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Bicyclist facing long road of recovery

Accident results in paralysis

The day likely started like any other. Bike to work. Work his shift at the Mariott Hotel, and bike home as the sun starts to set.

That is where the story changes.

Dustin Calkins planned to meet a friend in Legion Park and chose to take a shortcut down the canal toward the bike path on Sept. 18 when his bicycle collided with rocks on the hillside. He was ejected from the bike, striking his head and injuring his spine. According to his mother, Betsy Gordon, the grass was too tall to see the rocks. She said he hit the rocks so hard the front wheel of his bike was bent.

She said he was conscious and alert enough to see people nearby on the north side of the channel, but he couldn't move because of his injuries. Family believe he was lying in the grass for about 30 minutes before responders arrived.

"I guess people saw him, and they just thought he was lying down," Gordon said.

Authorities were contacted by a woman none of the family knows.

He was transported by ambulance to Sidney Regional Medical Center, then flown to Swedish Medical Center. He is still in Swedish, waiting to be moved to a therapy facility. He has been at Swedish for more than two weeks.

Gordon said when he first arrived at Swedish, doctors said one of the priorities was to monitor Dustin's sensations, how much feeling he had in his extremities. She said they told her the longer it is until he has feeling, the less likely it is he will recover use. At Swedish, medical staff are teaching Dustin the basic skills most of us take for granted: eating, breathing and talking for example. His brain and spinal injuries affected basic skills in living. Gordon said his body below his shoulders is not injured, but his brain can't send messages to the rest of the body.

At this time, doctors say the paralysis is permanent. The only way movement will return to his body is if his body repairs itself, she said. The only surgeries that can be done are already completed: repair of a slipped disk, two damaged vertebrae and inserting a metal plate in his skull where it was fractured.

"We have a lot of hope," she said.

She said with the constant changing technology in medicine, some degree of movement is possible; it will depend on medical science.

"Unless some new technology develops, they (doctors) don't think he will walk," she said.

The prognosis is life-changing to say the least. One day he is bicycling to work and for recreation. The next day he is challenged with simple tasks. But he isn't giving up.

"He tries to stay positive," she says.

She says she tells him the best he can do is remain positive.

Gordon plans to purchase a handicap-accessible van for when Dustin is released. She is also anticipating expenses related to his paralysis. Her understanding is it could take up to two years for him to receive disability benefits.

Even with the challenges that lay ahead for Dustin and the family, they are remaining optimistic.

"Dustin is lucky in a lot of respects," she said. "He didn't damage any internal organs."

To reach the family, email comments to [email protected].

 

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