Australian Cycling Forums - Bicycles Network Australia

Just found out one of the guys at work I know was hit on Friday while riding home from Belconnen, transferred to Sydney with spinal injuries.

Obviously, didn't make the news... did anyone hear anything?

Just heard - two broken cervical vertebrae, operated on Sat night, no feeling in his legs ATM. Faaaaark.

twizzle wrote:Just heard - two broken cervical vertebrae, operated on Sat night, no feeling in his legs ATM. Faaaaark.

Very very very sad. I hope it is not permenant.

Jon

twizzle wrote:Just heard - two broken cervical vertebrae, operated on Sat night, no feeling in his legs ATM. Faaaaark.

Damn.

Hope it's only temporary.

Prayers with him.

Do you know how/exactly where he got hit?

No details other than taken off his bike while riding home from work. I didn't even know he'd taken up cycling... but he has four or five kids, and with the never ending parking fee increases, a lot of people have taken up alternative transport to save money.

Latest update is that surgery was performed for internal bleeding, but they haven't touched the broken neck. I'll find out more Friday or Monday.

gawd - how horrible....

Just an update... paralysed from chest down (not sure of details), on a respirator ATM & can't speak but they are trying to get him breathing on his own, and he will be transferred back to Canberra in about 3 - 4 weeks but won't be out of hospital for months.

twizzle wrote:Just an update... paralysed from chest down (not sure of details), on a respirator ATM & can't speak but they are trying to get him breathing on his own, and he will be transferred back to Canberra in about 3 - 4 weeks but won't be out of hospital for months.

Devastating news mate. Lost for words

Jon

terrible news for him and his family.


Life will be VERY different from now on.

That's terrible news

I hope he and his family have a strong support network, and that he can recover and adapt to his situation, it sounds horrible.

Sorry to hear....awful to think of... does he recall who hit him?

ah, that's dreadful.

Lost for words.

As far as we understand it, he either hit a car reversing out of a driveway or was reversed over by a car coming out of a driveway. He was on a designated ''shared pathway" in Latham, which happens to run between a row of houses and the road, with long driveways that stretch across the pathway. It's near a school... but he was on an electric assist bike (legal wattage?). I think it's likely that the driver didn't look, but possibly he was just moving too fast.

Final update....

Permanent paralysis from the neck down, still can't breathe unassisted. The car reversed out of the driveway and went over him.

That blows.

crap.

is there a donation site or something similar to help his family? i know it might seem trite but is there anything the local community can do?

I'm utterly appalled to hear that. Reversing over him. Must have roared out of the driveway. Sheesh!

In any other field that would constitute a negligent homicide, yet this kind of thing is routinely dealt with by ... issuing demerit points. Why? "Oh, we can't prosecute based on the consequences."

Well, blind freddy can see that reversing without looking into a shared use path is going to end up like this if you make it a habit.

Oxford wrote:

cp123 wrote:crap.

is there a donation site or something similar to help his family? i know it might seem trite but is there anything the local community can do?

got to be careful with things like this. recently a rider became a paraplegic riding the local MTB trails to me. the local forum members wanted to do the same thing to raise funds for the rider to assist with accessibility aids etc. the riders family through the site admin just asked for privacy.

I feel for this guy, but I would also understand if he just wanted to be left alone. maybe a PM to the OP may help.

There was a collection raised a few weeks ago to help his family out as they have relocated to Sydney to be closer to him. I'm only getting the occasional update, so I don't know what else is happening. Too early to really know how it's going to work in the future, I'm assuming they will want to move him back to Canberra at some stage, but I don't know when that will be.

Latest news is that he's off the respirator for short periods of time so he can talk, but it's a real effort. He also has some basic movement of arms (no fine motor), but from what I was told the other day he will eventually lose this due to the level of damage to the nerves.

I wonder if the driver knows. If they are human they probably feel pretty awful.

Just read this - very disturbing. There is always hope, don't let the Dr's tell him what he can't do in case he believes them.

Plenty of people have proven top speciailists very wrong, lets hope substantial recovery can be made.

It is going to be a long and careful ride home.

Very sad indeed.

JM

Hey Twizzle - i was coming in this morning and after seeing yesterday's crumpled bike at woden was thinking about this post. have you heard any more about this chap?

Off the respirator, basic arm and limited hand movement, fanging around in an electric chair and learning how to do everything by voice command on a computer. And he wants to come back to work.

at least he sounds like he's got some spunk.


its still really hard though for him and his family and friends.