This is part one of a long story. It happened in 1989 when I was 14 years old. We had just finished our last high school exam for the year. We had a week off before our final assembly. It was June and what a better way to celebrate the end of grade 9 by having a pool party. All day long I had been diving and swimming my heart out. There was this crazy tradition that still goes on today; push people into the pool. It was my turn. As I was standing at the edge of the pool, by best friend at the time, snuck up behind me and pushed me in.
That is when it happened. I instinctively dove in to the pool into the shallow end. I felt and heard the most horrific crunch that reverberated throughout my entire body. I jumped up and yelled “Please help me.” I walked out of the pool holding my shoulders as high as I could. I was holding my head so I wouldn’t move. I knew something was wrong but in my stubbornness, I asked to be taken home. I stayed in my wet trunks and t-shirt wrapped in a towel. I got into the front seat of a station wagon buckled up and got driven home. When I walked into the front door, my parents met me and said, “Something is wrong, we are going to the hospital right now.” I said that I was fine and wanted to go lay down. Again my stubborn streak was trying to deny what I already knew, I was in trouble.
My parents drove me straight to the emergency at the main children’s hospital in downtown Winnipeg. When we walked in and told the nurse what had happened, there were 2 nurses and one doctor attending to me within 30 seconds. They gave me the first of 4 neck braces that I would wear over the next 9 months.
The first night I was laying on a hard bed without a pillow. I had to pee in a jug and eat without moving my head. I stared at the ceiling and watched TV with my eyes down looking across my chest. I had x-rays every day and every bone specialist in Winnipeg came and saw me. It was 6 days of lying flat on my back while the doctors decided what to do with me.
I had caused such severe trauma to my neck that they did not know what to do. To give you a little perspective, I had broken, dislodged and compacted vertebrae C4. Three possible ways to have your spinal cord severed and I did not die. I was still walking around and I did not lose any feeling in my toes or fingers. The doctor simply stated that I should be dead and there was no way I should be walking.
If you are unaware of how a neck works, there are 7 vertebrae in your neck. I broke C4 which is the middle one. The one that you break and you are a quadriplegic for the rest of your life. Christopher Reeve broke C4 when he fell off his horse. He was in a wheel chair until he passed away. I had broken, dislodged and compacted only one bone in my neck.
Based on all the x-rays and consultations with doctor after doctor, the debate was what type of neck brace I would be wearing for the next year of my life. The one I did not want was the “halo.” The “halo” is a metal band that is screwed into your skull with four posts that extent down to a chest harness. It makes your neck completely immobile.
Amazingly, I got a hybrid of the “halo.” I had to wear a chest harness that had a chin brace and a brace that wrapped around the back of my head just above my ears. I had been saved from the “halo” and I was finally able to walk around. After 6 days of lying on my back it was like being able to fly. What I didn’t know was how much my life was about to change.
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