A family skiing trip to France when Ira Riklis was just 15 years old, turned into a trying misadventure. First was the accident which led to his badly breaking his right leg on what was to have been his last, leisurely downhill run of the vacation. Following that was the hospital ordeal where he had to deal with surgery, less-than-friendly nurses and miscommunications based around his limited French and the nurses’ lack of English.
After his leg was repaired and put into a cast, Ira Riklis believed the worst to be over. All that was left was for his family to return home to the U.S. The trip started out well enough, a comfortable ambulance ride from the skiing area down to Geneva, followed by an equally comfortable ride on a private jet to London with him stretched out on a couch with his leg elevated. Then came the flight home on TWA. The flight was full, meaning he had no room to stretch out. Instead, his father secured a seat in the first row in the First Class cabin where he was able to prop his leg up on a piece of luggage. Not the best option, but it probably would have worked well enough if not for the fact the flight took them straight through a storm. The resulting turbulence caused his still-healing leg to bounce painfully up and down atop the hard-sided suitcase for many long,miserable hours.