Snowbiker who suffered spinal injury in Whistler walks again

Philippe Devos knew it was dangerous instantly after touchdown the drop.

“There was definitely some kind of sense of a pop or crack in my again,” he remembered, “after which there was the feeling that I could not actually transfer my legs.”

It was February 24, 2020 and Devos, in Whistler on vacation, had spent many of the day on Brandywine Mountain tearing by means of just a few centimetres of contemporary snow on a snowbike. Devos had tried snowbiking just a few instances earlier than, after first getting the prospect to demo a machine close to his house in Toronto. It was a pure match for the long-time motorbike fanatic.

Devos had already hit the pure terrain characteristic that afternoon, touchdown cleansing onto the gently sloped touchdown beneath. “I believed ‘That appears like enjoyable.’ I went off the drop; it was enjoyable,” Devos recalled. “I believed ‘Nicely, this would be the spotlight second of the journey, I ought to get this on video to point out what snowbiking is all about to individuals again house who do not know it.”

He headed again uphill, turned towards the drop and hit the fuel.

This time, the gentle snow wasn’t sufficient to cushion his touchdown. The impression shattered his T12 vertebra, sending shards into his spinal wire and immediately paralyzing Devos from the waist down—a devastating stroke of dangerous luck.

“However I all the time say, after my harm, my luck rotated,” he defined.

Clear skies and open terrain meant a Whistler Search and Rescue helicopter might land instantly beside Devos, with its knowledgeable crew saving him a painful and harmful journey down the mountain in a toboggan. It transported him to the Whistler Health Care Centre’s emergency room, the place medical employees confirmed his spinal wire harm. An air ambulance introduced Devos to Vancouver Common Hospital (VGH), the place surgeon Dr. Brian Kwon—a Canada Analysis Chair in spinal wire accidents—occurred to be out there. Devos discovered himself laying on Kwon’s working desk the following morning, lower than 24 hours after he was caught laying within the snow along with his vertebra in items.

“I feel should you speak to him, he’d say that [those are] the 2 issues that gave me the perfect probability of restoration: that I acquired to the surgical procedure that rapidly, and that I acquired to do the surgical procedure with him,” stated Devos. “He’s inarguably the perfect at what he does in Canada, if not the world.”

Even with these heightened odds, full restoration was by no means a given. Requested whether or not he’d stroll once more, Kwon informed his affected person, “It is potential, however I would not guess on it,” remembered Devos. It was additionally unclear whether or not his bladder features would return.

However confronted with a harsh new actuality, Devos’ string of fine luck continued, starting along with his interprovincial journey and medical insurance’s willingness to cowl all obligatory prices—together with the $40,000 invoice for the personal air ambulance from B.C. to Toronto, in addition to the quite a few items of specialised gear he required.

Within the days and weeks following his surgical procedure, his toilet features improved, as Devos persistently progressed from having the ability to sit upright on his personal and wheel himself by means of hospital hallways, to shifting a toe, then an ankle, then a calf.

Nonetheless, Devos’ rehabilitation group wouldn’t provide him any ensures when it got here to his restoration.

That’s, till April 3, when—simply over a month after his harm, with some help from his physiotherapist and a set of parallel bars—Devos took his first steps.

Afterwards, “I requested [my physiotherapist], I stated ‘Does this imply I can lastly stroll out of right here?’ And she or he stated, ‘Yeah, I feel so.’ That was the primary time she allowed that.”

Devos strolled out of the hospital a couple of month later, with the help of a walker. He’s fast to warning that each spinal wire harm is exclusive, however admits his restoration is way from typical.

He hasn’t been again on a bike or snowbike for the reason that accident, and stated he doesn’t know if he ever will. However in the present day, Devos walks with out help, and is trying ahead to extra days on his stand-up paddleboard this summer season, in addition to on the sailboat he and his household bought over the winter. Devos retains in contact with Kwon by means of texts and emails—who’s “working to enhance methods and analysis in order that my restoration just isn’t the exception, however that it’s the norm,” Devos defined—and makes month-to-month donations to Whistler SAR; his approach of exhibiting gratitude to the volunteers who helped him safely off the mountain.

One factor Devos wasn’t notably huge on even earlier than his accident was celebrating his birthday. “They simply come round with time, you do not actually must do something to get a birthday—simply not die, actually,” he stated with amusing.

However since his harm, he’s stopped altogether. As an alternative, Devos and his household have fun April 3, “which, in our household, we name Kwon-Constand Day—for Dr. Kwon, my surgeon, and for Marissa Constand, my physiotherapist who acquired me strolling once more,” he stated. “That is the day we have fun as a substitute of my birthday now, in our home.”

VGH, in partnership with UBC Hospital and the BC Skilled Hearth Fighters’ Burn Fund, is presently within the midst of its 2022 Hometown Heroes Lottery fundraising marketing campaign. The initiative goals to lift important funds for specialised grownup well being companies and analysis at VGH and UBC Hospital—like people who helped Devos—together with GF Robust Rehab Centre and Burn Fund applications. Tickets, on sale till midnight, July 14, 2022 or till they promote out, provide holders the prospect to win one among 3,220 prizes, together with 9 prize houses all through B.C. and $2.2 million in tax-free money. For extra info or to buy tickets, head to the Hometown Heroes Lottery web site.