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I Almost Died

San Diego songsmith Kenny Eng rolled 30 feet down a hill, then dropped 30 more off a cliff.
San Diego songsmith Kenny Eng rolled 30 feet down a hill, then dropped 30 more off a cliff.

“When I was in the Bay Area for the holidays with my family,” says singer/songwriter Kenny Eng, “I broke my hip, two left ribs, my left scapula, my C6 vertebrae in my neck, and punctured a lung that collapsed. I was hiking up a steep hill when I slipped and rolled 30 feet, and then I fell off another 30-foot cliff at the bottom of the hill and fell into a chain-link fence.

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“Luckily, I was with my friend Rob, who I had just played a show with in San Francisco, and he was able to call an ambulance to cart me off to the nearest hospital, Marin County General’s ER and ICU.” After being moved to Kaiser Hospital in Oakland to have surgery done on his broken left hip socket and fractured pelvis, he says, “I was in the hospital for two and a half weeks, and there I had three separate chest tubes stuck in me and contracted a staph infection and pneumonia.”

He also suffered damage to his kidney and liver. “I won’t be able to walk without assistance for about two months but, all things considered, it could have been much, much worse.”

Eng, who moved from San Francisco to San Diego in 2007, is recuperating at his apartment just off Adams Avenue, a neighborhood he both praises and criticizes. “It’s really easy to check out the street fairs and stuff like that without much effort. Other than the perpetual threat of some kind of bizarre crime, I’d have to say the inexplicably loud motorcycles driving down Adams Avenue at any hour of the day or night is pretty annoying. Also, the lack of parking and living close to a dumpster gets old really fast.”

Aside from curtailing any gig or recording activity for the immediate future, the timing of Eng’s painful surrender to gravity caused him one additional hardship. “I was supposed to go to Vegas with Rob Deez to see the Jay-Z and Kanye West Watch the Throne concert, and I imagine that would have been about the most ridiculous concert I’ve ever seen or experienced.

“But that, sadly, didn’t happen, because I almost died instead.”

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San Diego songsmith Kenny Eng rolled 30 feet down a hill, then dropped 30 more off a cliff.
San Diego songsmith Kenny Eng rolled 30 feet down a hill, then dropped 30 more off a cliff.

“When I was in the Bay Area for the holidays with my family,” says singer/songwriter Kenny Eng, “I broke my hip, two left ribs, my left scapula, my C6 vertebrae in my neck, and punctured a lung that collapsed. I was hiking up a steep hill when I slipped and rolled 30 feet, and then I fell off another 30-foot cliff at the bottom of the hill and fell into a chain-link fence.

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“Luckily, I was with my friend Rob, who I had just played a show with in San Francisco, and he was able to call an ambulance to cart me off to the nearest hospital, Marin County General’s ER and ICU.” After being moved to Kaiser Hospital in Oakland to have surgery done on his broken left hip socket and fractured pelvis, he says, “I was in the hospital for two and a half weeks, and there I had three separate chest tubes stuck in me and contracted a staph infection and pneumonia.”

He also suffered damage to his kidney and liver. “I won’t be able to walk without assistance for about two months but, all things considered, it could have been much, much worse.”

Eng, who moved from San Francisco to San Diego in 2007, is recuperating at his apartment just off Adams Avenue, a neighborhood he both praises and criticizes. “It’s really easy to check out the street fairs and stuff like that without much effort. Other than the perpetual threat of some kind of bizarre crime, I’d have to say the inexplicably loud motorcycles driving down Adams Avenue at any hour of the day or night is pretty annoying. Also, the lack of parking and living close to a dumpster gets old really fast.”

Aside from curtailing any gig or recording activity for the immediate future, the timing of Eng’s painful surrender to gravity caused him one additional hardship. “I was supposed to go to Vegas with Rob Deez to see the Jay-Z and Kanye West Watch the Throne concert, and I imagine that would have been about the most ridiculous concert I’ve ever seen or experienced.

“But that, sadly, didn’t happen, because I almost died instead.”

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San Diego Reader 2024 Music & Arts Issue

Favorite fakers: Baby Bushka, Fleetwood Max, Electric Waste Band, Oceans, Geezer – plus upcoming tribute schedule
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Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
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