Daniel Lockhart, 21, was on his way home after getting some car parts in Prince George when his low-slung sedan got sucked into the slush on Chief Lake Road, sending his car into the path of an oncoming vehicle during a snowstorm on Nov. 21. at about 2 p.m.
Daniel's car was T-boned, leaving him with a traumatic brain injury called diffuse axonal brain injury, along with broken ribs and collar bone, a collapsed lung, bruised kidney and damaged carotid artery, all on the right side of his body.
“As it happened I was at the back of the line up of traffic waiting for the accident to clear,” his dad Barry said. “We were waiting for about half an hour and we finally got up to the front and my son, Joseph, who was in the car with me, said ‘Dad, that looks like Daniel’s car.’ It was on a flat deck of a tow truck.”
Barry called Daniel’s cell but there was no answer.
“We found out later from a member of the volunteer fire hall that within five minutes of the accident three or four advanced life support paramedics showed up and they are extremely rare,” Barry said. “I talked to one of them at the hospital later and he told me ‘there is usually only one us within 700 km’ and somehow three or four of them ended up on site within five minutes and that was amazing because they intubated him on scene and put the neck brace on him and got him to the hospital right away. Daniel got immediate care which was super critical.”
Barry went to the hospital as soon as he knew it was Daniel that got hurt.
“I talked to the policeman there and he said it looked like Daniel just slipped in the slush and next thing you know he’s sideways and bam he got nailed by the other car and the other people walked away – thank God – it was a young mother and her three-year-old child,” Barry said. “I was happy to hear they were OK. It was bad enough that my son got injured, luckily the others didn’t get hurt.”
Daniel was air evacuated to Vancouver General Hospital a few hours after he arrived at University Hospital of Northern B.C.
Barry drove to Vancouver the next morning and stayed with Daniel for 23 days.
Daniel was in the Intensive Care Unit but made very little improvement during that time.
“On day 17 he did open his eyes but he wasn’t really there,” Barry said. “The doctors say he needs many, many, many months to years to heal and they have no idea what his new base line will be. Will he be normal or very diminished? No one can tell us – with brain injuries you just don’t know. I am Christian, I’ve been praying like crazy and we’ve got literally thousands of people praying all over the province, all over Canada, and all over the States where we know people who all have their church groups praying for Daniel.”
Barry drove home after 23 days and Daniel was flown to UHNBC the same day.
“I got the phone call when I was halfway home that he was on his way,” Barry said.
Daniel’s been back in Prince George since Dec. 14.
At this time Daniel’s left arm and leg move spasmodically.
“But just a couple of days ago we were in visiting with one of his friends who rides motorbikes with him,” Barry said.
Daniel just got his motorcycle license this summer after taking the recommended course.
So during the visit with his friend, Barry showed Daniel a photo of them on their bikes.
”Daniel pursed his lips and his arms started flapping like a chicken – he was really excited – and that’s the first time I saw there was some cognition – I thought whoa, he’s reacting to this picture – it was enough for me – I have been there between five and eight hours every day at his bedside - so I know Daniel is perceiving and starting to come back.”
Just recently Daniel was lifting up his head a little and moving it a bit.
“And it’s like his eyes are staring off into the distance but when I put myself in his line of vision there seems like there’s some recognition there and just yesterday he made some noises like he’s trying to speak,” Barry said.
“So that was amazing. So I would place him at a four out of 10 in consciousness.”
His body’s injuries are somewhat stabilized and healing now.
Barry wants people to know that Daniel is a very responsible driver.
“Daniel is a good kid,” Barry said. “He doesn’t smoke, or drink or do drugs – nothing. He works hard. He was just running to town to get some parts for his car. It was 2 in the afternoon and this freak blizzard snowstorm throws slush all over the road. I know he wasn’t going that fast because how fast can you go with slush all over the road? He had just put his snow tires on the week before as the car was new to him. It’s a front wheel drive, snow tires are on it – this whole thing just doesn’t make any sense to me how this could even happen. He just caught the slush and got pulled and boom.”
As far as recovery goes, it’s going to be a long, hard road, he added.
“We’re looking at months to years of recovery, which is devastating to us,” Barry said. “My wife, Leah, is having tremendous difficulty dealing with this and we have five kids between 24 and 11 years old and it’s been extremely tough for all of us and it’s our faith in God that’s holding us together.”
Ordinarily Barry wouldn’t even think to reach out for help.
“But our neighbour Joanne wanted to start a go fund me page to help us and when she suggested it to me my focus was just on my son but now that I have been off work for a month I guess we do need help,” Barry said. “Someone like me doesn’t reach out for help. But we have people who love us and want to help so I guess that would be OK.”
