“Hello All,

As most of you already know I broke my neck last Monday. I got home from hospital yesterday and I thought I’d better write to you all as some of you don’t know yet and some of you don’t know a lot of details.

Before I get into it I want to say thanks to everyone who visited me or passed on their messages to Sam. I got a few bunches of flowers and some cards and gifts as well and it was really nice and a little surprising to know how many people care.

: Traction

A full explanation of what happened would take pages so I will try to keep it brief. I was out for a quick 1 hr bike ride last Monday morning (15/10/07), before a physio appointment for my back that I injured snowboarding believe it or not.

I was approaching a sort of a T-intersection and the car that was stopped at the give way came out after the car in front of me had gone past. I didn’t have time to stop, hit his front R/H side and got thrown over the bonnet.

: More traction

I didn’t quite complete the somersault and landed on the back of my head/neck. Something felt weird as soon as I got up so I lay down again straight away on the median.

The pain arrived about 5 mins later but it wasn’t too bad and the ambulance another 5 mins after that. It didn’t feel all that bad and I had no other injuries at all and nothing to indicate any nerve damage.

: Scars

So I thought I was just going to hospital as a precaution as it was my neck and Sam and I spent the day in Emergency thinking that we were going home that night. After x-rays and scans we found out that I had basically dislocated the joint between my 3^rd and 4^th vertebrae and would need to be put in traction and then have surgery.

I was in traction in Christchurch Public Hospital from Monday night until Friday morning staring at the ceiling. They were able to feed me and they had me on a self-controlled morphine drip by Tuesday lunch so apart from Monday night I wasn’t in a lot of pain.

The traction is hard to explain so just check out the photos. Those are sharp pointed screws in my head that were wound into my skull so that they could hang 6 kg off the “tongs”. I had local anaesthetic when they put them in so I could feel the pressure but not really any pain.

: After the op.

On Friday they transferred me to Burwood hospital, still in traction believe it or not, going about 15 km/h so that the weights didn’t swing or bump too much. And I was operated on during Friday afternoon. In the operation they cut open the R/H side of the front of my neck and made a path for themselves straight to the front of C3/C4 vertebrae. Then they take out the disc between the two vertebrae and discard it.

: Better days, Leroy on The Professor, NZ Alps.

They then (or possibly had already) cut open the front of my right hip, cut away all the muscles and remove a 1 cm-cubed piece of bone. They reattach the muscles and sow up my hip then shape the bone, which they place between the two vertebrae. Finally they screw on a plate that holds the vertebrae together. The whole operation took about 2 hrs and was a complete success.

Eventually C3/C4 will fuse into one vertebra, but as that part of the neck doesn’t usually flex much I won’t notice it and will back to 100%, with no restrictions on any activities. I have a soft collar on which is actually the most annoying thing now, so I can’t drive and have to take it fairly easy. Hopefully it comes off at my follow up on 9/11/07. I will probably be off work for another 7-10 weeks, but should be back to some sort of exercise before then.

: Same route, second pitch.

So it does suck a bit and my bike is a write-off but it was insured and I could’ve been a lot worse, so I’m a lucky boy really. I’m in big trouble with Sam for giving her such a big scare and I think I’ve got a bit of work to do to convince her that I need a new bike! Ha ha. It was a tough week for her as she had four wisdom teeth out on Thursday as well but she still managed to be there with me every day, which was awesome.

Thanks again to all my well-wishers. If any of you local people want to visit now that I’m home feel free, just give me a call or a text to make sure I’m home first. I hope all of you are doing well. Take care and stay in touch.

Later, Leroy”.

: Back into this for next year .....

Recovery update

“Hey Everyone,

I thought I'd send you all some of the x-rays of my neck so you can see what's been done. The recovery continues to go well. I'm managing to do most things at work with no great dramas and can feel myself improving in all the rehab exercise sessions that I'm going to.

I've also had three rides on my bike back on the road. The first one was pretty nerve wracking, and I'm yet to go too far away from home or ride during busier times of the day, but I'm definitely feeling more confident and should be back into it full tilt soon.

The guy that hit me was in court last week and was found guilty, which was good. He's been in touch with me again to see how I'm going and it's nice to know that he's interested, as not all crash victims get shown remorse or concern. So hopefully things keep going well and it's onwards and upwards from here.

The first shot was taken straight after the operation while I was still asleep and you can see the tube that they put down my throat for me to breathe through. So obviously it's taken looking at my right hand side and is shown as if I'm upright.

The plate has been screwed on the front of the 3rd and 4th vertebrae with the bone graft put between them also at the front behind the plate. That's my jaw that you can see going off to the right at the top.

The second shot was taken at my 6 week check up. It's is taken from the front and gives a good view of the plate attached to the front of the spine with a screw in each of the four corners.

The third one was also taken at my 6 week check-up and is taken from my left-hand side. You can see that the spine is quite crooked; it's not supposed to be perfectly straight but will hopefully straighten up a little more than this with time.

And the fourth and last one is for all you medical professionals. It's the one that was taken in ED a few hours after the crash. You can see the displacement between the 3rd and 4th vertebrae quite easily. They estimated that the joint moved about 5mm which is about 25% out of place.

Hopefully that's the last you'll here from me about the accident, as things are really starting to get back to normal now. Once the rehab programme finishes in March, I'll hopefully be back to living as normal a life as possible and if I look after myself, hopefully it'll be relatively pain free. Thanks to everyone for your messages of support over the last few months. Take care, Leroy”

More postscript to accident and more better days ....

"Cool shot eh? Was taken when I was in Canada and was based in Banff for snowboarding and ice climbing.

We had some practice on the lower sections of 'Cascade' then a couple of days later went and did 'The Professor' which is up to Grade 4+waterfall ice. A couple of days after that myself, Dave Johnston, and Ash Sweeting went back and did Cascade to the top - at night due to the unseasonally warm temperatures and the high avalanche risk from the basin above. (Was still pretty dodgy).

Ash was doing some freelance writing for a local paper and did an article on the climb. The photos he got on the actual night weren't good enough so he went back a few days later with a photographer from the paper and got this shot. It is not doctored apart from slight contrast and colour adjustments. Leroy".