22 July 2009

On the 19th July 2009 Bryan was down at Murphy’s Creek on a friend’s property riding on a 450cc MX bike when at approximately 3.30pm he hit a false neutral going over a jump. The bike threw him off and we believe that he landed on his head. He was airlifted by the RACQ helicopter to the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Brisbane.

Sunday night Mum and us girls raced down to emergency in Brisbane where they had Dad in a stable condition. We saw him for the first time in Resus Bay 3 and all he could say was, “Julie, girls I’m so sorry, I wasn’t doing anything stupid.” We reassured him that it was just an accident and that he was going to fight through it.

They took some scans and told us that he had dislocated his C6 and C7 vertebrae in his neck and that it was compressing his spinal cord- he had no movement or feeling below his chest, and minimal movement in his arms.

From here they put him into traction overnight to realign his spine.

Early Monday morning he went into surgery to have two titanium plates screwed to his vertebrae to ensure they would not dislocate again. The operation went well but the damage to his spinal cord was done. The verdict looked grim as the spinal doctor briefed us on his condition. He told us it was highly unlikely dad would regain the feeling and function of his body from his chest down. But if there is only that 1% chance of full recovery, he’ll be there for it, fighting with everything he’s got!

Dad is currently in the Intensive Care Unit. He can’t speak to us as he is breathing on a ventilator so therefore charades and an alphabet sheet are his means of communication. At the moment he still has too much fluid built up in his lungs and too lower heart rate and blood pressure to move out of ICU, but hopefully the tube can come out soon and he can be transferred to the spinal ward.

We have been with him all morning and he is determined to take steps forward, by doing arm exercises and getting us to move and massage his legs. Knowing dad he is getting bored lying down all day with nothing to do. On his alphabet board he spelt out MOTO-GP and when we said “we’ll get it soon”, it wasn’t good enough, he wanted it TODAY!! The nurses have hunted down a TV and some DVD’s (none of much interest to him though) to keep him entertained until we can get some bike racing for him.

We want to thank everyone for all the love and support you have shown us over the last couple of days and even though there is not much any of us can do right now it is comforting to know how many people care about Bryan. Your kind words may not seem like much but they are very appreciated.

We will use this blog site to keep you updated on Bryan’s progress, so that we can keep our phone lines free. You are able to leave messages on this page if you sign up to the blog. We will be checking and updating it regularly, so if you have any questions feel free to ask them on here.

Much love and regards

Julie, Rebecca and Erin