Five years ago, David Raborn got into a bike accident and doctors didn’t think he was going to live. But Raborn proved them wrong and on Saturday, the 30-year-old Sherwood Park man led a 58.5-kilometre bike ride for the Glenrose Rehabilitation Hospital.
“I’m a little bit nervous but I’m more excited than anything,” he said before kicking off the inaugural Glenrose Courage Ride for Rehab.
On September 22, 2011, Raborn was cycling along Range Road 223 when his bike hit a pothole.
“My front wheel came off. The forks that hold onto the wheel dug into the pavement and catapulted me over my bike head first into the pavement.”
Raborn, who was wearing a helmet, said he can’t recall what happened next.
“I don’t remember anything of the accident or immediately afterward or for the next half a year when I was in my coma.”
Raborn suffered brain injuries and lost 60 pounds while in hospital. He had a long road to recovery, but said intensive rehabilitation, physiotherapy and occupational therapy helped change that.
“I couldn’t walk. I couldn’t talk. I couldn’t eat. My legs were completed atrophied and when I went out of the Glenrose, I was playing tennis and basketball,” he said.
David’s dad Wayne Raborn said the experience was “like starting with a son who is again three years old.”
“He could only talk two, three, four words. They were feeding him through a gastronomy tube. He certainly couldn’t walk on his own. So that was up to the Glenrose and they just performed absolute miracles,” Wayne said.
Raborn then decided he wanted to get back onto a bike: an idea that terrified his father, mother, brother and friends. But it was an idea he said he had to follow through with.
“I have to do it just to get back to where I was. I have to prove to myself that I can do this.”
He trained by going to spin classes and taking short rides through the North Saskatchewan River valley. But the charity ride on Saturday was his first time doing anything long distance.
“It means so much to David to be able to get back to where he was before the injury. I’m very proud of what he’s done, but I’m also very proud of what he’s doing to give back,” Wayne said.
Organizer Laurie Hawn said approximately 60 cyclists participated in the ride around Pigeon Lake, some of whom were staff and former patients at the Glenrose.
“The Glenrose is the gold standard for mental and physical rehabilitation. It’s important Canadians understand what kind of jewel we have here in Edmonton and what it goes for all of us,” he said.
The goal of the event is to raise $50,000.
“Every little bit is important to somebody, because somebody is going to benefit from what we raise,” Hawn said.
As for Raborn, he hopes his story brings hope and helps others be just as courageous.
“Never give up. And wear your dang helmet!”
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