'My life is not over': Inverness doctor shares astonishing story of hope after horrific life changing injury
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A medic who suffered life-changing injuries in a horrific bike accident is sharing an inspiring message of hope for the future.
Danny Gordon (27), who forms part of the health sciences teaching team at Raigmore Hospital, has been left paralysed from the chest down after a cycling accident last year.
In spite of his injuries, however, he is now back at work and wants anyone else facing an unexpected disability to realise it doesn’t have to mean the end of a full and meaningful life.
Mr Gordon’s story started last August, just three weeks after he began teaching at Raigmore.
The keen cyclist had just said goodbye to his partner who worked at the city’s New Craigs Hospital and was en route from there to his own work.
“I was on my new bike,” he said. “It was a gravel bike and I had not been off-road on it before.
“I saw the perfect spot to go down a grassy area. I thought ‘that looks fun’.
“I stopped and took a video of the area and I went down the first slope onto a flat bit, but as I went onto the second slope my bike flipped and my legs came over my chest still attached to my bike.
“I landed on my chest.
“I immediately knew that I had caused some serious damage.
“I don’t know how I managed it but my phone had dropped out my pocket and I rolled over onto my front. I phoned an ambulance and described where I was, as I was hidden from view, and then I phoned my girlfriend.
“I knew by my lack of movement and sensation in my body that this was quite bad.”
Taken immediately to intensive care, the following day a scan revealed the full extent of his injuries.
He had dislocated the T6 vertebrae all the way through to his spinal cord and ruptured veins, causing lung complications and restricting his breathing.
He was transferred to the specialist spinal injuries unit in Glasgow where he then spent the next three months.
Determined from the outset to look for positives, he said: “I don’t want to minimise it – this was a totally catastrophic and life-changing event – but I can learn to live my best life with this injury.
“I thankfully lived in a flat, on a second floor, but there was a lift in the building and I have only needed two minor adaptations to the shower and toilet.
“Ability and what we can do are a state of mind. I choose to be as positive as I can.
“My life is not over, I still have a family and a good support network.
“I am in a wheelchair, so I can still get about.
“Of course there are other worries and issues like fatigue, re-learning how to do everyday things and of course anxieties over continence issues.
“I know that I fit into a privileged bracket – I am a young white man who has a medical training and I have a great employer in NHS Highland, and I am lucky to have a job in teaching at the Centre for Health Science.
“But I know what a life-changing injury can mean for other people. I saw people in the spinal injuries unit who could not see a way forward, and I really just want to offer hope to other people.”
Now saving for a specialist bike that will allow him to get cycling again and setting his sights on getting fit enough for a demanding Ironman competition, he said: “I want to reach out to other people to spread a message that disability does not define you, and that you can still have a very meaningful and fulfilling life as someone with a spinal cord injury, or any long-term health condition.
“During the pandemic, I think a little positivity goes a long way!
“There are inspirational people who have helped me and allowed me to believe it is possible to go on and that there is hope.”
