Joshua

Most of Douglas's time is now taken up with thoughts and deeds for his 12 year old son Josh; which is why he has been absent for many of the publicity events for his book, including the Launch. He sent the above email to the rest of us as we were launching his book at the London Boat show.

rope

Hi all

Have email at the moment so I thought I would just summarise what has
happened.

Joshua went with his best friend on holiday to a farm in Victoria. There he
was allowed to ride bikes and quad bikes without supervision or a helmet.
The quad bike tipped over and it rolled right over Josh. He lay for over an
hour bleeding before rescue could get to him.

Joshua was admitted on xmas eve by helicoptor to the Royal Melborne
Childrens Hospital. He had stopped breathing. They rushed him to surgury to
remove the depressed fracture from his brain and perform a crainioscomy to
his left side. They had no expectation of life. I got there on boxing day
morning to see him on full life support and in a deep coma.

J caught pneumonia and became very very ill. Brain pressures rose to a
staggering 41 (normal is 5) and Robyn and I were called to his bedside to
say goodbye. They preformed a second cranioscomy to his right side and later
had to remove a clot. By New Years eve they said Joshua needed a miracle if
he was going to live. Well he found one cos he is still alive and getting
more and more stable.

He is still in a coma and is lying in bed paralysed. He will probably get
better but he will be permenantly disabled. Today they are doing an MRI
scan and tomorrow a traciostomy so they can airlift him in a special ICU
plane to Adelaide, maybe on wednesday.

We mourn the loss of our son Josh, olympic standard swimmer, foorballer,
basket baller and sportsman and say hello to a new Josh who will never be
able to do those things. Our lives have been changed by these events and at
times despair clouds our vision and stabs our hearts. We are grateful that
he is alive though and with life there is hope.


D

rope

You will be pleased to know that Josh is slowly recovering from his terrible accident and Douglas will be posting an update on his progress soon.