Hockey group helps Coloradans like Jonny Landis who have overcome life-altering events

A group in Colorado is helping people recover from life-altering events in a way unique to the state: through hockey.

On Wednesday mornings at the Apex Center in Arvada, you can find Jonny Landis doing what he loves best.

"Just being out here with the guys, and shoot the breeze with them on the bench and talk trash with them on the ice is just so much fun," says Landis.

His skate is part of Dawg Nation Hockey's Hockey Heals group. The group gives people who have overcome life-altering events a chance to skate.

"It's really cool that none of us should be out here playing, but we all are," says Landis.

They are skates that Jonny doesn't take for granted. In 2019, during his freshman year at the University of Colorado, Landis fell 42 feet off a balcony and landed on the pavement. He suffered more than 160 skull fractures, and doctors told his family that he likely wouldn't make it.

"When (my family) got to Boulder Community Health, the emergency room doctor didn't want to put me on the flight for life, but my mom and sister convinced him," recalls Landis.

He spent the next 60 days in a coma and spent the next several months in the hospital and rehab.

Earlier this month, seven years after doctors told his family that he likely wasn't going to make it, Landis walked across the stage at CU receiving his diploma.

"It felt surreal, and it didn't feel like it was truly happening. It [was] so amazing," recalls Landis.

With his degree in hand, Landis is currently interning with Dawg Nation Hockey and has big goals for his future.

"What I would love to do long term is, I would love to be able to sell some of the stuff that saved my life, like shunts. I think that would be really full circle," Landis shared. "I consider myself lucky to be alive, but I also think God has bigger plans for me."