A near-deadly skydiving accident inspired a Boulder man to reassess his life
BOULDER, Colo. — Where other people might see adversity and tragedy, 47-year-old Jason Dennen sees gifts and opportunities.
“I love this scar," he said, lifting his shirt and pointing to a long vertical scar that starts at his upper chest and travels below his navel. "I don’t want it to go anywhere or fade because I get to look at it every day and say, 'This is what happened to you.' It was a gift."
Dennen, who lived in Boulder, is passionate about the outdoors. He has participated in triathlons, loves trail running and for years he used sky diving to cope with the stress of long work weeks.
“If you do a certain amount of jumps, your heart rate actually goes down as you jump out of the airplane and you’re flying down to the earth,” he explained, adding that it’s all about perspective. “It seems the opposite of what you think it would be. But it’s a state of mind.”
That state of mind Dennen described was challenged on June 23, 2018. “I had to say, ‘Well I don’t know what’s going to happen, but be calm,’” he recalled.
On his third jump of the day, during the landing, a huge gust of wind slammed Dennen through a cattle fence and into the side of an airplane hangar at 30 miles per hour. The impact was so hard that several of his ribs broke, forcing his heart from the left side of his body to the right. Dennen also ended up with 20 broken bones and injuries to several organs. He spent eight days in a coma.
“They had to fix my colon, fix my spleen, put my heart back,” Dennen explained.
While Dennen was in the hospital, he decided to set some goals for himself.
“I thought, if I do a triathlon again, that means my legs work, my heart works," he said. "There’s no hiding in a triathlon. You have to use all parts of your body. So, if I do that, it proves everything works again.”
Less than two years after his accident, Dennen competed in a triathlon. He says telling his story creates connection with other people, which is why he considers the accident a gift.
“The story is just an entryway to help someone else," he elaborated. "It’s a shock and awe story, but when you go beyond, ‘You hit a building,’ it’s more about ‘Are you happy with your life?’”
And Dennen is happy with his life. “I just think [now] I stop and contemplate things. Where before I was [going] 100 miles an hour. But I know there’s time to step back and say, ‘Are you fulfilling your purpose?’"
William Peterson is a senior photojournalist at Rocky Mountain PBS. You can reach him at williampeterson@rmpbs.org.
Dana Knowles is the managing editor at Rocky Mountain PBS. You can reach her at danaknowles@rmpbs.org.