Life after a serious bicycle accident

Evan Marinacci surprised more than one doctor after the terrible bicycle accident in which he fractured his skull. His recovery is remarkable. Within three months, he was back to walking and working.

Florence Morin Martel
The Press

December 16, 2021. Evan Marinacci, mechanical engineer, returns from a dinner with colleagues in LaSalle, to mark his departure. He landed a new job that starts in January. On a bicycle, he takes the boulevard Angrignon viaduct, his usual route. It’s selling hard. He then tries to cross the track. “I think I didn’t look well at that time,” he says. But I don’t remember anything. A motorist hit him on his right side. The 27-year-old man is thrown to the ground, unconscious.

Evan is taken to the Montreal General Hospital. An examination reveals that he broke his femur. More worrying still, he fractured his skull, and fragments entered his brain. Despite wearing a helmet. Under the bone of the head, blood accumulates. The hemorrhage is not in the brain, but it is putting pressure on it. Hurry up.

The D^D Judith Marcoux, neurosurgeon, operates directly on Evan.

The operation is delicate.

After three hours, the neurosurgeon finished operating. We just have to wait. The D^D Marcoux does not know if he will have any consequences. “Will he be able to work? she asks herself.

At Evan’s bedside

The following days, the young man’s brother, sisters and mother took turns at his bedside. He then fell into a coma. The intensive care nurse Bita Danechi accompanies the relatives. Evan’s case touches her, she says. “It could have been my son,” she said.

On December 29, Evan wakes up. His loved ones are not by his side. The fifth wave of COVID-19 is raging and hospital visits are limited.

During video calls with his family, he finally realizes what has happened to him.

Towards healing

In the first few days, Evan is confused due to the drugs. One night, he removes the tube that feeds him. The medical team, who do not know if he is able to swallow food without choking, wants to put him back. He refuses. “They gave me a dish and they told me to eat it in front of them,” he says. Mission accomplished.

Shortly after the New Year, a nurse offers Evan to take his first steps since the accident. The young man underwent an operation for his femur, leaving a metal plate in his leg. He enters the corridor, with a walker. “It was there that I said to myself: ‘I will be able to get out of here one day,'” he recalls. He wears a helmet, because part of the cranial box has still not been put back in place, due to the risk of oedema.

On January 4, Evan leaves intensive care to rest on another floor. On January 15, two days before the planned operation to restore part of his skull, he learned that he had caught COVID-19. He must isolate himself. “I thought we were going to have to cancel the operation and that I was going to have to wait another 10 days,” he recalls.

The D^D Marcoux then visits Evan. “She asked me: ‘Are you sick? Do you have any symptoms? Nope ? So we do the surgery.” The January 17 surgery is proceeding as planned.

On January 24, after 40 days spent within the walls of the hospital, Evan Marinacci crossed the door of the establishment. “It was really cold,” he recalls.

Three weeks later, Evan has an appointment with Dr.^D Marcoux. The assessment is conclusive. “She told me I could go back to work and drive,” he says. He starts putting weight on his leg again.

Back to normal ”

Three and a half months after his accident, Evan is delighted with the “return to normal”. On February 28, he started the new job he had landed before the accident. The engineer now walks with a cane. “I can’t complain,” he admits. I know how bad it could have been. »

“We would like all our patients to evolve like this”, underlines the D^D Marcoux. Wearing the helmet “protected him enormously” during the accident, she says.

Did Evan put a cross on the bike? Not necessarily, he says. “It didn’t traumatize me,” he says. One day I will be able to do it again. »