skull were fractured.
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Her eye socket was shattered.
Surgeons placed titanium plates in her ribs to physically hold them back together.
Then they opened her skull.
"All three surgeries went well," Zoey wrote in an update, "and I am focusing on my recovery but it will not be an easy or short process."
Saint Andrews School Senior Was Three Months From Graduation
The McVoy family has been part of Boca Raton for decades.
Neighbors describe them as a devoted unit – the kind of family that shows up for classroom volunteering and school events, the backbone of a community.
Zoey earned her spot at Saint Andrew's – a private school that runs nearly $47,000 a year for high school – on an academic scholarship.
She played varsity girls basketball.
She took a "Solutions in Medicine" course last summer and came away more passionate about healthcare and law than when she started.
She was weeks from graduation.
The GoFundMe launched to help the family surpassed $56,000 in donations within days, with friends, neighbors, and strangers sending support from across South Florida.
Her mother, Ann, put it simply: "We do have a long road ahead of us."
Zoey was more blunt: "I honestly don't know what my return to school, graduation, college decisions, and my way of life will look like for the next several months."
Vail Resorts Packed the Mountain with Record Crowds and Handed Her a Liability Waiver
Here is what the resort industry doesn't advertise: first-time skiers get hurt at a 35% higher rate than experienced skiers.
The 2023-24 season produced 49 catastrophic injuries – life-altering events like paralysis and serious head trauma – with most of them involving skiers between the ages of 16 and 20.
Colorado's ski death rate runs nearly double the national average.
And Vail's response to all of this is to sell you a lift ticket, hand you a liability waiver, and wish you luck.
This isn't some fringe operation taking risks with your family.
Vail Resorts is a billion-dollar corporation that recorded 13.8 million skier visits in Colorado alone during the 2024-25 season – one of the three busiest years in state history.
They packed those mountains so full that parking lots filled by 9 AM and I-70 backed up for miles on peak days.
Record crowds. Record revenue. And when a first-time skier from Florida ends up in a helicopter, they hide behind the fine print.
A Colorado jury saw through it last year – awarding a paralyzed 16-year-old $12.4 million after finding Vail Resorts negligent when lift operators failed to stop a chair for a girl who didn't load properly at Crested Butte.
The Colorado Supreme Court followed by ruling that Vail's standard click-through waiver doesn't shield them from all negligence claims.
Zoey McVoy didn't go to Vail to become a statistic.
She went because she was 18 and it was spring break and someone invited her – the same reason tens of thousands of first-timers show up every year at a mountain built to handle experts.
She is in the ICU not because she was reckless.
She is there because she was trusting – and because a corporation that pocketed her money decided that trust was worth less than a liability waiver.
Sources:
- Louis Casiano, "Florida High School Student Survives Multiple Injuries After Colorado Spring Break Skiing Disaster," Fox News, March 17, 2026.
- "Boca Raton Student Critically Injured in Colorado Skiing Accident," The Boca Raton Tribune, March 16, 2026.
- "Help Zoey McVoy Recover After Devastating Ski Accident," GoFundMe, March 2026.
- Jason Blevins, "Broomfield Jury Finds Vail Resorts Negligent, Awards Injured Skier $12.4 Million," The Colorado Sun, September 4, 2025.
- Jason Blevins, "At Least 13 People Died on Colorado Ski Slopes During the 2024-25 Season," The Colorado Sun, May 2, 2025.
- "2025 Ski Injury Statistics," The Reiff Law Firm, April 2025.
