[simtra]

Hi all

I just found your forum and thought i'd stop by and share our family story. 8 years ago, my brother was snow skiing, a sport he was (and still is) very passionate about, having spent some time in New Zealand skiing the year before his accident. In August 1999 he was skiing down a slope in OZ and hit some icy snow and was heading towards a clump of trees doing something around 120 kilometers/hour (sorry dont know the conversion for non ozzies). Consequently, he ruptured his C6, broke ribs, broken shoulder blade from collar bone, punctured lung, and broke 3 L vert as well. Very lucky to be alive we figure. He spent 9 months in hospital before he was allowed back to our state (no rehab centres in Tassie), and then moved back in with my parents. anyway to cut a long story short, he has been living in his own unit now for about 2 years and is very independant, he has carers who come of a morning to help him shower, but he does his own cooking and gets himself into bed of a night without any help. He has had tendon transfer ops done a few years back on his hands and that was reasonably successful, he is in a manual chair all of the time and is able to use a computer quite well.

It has been hard for our family to see him like this, because before his accident he was such an active sport person, played cricket for the state and had been offered jobs overseas on ski resort teaching.

He has dreams of skiing again and i am sure he will do it. He has been remarkable through his journey, and I believe that our family wouldn't have coped as well if he wasn't so positive.

he has issues with infections as I'm sure you would all understand. he doesn't complain about anything and I have never heard him say why me? I am sure at times he must think that, given he was only 23 when he hit that tree.

Sorry this is so long............. i could go on for ever but better stop for now.

Great forum, keep up the good work

[cate]

Hi Simtra. Welcome to the site. Sorry to hear about your brother, sounds as if he is coping real well.
My daughter is c5/6, but is one of the lucky ones, in so much she is able to walk with the aid of crutches, she also damaged her knee in a previous accident, that hasbeen operated on 3 times. still not marvellous, but she says that is it, no more ops. She has had artificial ligments put in, but also suffers from lymphodema in the leg,. She is able to work not full time, and lives on her own, They discover the c5/6 as she kept falling down, firstly they thought it was MS but after scans found her spinal cord had been crushed completely very bad nerve damage, and no hope of them regenerating, as we think the spinal iunjury was from a car accident, but they had not scanned her and the damage had been done for some years. They think they operated in time, and that if left any longer she would have been in a wheel chair. Cannot say for sure that it will not happened in future, but so far so good, she has the rods in her neck and bione graft from her hip. I am in awe of what can be done now adays and also how well people cope with their injuries
I think yhou will find that some people on this site also still manage somehow to do snowboarding, keeping going through the forums and you will find them
Anyway best of luck to your brother Hope you find the site useful
Cate

[qbounce]

Hello Simtra,
I hope you've told your brother about this site (if he wasn't already the one who informed you. . .LOL).
Just as Cate mentioned, in the sports forum there are limitless posibilities as to what one can do after SCI! I hear kyaking in New Zealand is awsome too!
Good luck.