SNN_August 2023 Issue_web3

SPINAL NETWORK NEWS 9
—Barry Cardno
The Director of the Spinal
Unit, Professor Alan Clarke,
was a huge inspiration and
mentor for me.
FIGHTING FOR HIS LIFE—Barry
with his mum in Waikato Hospital
looked at the X-rays and realised that as well as a T12-L1
fracture I had a broken neck at C2.
They put a plate in my back and drilled my temples with
the intention to keep my neck aligned and still. When Dad
found out he was furious. He was a paramedic and
confronted them. They admitted it was an oversight to
not have picked up my spinal injuries and acknowledged
that they could have killed me.
It’s highly possible that extra and lasting damage was done
to my lower back in those first 27 hours. Regular rotations
were not the right thing to have done. It was unfortunate.
What happened next?
I stayed in Waikato Hospital for four weeks till my
condition stabilised. Then I was flown down to the
Burwood Spinal Unit where I would take up residence for
five months. To start with I was mostly bedridden. Then I
began a hard gym routine to get back fitness and
flexibility, as well as meeting occupational therapists to
learn how to do tasks from a wheelchair.
In 1998 I moved to Wanaka, where I had begun life as a
toddler. This was to take up an invitation of my childhood
idol, helicopter and deer industry pioneer, Sir Tim Wallis,
to work with him archiving his photographic collection.
Sir Tim, partially paralysed in a 1968 helicopter crash,
regained his licence to fly; but in 1996 he crashed his
historic Mk XIV Spitfire on take-off and suffered a severe
brain injury that would ground him for life.
On finishing that work I took up alpine skiing and
competed in America, Canada, Australia and Switzerland,
but even high on the ski slopes of Colorado I can
remember looking to the skies and thinking I miss flying.
Tearing down a race course at breakneck speed wasn’t
really in my heart. However, I skied recreationally here for
a number of years and enjoyed it immensely.
In 2011 I moved to Auckland to study for a Diploma in
Shipping and Freight Logistics. For the next 10 years I
worked in International Freight Logistics before taking up
employment in a sales role for Melrose Kiwi Concept
After three months, they felt I was ready to venture out of
the hospital with an OT for the first time. Soon after that I
did the same with my parents.
You were 21, training to be a commercial agricultural
pilot, how hard was it going to Burwood and losing
your dreams?
I was pretty upset. My lifetime ambitions appeared to
have been shattered in an instant. I remember lying in the
Burwood Spinal Unit in total disbelief of my situation.
Looking around it didn’t take long to realise that there
were many others in a similar predicament.
But beyond the walls of the hospital I would hear about
people with spinal injuries who had adjusted and
achieved a lot, despite their disability, and in some cases,
curiously, because of their disability. It was a case of
embracing my limitations and not being limited by it.
What was the feeling like when you went home?
I felt very self-conscious. I felt different. My self-esteem
was rock bottom. Initially I moved in with my parents in
Dunedin. There I got to meet people in disabled sports,
and I made a few trips to Christchurch for para tennis and
basketball. I met wheelies who were not despondent, but
happy and joyful.
DOING GOOD —Cessna 172 loaded with wheelchairs,
colleague Rachel Melrose and Barry making deliveries.