On February 1st this year I was an extremely lucky boy. I was swimming in the surf up at Mangawhai Heads when I got dumped by a wave while body surfing. I realised as I started to tumble forward within the wave, that I was in real danger of whacking my head on the sand. Thoughts of being paralysed came instantly into my mind. I turned my head as I went over and although I got a bit of a smack on the head, my left shoulder took the brunt of the force, smashing my collarbone into three bits.
So why was I lucky? Well, surgery and months of rehab and I am about 90% right now. Sure it was very painful and certainly I felt a bit sorry for myself for a while, but every time I felt a bit despondent, I would remind myself that there are plenty of people out in the world doing it a lot harder than me.
A big inspiration for me was Indycar racer Robert Wickens who suffered pretty catastrophic injuries last year in a massive crash. He had been injured badly only a few months before me, but is just so determined and focused on regaining his mobility again that you just have to believe he will be good again. Certainly he has already driven again and the hope is that he will be healthy enough to keep going for all his dreams. The rehab team he has is nothing short of incredible.
I know I was lucky on that day in the surf because only about two days later, another young man, former America’s Cup sailor Simone de Mari, was dumped surfing in similar waves at Omaha Beach just a little south of where I suddenly found the sand. Unfortunately, Simone is doing it hard. Things haven’t gone exactly to plan and he has had a few setbacks along the way. But I think he’s a pretty tough guy so fingers crossed. He has a very supportive family and he is getting pretty good care from the good folk at the Auckland Spinal Rehabilitation Unit in Otara.
I also know I was lucky because I had cause to visit that rehab unit recently to see Ray, a great mate of mine who has also recently suffered a terrible spinal injury. Ray is one of my car racing buddies. We have raced together in Targa before and travelled together through the USA with our long-suffering wives in my RV. It’s funny how someone so good in a racecar can be so bad driving a campervan. (“Ooh look, a squirrel”-Veers off the road!)
Unfortunately, whilst navigating for another driver in the last Targa event in June, Ray sustained a very bad dislocation and fracture of his neck in a crash. It seems like it was a bit of a ‘series of unfortunate events’ kind of a thing. He had all the good gear on, the car had all appropriate safety devices etc, it was really just one of those things and Ray’s life was turned upside down as quick as the car was.
Ray currently has no feeling below his shoulders. But he can talk, he can eat, and he can manoeuvre his way about in a very trick wheelchair using his head to control it. The kind of guy Ray is, you can pretty much take it as read that he will be designing mods to the chair to make it go better.
Ray was previously a very active guy, hooning about on adventure bikes, skiing, travelling etc. It is very sad to see someone so active, cut down like this, and it is a reminder to us all to just get out and do the stuff you want to do now, as you never know what is around the corner.
I am filled with admiration for the people at the Spinal Unit. The care that is provided there is great, and the staff that work there are some of the best people around. It is very hard when you can’t even feed yourself and have to rely on all these people for everything. I salute them all.
But one of the things that shocked me most while there, was the amount of people with spinal injuries. It is the sort of thing that we hear about briefly but then forget. Take for instance, young Lech-Welensa Lo Tam, only 15 years old, who suffered a very similar injury to Ray, when diving into a shallow pool at Pt Erin this summer, or the seemingly never-ending list of rugby players, horse riders, wakeboarders, skiers etc who end up spending time in these types of units.
Ray knows that his injury doesn’t need to be a life sentence though. He and his family are working extremely hard to recover, including researching the myriad of different options for care and recovery. There are some very exciting surgery options starting to become available involving re-routing nerves and suchlike. We don’t know what Ray’s prognosis is yet as his damage is pretty severe, and it will take a long time for things to settle down enough to be able to make any sort of informed decisions. We all hope that someday he will regain some use below the break site, fingers crossed. He will be heading home soon, to a heavily modified house, with 24-hour care, but life will go on and if anyone can make the most of it, well that would be Ray.
And as much as Ray will hate me for doing this, some of his friends have set up a give a little page to assist with gaining funds not only for his own rehabilitation but also for the New Zealand Spinal Trust and Catwalk Spinal Cord Injury Research Trust. Unfortunately, ACC only covers off a certain level of assistance so every dollar helps as the best stuff doesn’t come cheap and these trusts are doing some stellar work.
So thanks to all the people involved in caring for people like Lech, Simone, Robert and my mate Ray, you’re all legends. And to everyone else out there, get out there and spend your kid’s inheritance while you can. You just never know when something might happen that could stop you doing all the things you have planned.
Right, I’m off for some bodysurfing lessons!