'Lucky' man fights to regain his legs

Hunter Darry

Hunter Darry crashed off a picnic table on to his neck and was paralysed on New Year's Day, but still feels he is "one of the luckiest guys around".

The former Otago and North Otago rugby player is aiming to walk from the carpark to his seat for the Highlanders-Crusaders clash at Christchurch on February 11, a target hardened during a recent visit from All Black and Highlander Anton Oliver with an invitation to the changing rooms.

Right now, the 40-year-old former police detective, now a sales manager, is shattered after walking a few hundred metres with a walking frame.

Speaking from Burwood Hospital's spinal unit in Christchurch, Mr Darry said that he was dead for more than two minutes after the tumble at the family's holiday home in Twizel, until friends performed cardio-pulmonary resuscitation.

His friends also massaged his heart for another 15 minutes because his pulse was so weak.

By the time Mr Darry and his wife, Katrina, reached Timaru Hospital in an ambulance, he was thinking "I was dead at two o'clock this morning, so everything from here's got to be positive".

Mr Darry said he had begun trying to walk with a frame this week, "like being a baby, starting again".

He had sensation in his left hand and some in his right. He could feed himself and had just begun showering himself.

But he had no feeling in his shoulders and was hoping doctors would repair internal organs so he could be more self-sufficient.

The father of four said the accident was the result of a "silly prank" riding his 10-year-old daughter's bicycle. He had shot the 30cm gap between the house's deck and a picnic table when the bike toppled.

Mr Darry was not wearing a helmet, but he thinks playing prop for the past few years probably stopped his neck breaking.

Asked if he regretted the stunt, he said: "I'm just a guy who loves life, lives it to the full."

- OTAGO DAILY TIMES