UO Snow’s Rick Lindfors still active in sports despite a battle against von Willebrand Disease
Senior journalism student Rick Lindfors is the president and coordinator of UO SNOW, the University's freestyle skiing/snowboarding team. Lindfors was diagnosed at birth with type 3 von Willebrand disease, a bleeding disorder that inhibits blood clotting. (Michael Arellano/Emerald)
Even though Rick Lindfors has lived with Type 3 von Willebrand disease his entire life, he has always had a passion for sports. In fact, the disease pushes Lindfors to excel at doing what he loves.
Von Willebrand disease is a genetically inherited bleeding disorder that inhibits blood clotting, resulting in longer, more severe bleeding episodes. Lindfors is missing the von Willebrand protein that helps platelets coagulate and platelets themselves, a common trait of type 3 von Willebrand, the most severe type. Both of Lindfors’ parents have type 1 vWD but were unaware until he was born.
“When Rick was born he received a cut on his forehead during birth and that continued to bleed,” Rick’s father Jon said. “One of the nurses thought it would be a good idea to have him tested for a bleeding disorder. That was the first time we had heard of the disorder.”
Lindfors grew up in Minnesota and participated in various sports, including baseball, tennis, lacrosse and snowboarding. Being an extreme sport athlete, snowboarding presents the biggest risk to Lindfors since internal bleeding and hemorrhaging are major dangers for anyone with von Willebrand.
Lindfors has learned to cope with his disease, and preparedness is part of his daily routine. Before participating in a contact sport, Lindfors must take a dose of his medication, which is taken intravenously through self-injection and then packs a precautionary dose.
As one of the presidents of UO Snow, Lindfors still regularly participates in snowboarding. Two seasons ago, he tore his ACL after over-shooting a spine ramp. The injury could have been dangerous, but because Lindfors was prepared it was nothing more than a typical torn ACL.
Other than scars and the occasional bruise, there’s little visible evidence that von Willebrand is as serious as it is.
“I didn’t really know he had it until we went on a cabin trip and he had a big medical bag and explained it to me,” Briggs Chapman, co-president of UO Snow, said. “I thought wow, this is a serious condition.”
As a lacrosse goalie in high school, Lindfors would have bruises on his arms and legs for weeks at a time. He required steel domes in his forearms that passed medicine to his heart through a tube, resulting in small but clearly noticeable scars below both of his inner elbows. He had nose bleeds hourly.
Despite all of that, Lindfors uses his disease as fuel to continue snowboarding. He said it is a part of college he can’t live without, adding that he can’t allow himself to get caught up in any of the risks involved.
“If I go about my daily life thinking about it then I’m just not going to push myself as hard. I like to say, ‘If you ain’t bleedin’, you ain’t tryin’.’ When I go up to the mountain I want to push myself. I can’t really worry about it,” he said.