Less than a year ago, Gail Marsden wondered if her 12-year-old son would ever come home again.
Last June, her son, Tyler Galloway, was longboarding near his Maple Ridge home when he crashed head first into a car, leaving him lying in a coma in the hospital for the next two months.
“They said that he probably wouldn’t make it because his injuries were too severe,” Marsden said. “They said the damage to his brain stem was too severe and he would never come off the ventilator.”
But her son was a fighter and proved the doctors wrong again and again. He started with being able to move his hand, then eventually learned to walk — and ride — again.
It was speech that proved the toughest for Galloway.
“You want to talk but nothing will come out,” he said. “You know what to say and you’re trying to say it but it won’t come out.
“In my case, only a squeak would come out.”
Both mother and son credit the helmet he was wearing for saving his life.
“It was fun but I don’t think it was really worth it in the end,” Galloway said, encouraging others to always use a spotter. He didn’t have one the day he crashed into a car in an intersection.
Galloway hopes to be back at school fulltime in September, for his first full year in high school. He’s started by going an hour each day to ease back into it.
“I’ve been hit by a car so I don’t think high school is going to be that bad,” he joked.
Longboards are skateboards built specifically for speed and cornering while going downhill.
Police estimate Galloway was cruising at approximately 42 km/h when the collision occurred.
While longboarding is legal province-wide, some municipalities have enforced bans on some streets, which can result in riders being fined.
With a report from CTV British Columbia’s Michele Brunoro.
