KARL
“I was looking forward to cycling the new 17km part of the 43 km Redwood Forest Mountain bike loop track with a friend. In the past I found it to be a very enjoyable ride with some tough uphill parts, some easy downhills amongst great scenery, especially along the ridge overlooking the Blue Lake in Rotorua. I love speed and use the boost on my ebike in the more uphill challenging parts. Around the halfway point and about 10 minutes from our lunch break, we were close to exiting out of the darkness of the bush and into a grassy carpark of the Blue Lake. I was in the lead as we approached a narrow downhill part of the track, bumping over rocks and crevices, slippery after the recent heavy rain. With the bike bumping so much, so does a person’s vision, so it’s not possible to get a clear sharp perception, and the brain tries to work out where the best line to cycle is. Next thing, the bike and me went into the bank on the side. The bike stopped but I did not. I went over the handlebars like a javelin. I landed on the crown of my head literally headfirst like diving into shallow waters. I saw the bank coming and thought this was not going to go well! I hit it hard and heard a loud crack! With the impact, my head rolled onto my chest and my body flopped over the top. My bike went over the top over me and I ended up on the track. I got up feeling pretty yuk and wondered where my cycling buddy was. I sat on the side collecting myself aware of how sore my neck was, and from my shoulder, had a deep ache all the way down to my right hand. I tried to move and get comfortable but finding that position was impossible. I wondered because I could move my shoulder, what the crack I heard was. Because the track was so narrow I thought I had better move my bike so I would not cause an accident when my buddy arrived. I was just sitting there when he came along and called out ‘you alright mate?’ No, I replied, I think I’m bleeding, as I could feel stuff coming down my face. I’m too scared to take my helmet off. Other riders came past, and a couple stopped. When I told them I thought I was bleeding they told me to wait while they found their bandages. When my helmet was removed, they were all laughing. What was so funny? ‘Mate, there is no blood you’re just covered in mud’. The air vents in my helmet were caked in mud due to the force of my dive, and it was the mud I could feel wet on my face.
“We were just a few hundred meters from the exit to the Blue Lake, so I made the decision to walk away from the narrow pass and down to the more grassy area. I started walking my bike down feeling a bit off and my arm aching. One of the other riders who had passed me came running back up the track to take my bike down. I sat down on the grass, and my buddy tried to get a signal on the mobile to call for help, but there was no coverage. He went back up the hill until he was able to get reception and made contact with the mountain bike office for the Redwoods. I tried every possible position to ease the pain in my shoulder and found the only position that gave me relief was on my knees bowing forward with my head on the ground. It was the only place where all pain left. Lord, I bow before you and thank you I am alive and functioning. I called out to Jesus, help me, heal me. I need you, I need your peace Holy Spirit, and I need your presence. Help me, I am really sore right now. A first responder arrived, who was also a paramedic. She checked me over and I explained the accident and how I was conscious of everything and even got up straight away. There was no nausea or dizziness indicating any head trauma just the pain in my shoulder extending down my right arm and hand. She told me I needed to go to hospital and get thoroughly checked out, so I opted to go to the Tauranga hospital which although further away, was closer to where I lived. The medic took us back along the road in her truck, all the way back to the main car park to their headquarters. I couldn’t bow down whilst in the vehicles and was in agony. It was a long painful drive back to Tauranga, with my mate in his ute and our bikes onboard.
“Once back in Tauranga I drove myself to Tauranga hospital to get checked out. Thankfully parking wasn’t an issue, and I walked into A and E. I told reception of the mountain bike accident, fell on head and hurt my neck, with hurt shoulder and arm pain. ‘Where’s the patient’ he asked? It’s me, I replied. 5 hours later I was still waiting to be seen and getting very irritated. Finally, I was seen by the nurse triage and assessed for a head injury. I will be back with you in an hour, I was told. I waited a further 3 hours and finally went back to the main desk reminding them I had been waiting a total of 8 hours. When the Doctor saw me, he sent me off for a CT scan. This revealed I had a crushed vertebra. Suddenly I became a spinal patient and was placed in a brace and told not to move. In that moment, I chose not to be frustrated but instead give praise to Jesus for saving my life and sparing me from being left a tetraplegic.
“The vertebrae are a stack of rectangular shaped bones sitting on top of each other, with C1 positioned just beneath the skull. The scan showed my C7 vertebra was crushed at the front rather than the back. The vertebrae had collapsed by about 50%. A big chunk of bone had broken off the front and C6 had slipped forward so instead of a straight line, there was a distinct step in the spine.
“I was still in agony, unable to get comfortable and had only been given Panadol. Next, I was wheeled off for an Xray and MRI to make certain there was no further damage, and my collar bone was not broken or misplaced. Finally, at 3am I was put into a ward and given some strong pain killers so I could sleep at last.
“The following morning in the high dependency unit, the specialist came to me and told me an operation was necessary to fix my neck up. It was all going a bit too fast, and I didn’t want an operation. I was claiming full healing in the name of Jesus. I am healed in Jesus’ name. The consultant came back later and gave me 3 options - he could operate, we could leave it for a few days, or we could just leave it. I liked the third option! Further tests were ordered with dye to check the blood flow around the area. Praise God, the only injury was my neck.
I asked others to stand with me in prayer and declare I was fully healed. Restored completely. No trauma no aftereffects. My shoulder, vertebrae and spine aligned in the name of Jesus.
“I was sent home in an Aspen collar to hold my neck stable. Due to this, I was unable to look down or sleep on my side, and it was hard to look left or right.
“I continued trusting the Lord for complete healing and restoration, believing that if I was led to have the operation, God would go before me and give the surgeons wisdom and guide their hands. The surgery was scheduled, I prayed in tongues committing it all to my Maker, asking for peace. I woke after a 4-hour operation ACDF operation (anterior cervical discectomy fusion) with a bone graft taken from my hip. This had been shaped (like a bone carver) to resemble the crushed C7, slotted into place to build up the wedge so it sat square at the top between C6 and C7, and fused together with a plate and screws. I had no pain in my neck, just pain where the bone had been removed from my hip.
“I’ve had many serious accidents in my life, but this was the closest I’ve come to death or paralysis. God is and was worthy of all my praise. Thank you, Jesus, for saving me and carrying me through. He enabled me to walk out of that forest, to worship Him through the pain, to endure the journey home, and reach hospital, without causing further damage to my neck. Hallelujah”.
Mark 5:36 New Living Translation
But Jesus overheard them and said to Jairus, “Don’t be afraid. Just have faith.”