Declan

Meet Declan… a young man living and thriving in regional Queensland with a T4 Spinal Cord Injury.
Declan recently met with us to share a little of his story and advice for others who may be living with a similar experience.

Declan’s accident

I remember it was an early Sunday morning. I was heading to Gympie with my boss, Steve, excited to test out my recently upgraded Yamaha YZ250F motorcross bike for the day. It started out like any other normal bike day, unloading and gearing up before kicking the bikes over to warm up. I jumped on my Yamaha, and we headed out through the heavy bushland tracks. About 10 minutes in, Steve pulls over and signals at me. I figured he was just letting me know to keep going on without him, so I took off past him and picked up some speed as I came around a corner. 

Just after the corner, I notice a log on the track up ahead… but it was too late. I’d been going too fast to slow down, and from what I can remember I hit the log at speed and launched off my bike, falling severely. I came to, with Steve shouting at me to wake up — he said I’d been unconscious for what felt like 10-15 minutes. The first thing I said to him was, “I can’t feel my legs”. 

Steve was amazing. He knew we were in a bad situation, with barely any reception and no phones with us, but he comforted and tried to reassure me. He remembered he saw a camper not far from us and told me to not move — he was going to go find help. I must have fallen back asleep, because the next thing I was aware of was the sound of a helicopter in the distance. After the helicopter landed, they actually had to call an ambulance for help getting me out of the bush and to the helicopter. From then on I only woke back up again when I was getting rushed to the ER with ice packs all over my body. The first thing I said to my girlfriend’s mother as they pushed me past her was, “I’ve really done it this time”. I ended up breaking T4 of my spinal cord, as well as fracturing my ribs and chest bones. 

Declan and NIISQ

The National Injury Insurance Agency, Queensland (NIISQ Agency) has supported me in so many ways. They help me manage my injury from funding my day-to-day medications and medical equipment, to funding my therapies and equipment to manage my body spasms. I’ve been offered support workers, social workers and therapists to help me mentally and physically, however I’ve always been very independent and not let this injury change that. Without NIISQ’s support I’m sure I wouldn’t be as far ahead with my life and as happy as I am because of how much help and ongoing support I receive from them. A big thanks to my NIISQ Support Planner, Eliza — she’s the best and is always looking out for me. You can really tell she’s so genuine and wants to help with everything she does!

Spinal Life Gym

I’ve been going to Spinal Life Gym for quite some time now. I do all my upper body strength training and workouts there because it’s fully kitted out for wheelchairs and makes keeping fit so much easier and more manageable than a regular gym. I also use a Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES) leg machine which stimulates my leg muscles, allowing them to contract. This helps manage my daily body spasms.

Biggest wins

Since my injury, I’ve accomplished so many small things that I wouldn’t have thought would be possible without help. I was initially told I would be in hospital for 6-12 months, but I managed to be discharged in only four months. I educated myself on my injury and learned the new day-to-day struggles I will now be facing. I’m proud of the fact that I’ve learned how to independently get in and out of the local swimming pool without a water chair. I’m also now able to drive myself anywhere I need to go, thanks to some amazing hand controls also funded by NIISQ. 

I’m getting myself back into the workforce.  I did try a personal assistant role, but it just wasn’t for me. I’m about to start a new role in corrections as a security monitor surveillance officer. 

I’ll be managing criminals with leg-trackers, making sure they’re in their right places, and entering new ones onto the system. Very different work compared to what I used to do, which was concreting and brick labouring. I’m very excited to try something new though. I’m looking forward to it. 

Regional Queensland life

I’ve lived out of the Metro area all my life, so I’m very used to it and quite comfortable in my community. It can be annoying at times to have to travel an hour each way for an appointment or checkup, especially getting stuck in traffic on the way home. But you can’t beat how lovely it is out here. Aside from that it’s not all that bad, because if I need a service to come to me, they always can come out here. I’ve never had any problems with that. 

Advice

My advice to anyone else who has recently had an accident like mine or worse is to just keep your head up and keep going. Keep pushing because no one else can do it for you. No one else is going to do the recovery or learn your new way of life except for you. Take what has happened as a life lesson and move on from it no matter the outcome. I often get told that I’m the same person I was before my accident and when they tell me that, they act so surprised. Others act so happy that I’ve just kept being myself and not let what some would call a horrific accident affect me as a person. Don’t get me wrong, I still have my sad days and nights… but don’t we all? 

You will be much happier with yourself and your life if you can move on from it instead of constantly thinking, “what if?” I used to think to myself, “What if I just didn’t go riding that day like my girlfriend said?” or “What if I stopped when my boss did?” But all that doesn’t matter now. You can’t take it back. Just come to peace with it and move forward. Better days are coming, trust in that. Don’t let your injury, no matter the outcome, bring you down for the rest of your life. Go out there and still give life a crack. You’d be surprised about how much you can actually do.

Thank you, Declan for your time and inspirational message.