Brennan Noeth loved being in B.C.’s outdoors.
The 28-year-old was an avid snowboarder, hiker, camper, cliff-jumper and more and was happiest being in Whistler’s forests and mountains.
And while Noeth’s love of the great outdoors has not changed, the way he will be able to experience it has.
In May, Noeth was injured in a snowboarding accident on Whistler Blackcomb.
“I decided to try one of the large jumps, which I was hitting all day long, and I tried to do a trick I’ve done for a while, a double backflip,” he told Global News.
“And when I went to go try it, I didn’t realize how much speed I had. And I went off the jump and realized I spun too much. So I ended up going into a triple backflip and I had two choices. I had to open up or stop and I couldn’t do the stopping motion, so I just opened up and landed on my back.”
He said he remembers every moment.
“It was horrible. I was on my back holding my friend’s hands and just trying to make it through.”
Noeth said he immediately knew he couldn’t move or feel his legs.
“Right then and there, I knew I wouldn’t have the ability to walk again,” he said. “It was just one false move that turned into a big, big accident.”
He was airlifted from Whistler to Vancouver General Hospital and taken into emergency surgery.
He had rods and plates inserted to stabilize his spine but despite best efforts, Noeth is paralyzed from this mid-lower back and will never regain his ability to walk.
“I was just going through a lot of emotions,” he said about being in the hospital. “You know, it was so much to think about. I was thinking about my future. I was thinking about if I was going to be able to walk again. Like I was just thinking the worst possible ideas.”
Noeth said seeing his family and friends was really hard but it gave him the support he needed to get through the darkest times.
“If there is any advice I can give anybody, any young teens out there, would be there’s light at the end of what may seem like a dark tunnel. It’s hard, but you’ll get through it.”
He arrived at G.F. Strong Rehabilitation Centre about a month ago and has been learning how to rebuild his life.
“My day usually starts, so I get up, get dressed, get ready for my PT, which is physio, and then I get ready for O.T., which is occupational therapy,” Noeth told Global News.
“In physio, I would go out and do lots of activities like strength training and balance activities. And after the PT and OT, I would have lunch. After lunch, I would do (wheelchair) training like jumping up curbs, doing manuals, getting my balance perfect.”
A GoFundMe was launched to help pay for Noeth’s medical care.
Aaron Chan, a medical doctor, and physician who specializes in physical medicine and rehabilitation at G.F. Strong told Global News his main purpose is to try and keep Noeth as healthy as possible.
“So in his rehab and recovery, there’s a lot of things that he’s going to participate in,” Chan said. “My job is to make sure he’s medically, well, medically healthy in order to spend the majority of his time doing his rehab.”
Chan said when Noeth first came to the facility he was in so much pain all the time, which limited his ability to participate in rehab and do his exercises.
Thankfully, that has improved and he is now able to do his exercises and therapy.
“He’s very enthusiastic about focusing on his improvements,” Chan added. “What we kind of expect for him is that he’ll be fully independent when he leaves here. Things would be a bit different because he’ll be in a wheelchair, but he’ll be managing all of his life tasks all on his own.”
Chan said it can be so hard for patients after an injury like this one to imagine what the future holds and if they will be able to enjoy the activities they did before.
“When something like this happens, it can be quite devastating and hard,” he said.
“But my job and our team’s job is to help people like (Noeth) realize that there’s a whole world out there for people who’ve had an injury to their spinal cord. Wheelchair sports is huge and I foresee that (Noeth) is going to get out there. He’s going to be super active on the mountain doing the things that he loves.
“I see him around. I see that in the future he’ll be out on the mountains having, you know, a lot of enjoyment.”
Noeth is now looking forward to a future where he will be able to still join his friends in Whistler’s outdoors doing the activities he loves.
“You kind of take for granted your life as it is and you don’t really think of people that are in these situations all the time,” he said.
“Sometimes you get caught up in your own life and you know, sometimes, like in my position, I didn’t think of being handicapped ever. I didn’t think of the struggles you would have. And then it happened to me and I realized that, like your spinal injury or whatever kind of injury you have isn’t going to take away from your future. It isn’t going to take away from your happiness because you can get through it.”
Comments