07/12/2023
So sometimes it happens in life that you fall in a really, really big fu***ng hole!
Most of the time you have absolutely no idea this will happen, when it does.
Having recently just taken a brush right up to (perhaps even underneath) āDeathās doorā this stands quite vividly as a concept for me. I have a newfound comprehension of one of my favourite poems, Invictus. (see the end.)
Whilst itās tempting to write a book Iām gonna constrain this one to a short essay:
On Saturday, the 26th of November flying my Paraglider off the North launch at the Hartbeespoort cableway, I launched easily and fell out of the first two tight thermals.
With a little height I headed back above launch and hooked what felt like a nice strong thermal. Just then i took a monster collapse about 30 m off the deck. I need to listen to witness descriptions to try and compile a better story but this is what it felt like: I lost the right hand side of my wing but the wingtip cravatted hard in my central lines, countermeasures useless and I rapidly entered a high speed spiral into the deck. I remember just entertaining the thought of pulling the reserve as I hit the deckā¦ There really was no time whatsoever.
I know itās the weirdest thing to say, but I somehow feel Andrew Smith had a hand in hereā¦ maybe even got it in to break my fall just enough!
What happened thereafter can only be described as completely remarkable (and this is by no means an exhaustive list.)
These are just some of the people that I need to thank for still being here on terra firma:
Daniela got hold of Jenny Frankel (angel), who got hold of Halo Aviation (thanks Ryan Horseman) who had a helicopter on top of the dam with 30 minutes! Ryan, Jen, Pierre and Greg were off-the-charts!
I was Helivacced to Sunninngill Hospital (Jarryd, Abdul Matthews and pilot Micayla Bothaā¦. legends!) and scanned and found to have quite a nasty combination of injuries. I now give off this vague nocturnal glow.
- A C2 hangmanās fracture!
- Multiple fractured ribs right and left with a severely contused right lung
- A burst fracture of T12
- An open book fracture of my pelvis complete with a sacral fracture
- And impaction fracture of my right calcaneus
By the way thatās an ISS OF 57 with a predicted mortality of very close to 90%!
Surgery was staged: Pelvis then Spine but the lungs were still the biggest constraint.
Jenny Frankel, Andrew Barrow, Warren Meyer, Sasha Marcovich, Mark Eltringham, Kobus Retief, Steve Cornish, Jonty Kay, Jacintha Shung and Ismael Ganchiā¦. YOU ALL ROCK!
TO ALL the nurses of Trauma ICU Sunninghill (Tshidi/ CharnƩ/Angela/ Joseph
and many more.
Thank you ALL SO VERY MUCH for putting Humpty back together!
DANIELA YOU ARE MY WORLD!
To all of you whoāve sent messagesā¦ Iām getting through them. Thank you šš»
Itās going to be a long roadā¦ But the overwhelming message is:
āAlways look forward, celebrate the tiniest victories and donāt get bogged down with where you areā¦. TAKE TIME, BEFORE IT TAKES YOU ā¦ It can ALWAYS get worse!
Love YāAll! ā¤ļøā¤ļøā¤ļøā¤ļø
