Éric Boyer suffered a serious alpine skiing accident in January 2019. He survived, but his life was turned upside down. After sustaining a spinal cord injury, he is now quadriplegic and uses a wheelchair. He was rushed to the intensive care unit at the Montreal Sacré-Coeur Hospital, where he received emergency treatment, and years later he still returns for follow-up appointments with the center’s specialists.
“In my youth, I played hockey, football, and baseball, and I competed in elite skiing without ever breaking a bone. On January 3, 2019, while heading toward the ski lodge, my life was shattered by a serious alpine skiing accident. I was 48 years old and the father of three children. I suffered a fractured spine, and several ribs punctured a lung and crushed my aorta,” Mr. Boyer recounts. “These injuries forced the medical team to place me in a coma for more than a week in preparation for the many surgeries to come. When I woke up, the doctors told me I would be paralyzed for the rest of my life. Yet every morning, I consider myself lucky to be alive — and I owe that to the teams at Sacré-Cœur.”
Resilience Forged Through Adversity
In the podcast Intention Inc., aired in 2024, Mr. Boyer explains that what he experienced was a form of grief. After losing everything overnight, he chose to rebuild his life around a new sense of purpose, driven by gratitude, action, and commitment to others.
His wife, Marie-Josée, and their children remain his greatest source of motivation. But another driving force has emerged: the desire to give back. Mr. Boyer is guided by a resilience he never imagined he possessed before his accident.
Giving Back to Transform the Lives of Others with Neurological Injuries
From this inner strength came the Fondation Neuro-Efficacité, an organization Mr. Boyer founded to educate, support, and guide individuals who have sustained neurological injuries, as well as their families. His foundation is built on a deeply human principle: “Those who can afford to pay do so, and those who cannot are supported by the foundation.”
Today, Mr. Boyer continues to advance his organization’s mission, but he has not forgotten the teams who helped save his life and enabled him to accomplish meaningful things. He chose to provide generous support to our Foundation for the Centennial Ball, which will take place on April 25 — a gesture that naturally reflects his desire to pay it forward.
“To those who have experienced trauma, cherish the fact that you are alive and, above all, remember that you can still help others in our society.”