Sam Fitness with his parents Karl and Cherie after his accident in late December. Photo/supplied
Sam Fitness with his parents Karl and Cherie after his accident in late December. Photo/supplied
A promising young Papamoa teen has been left paralysed after falling 6 to 8 metres from a tree.
Family of 17-year-old Sam Fitness have been overwhelmed with community generosity since setting up an online fundraising page to help cover rehabilitation costs just four days ago.
Sam was climbing a tree with a group of friends when he fell, an accident that left him a tetraplegic.
He landed on his neck and the impact of his fall smashed his fifth vertebra, a C5 injury.
He is now being treated in the high dependency unit at Middlemore Hospital.
The outgoing youth was known around the Papamoa community as a "good, honest and decent guy" and was looking forward to heading to Auckland University to study geophysics when the accident happened.
Sam's father Karl Fitness said the group of friends regularly climbed the tree at Taylor Reserve which overlooked the ocean but, on December 28, Sam lost his footing.
"We estimate he fell about 6-8m directly on to his neck."
Sam was rushed to Tauranga Hospital where x-rays and MRIs showed he needed surgery. He was flown to the spinal unit of Middlemore Hospital the next day, where he was operated on to remove the damaged vertebra, which was impacting on his spinal cord.
Since then he has been moved from the intensive care unit to the high dependency unit, where he will stay until he is able to move to the Otara Spinal Unit for several months of intensive rehabilitation.
Mr Fitness with his wife Cherie have been by his bedside since he was admitted.
His sister Dana is living with their grandmother at the family home in Papamoa.
Mr Fitness said that, although the family remained hopeful for their eldest child, his recovery would be a long process.
"The damage is life enduring. There is doubt that Sam will walk again but there is hope that, through rehabilitation and repair of his spinal cord, that he may regain a little bit more movement than what he has at the moment."
Sam has movement only in his head, neck and shoulders. Through treatment his injuries could improve in time, he said.
Sam Fitness. Photo/supplied
"Through work on his muscles which are working well and the repair of the spinal cord it could help strengthen other muscles, like regainment of some wrist control. That's something that would be huge but we have been told no spinal injury is the same. How different people respond and how the cord repairs itself, all of these things are not a well-known thing, so it's one day at a time."
Throughout his ordeal Sam had remained positive, his father said.
"The doctors in most cases are pretty frank with the severity of the injury and damage occurred. He hasn't spent days dwelling over those things. He's moved on. He has read all his mates' comments on the Givealittle page and they have given him further strength.
"Determination and motivation is something that has been a strength of his character the whole way through, even prior to the accident. Obviously, he is bloody gutted. It's a hard thing for a nearly 18-year-old to take but he's very accepting of it."
In the first three days of fundraising, more than $23,000 had been raised.
