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SPINAL NETWORK NEWS 21<br />
decided to jump into Wellington Harbour for a swim to<br />
f<strong>res</strong>hen up. “I wasn't too keen, but I just went along with<br />
it. I was the last one into the water and I misjudged the<br />
depth as I dived in. “There was a loud bang and things<br />
changed forever.”<br />
Bryce was lying face down in the ocean and he couldn’t<br />
move. He was fighting for his life. His mates faced the<br />
hard decision to leave Bryce face down to protect his spine<br />
or turn him over. “Thankfully they turned me over, that<br />
al<strong>low</strong>ed me to get back to breathing.”<br />
In a state of shock, they waited for the emergency services<br />
to arrive and take Bryce to ICU at Wellington Hospital.<br />
Lying in a hospital bed, Bryce made the hardest phone<br />
call of his life.<br />
“I had to ring my Mum and Dad and tell them that I had a<br />
high-level spinal cord injury. Mum answered the phone<br />
first, she said wait there and she went to get my father and<br />
he dropped the phone just with the sheer shock.<br />
“To be honest their lives have never been the same since<br />
that day. Barring the passing away of your loved one or<br />
sibling, it's pretty much close to the top of the tree, so to<br />
speak, in terms of a big moment to come to terms with.”<br />
LEGACY: Bryce’s funding pitch to the Lotteries<br />
Commission said they would take 1000 people out on<br />
the boat every year. “That was our line in the sand”.<br />
Starting again<br />
Bryce was 29 years old. He was sent to Christchurch Hospital<br />
ICU for two weeks to al<strong>low</strong> the injury to stabilise and then he<br />
was in Burwood Spinal Unit for a further 11 months.<br />
“It was a long time because of the way they managed my<br />
break,” he says. Bryce had fractured his C2, C3, C5 and C6<br />
in his cervical vertebrae. He was placed in head traction for<br />
a minimum of eight weeks and then another two weeks.<br />
It was the hardest time in his life. “To be honest, head<br />
traction was a pretty tough time,” he says in his<br />
understated way.<br />
His family were his rock. His sister never missed a day<br />
when he was in the Spinal Unit. And his Mum and Dad<br />
who were living in Tauranga flew down regularly thanks<br />
to the support of ACC. When he had a tough day, his sister<br />
provided some inspirational words which changed his<br />
perspective. “She said ‘it's happened to you for a reason<br />
Bryce,” he says. You of all people who have our love and<br />
support, but you have the ability to deal with it, you're a<br />
larger-than-life character. You're a positive kind of guy.<br />
So, you’ve really got to just try and drill down on that’.”<br />
Bryce remembers one of the doctors at Burwood would<br />
always say whatever person you were like before your<br />
spinal cord injury, it magnifies afterwards.<br />
“So if you're a bit of a rascal and you would get up to<br />
mischief. Well, you can sort of easily go down that path<br />
moving forward. Or you can go, right, how am I going to<br />
make this work?” It was a turning point. “It might sound<br />
silly, but I consider myself blessed that I went to the<br />
Burwood Spinal Unit and learned off so many people that<br />
actually genuinely had great advice.”<br />
He says he has the nurses at Burwood to thank for his skin<br />
integrity. People like Dr. Angelo Anthony and Dr. Rick<br />
Acland taught him how to own his new life.<br />
—Bryce Dinneen<br />
There was a loud bang and<br />
things changed forever.<br />
“Whether it was teaching a support worker how to transfer<br />
you or having an understanding about battling bladder<br />
management, you've got to take <strong>res</strong>ponsibility,” he says.<br />
“It’s going to be tough. It’s going to be challenging, but<br />
you can actually have some quality of life moving<br />
forward. That’s why I consider myself grateful.”<br />
Back into the outside world<br />
Bryce found the transition to home scary.<br />
“I didn’t want to leave Burwood because I had everything<br />
there I needed. Doctors, physios, support. But there’s that<br />
transition period which everyone has to focus on moving<br />
forward. And it is hard.<br />
“It took me a long time to get back into society.”<br />
As a young man, Bryce was a keen sportsman. He did a lot<br />
of running and playing rep<strong>res</strong>entative cricket. He said to<br />
excel in those two pursuits you need to be mentally strong<br />
and that helped in his recovery. Bryce turned his<br />
attention to helping others and making a difference.<br />
Wish4Fish was born<br />
The idea of fishing again stayed with him. He had a<br />
number of conversations in the Spinal Unit, and he was<br />
told “Bryce we don’t go fishing because it’s too hard”.<br />
Bryce thought to himself: ‘I am not accepting that. I’m<br />
going to figure out how to do this’. And the more people I