On Friday August 7 a group of ex-pat Canadians living in Southern California will host a
charity golf tournament. The newly formed Canada California Business Council first planned to raise money to help one of their own, Andrew Trevitt, who was paralyzed in a motorcycle accident last year. Andrew said no thanks but suggested the money go to the Reeve Foundation, which helped him and his wife in the chaotic early days after the injury.
After a long, hard road through rehab Trevitt just spent his first week home since the crash last November. At the time of what he later called "my little whoopsie," Trevitt was testing tires, part of his job as a senior editor at LA-based
Sport Rider magazine. A car made an illegal u-turn in front of him on the twisty Angeles Crest highway.
Two months later, dictating a
blog by way of his wife Deborah, he wrote: "I have a broken elbow, wrist, pelvis and leg, along with too many screws and plates to count. Worse, I fractured my spine and I'm not sure if I'll ever ride or walk again."
In 10 years of motojournalism Trev only crashed this one time. Are bikes dangerous? "The weird thing," he says, "is that in rehab there were people with spinal cord injuries from all kinds of things. People fall off ladders. A guy broke his neck getting into bed, by hitting the bed board. Another guy broke is neck between the first green and the second tee. He tripped and fell. Maybe motorcycles are dangerous. But so is everyday life."
As a professional motorcyclist and former Canadian National champ, Trevitt, who answers to Trev, knew and accepted the risks. "There was always the risk....I always tried to ride as safely as I can. It was in the back of my mind. After my tipover, I said, well, OK, it's happened."
In other words, OK, this is what it is, let's deal with it. Trevitt says he worked hard at every aspect of rehab in order to gain independence. He's not yet driving a car but will soon. And he's eager to get back to work at the magazine. He won't ride again, and in fact has no interest in riding. But his skills as a writer are solid, and much missed.
He writes a column for Sport Rider. It used to be called Full Pin, "because that's how I always approach life and individual tasks-with 100 percent effort." The column has been renamed Stop Watch. "I feel this title will probably be more representative of my new outlook."
From the blog: "I've got loads of other fond riding memories, but for whatever reason I'm okay with the fact that I probably won't be able to ride again. That ship has sailed, and in the last couple of months I've realized there are loads of other things that I'm still able to do, and I'm looking forward to trying new things that I probably never would have thought of."
Unlike most newly paralyzed, Trevitt got an extended rehab experience. Partly this was due to complications (other injuries, infections and surgery for a skin sore) but also because he was covered by state workers comp insurance. "For me it's been really great. A lot of people I saw who had to deal with regular health insurance got cut off. As for work, a lot of people find that the job they had, they can't do now. So they give up. It's really disheartening to see people give up."
No surrender in this family. From Deb, who has been along for the whole bumpy ride: "I wouldn't lie to you, this is no cakewalk, but Andrew's optimistic nature sure helps me and everybody else. Like they say attitude is everything."
Mad
