‘PAIN DOESN’T LAST FOREVER’
Humboldt Broncos bus crash survivor Ryan Straschnitzki shows strength as fight continues
Ryan Straschnitzki has yet to shed a single tear over the Humboldt bus crash devastation that has a nation in mourning.
Not while he lay paralyzed and bloodied on the side of the road, nor as he lay in a Saskatoon hospital, receiving heartbreaking reports of the 15 who died in the collision he survived.
“I want to show them how tough we are and how solid a team we were — if I cry maybe it shows a sign of weakness,” the 18-year-old Humboldt Broncos defenceman said from his bed at Saskatoon’s Royal University Hospital.
“I want to show we’re still in this together.”
To be clear — there’s no weakness in the weeping coast to coast over the shock and horrors Straschnitzki and 13 other survivors endured Friday outside tiny Tisdale, Sask.
His goal is simply to show solidarity by reserving his tears for the pain when therapists helped him sit up for the first time Monday.
“That’s the only time I’ve shed a tear, or when they roll me over to change me and touch my back,” he said.
“I’ve always been told to be a strong Canadian kid and things are going to get better if you just push through it and work hard.
“Pain doesn’t last forever.” As resilient as he is brave, the Airdrie, Alta., native is determined to overcome long odds despite a daunting prognosis that he’ll likely never walk again.
After all, anyone who has seen photos of the crash site realizes he has already cheated death by surviving the collision with a semitrailer while sitting in the front.
Speaking publicly for the first time Tuesday, Straschnitzki said the mood was mellow on the bus mere hours before the fifth game of their Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League playoff series scheduled for Nipawin that night. Down 3-1 in the series, he said there was a quiet confidence built during practice in Humboldt that morning.
Sitting in the front, texting his girlfriend, he recalls being startled by team driver Glen Doerksen moments before impact.
“All of a sudden the bus driver screamed ‘whoa’ and I looked up and the semi driver was crossing our path,” he said.
“I blacked out on impact.” Waking up roadside in shock and tremendous pain, he looked up to see the twisted wreckage of the bus while moans and screams of panic and agony filled the late afternoon air.
As locals came upon the chaotic scene, trying to help in any way, Straschnitzki’s immediate thoughts turned to doing the same even though he couldn’t feel anything below his waist.
It was clear his brothers needed assistance.
“I kept calling out guys’ names and asking if there was anything I could do,” Straschnitzki said.
“All I wanted to do was just help my teammates, but I just couldn’t move my legs.
“I had a couple teammates lying in front of me. I was in shock and didn’t know what to think.
“Nick Shumlanski had blood on his face and he was moaning in pain. Logan Bou let was next to him. Then I saw Bryce Fiske — his head was up and he had blood on his face but I wasn’t sure what was going on. I later found out in the hospital what had happened to him.”
Fiske and Shumlanski were alive.
Boulet was fatally wounded in the crash but was kept on life support long enough to have his organs donated to six patients in need, as per his instructions on the organ donor card he signed after his recent 21st birthday.
“We had people who had pulled over their cars who didn’t want to lift me because they didn’t know what was wrong — I said I couldn’t feel my legs so they didn’t move my neck and they waited for the ambulance,” Straschnitzki said.
“I laid on the ground for at least ten minutes, then they picked me up and rushed me to the Nipawin hospital and that’s all I remember.”
He is recovering from a broken left clavicle, broken ribs and internal bleeding in his head, which all contribute to his daily pain. But it’s a cervical fracture that has doctors telling him he may never walk again.
“I don’ t take it to heart—I look at it almost as a challenge — get through it and plan ahead,” said the incredibly resilient young man, who is already aiming for an Olympic sledge hockey medal.
“I’m just happy to be alive, to be honest.”
That feeling has been reinforced with uplifting visits from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Sheldon Kennedy, Don Cherry, Glen Gulutzan, Todd McLellan, his parents — Tom and Michelle — and, most importantly, his teammates.
“Such great people to do that for us,” said Straschnitzki, whose sister and two brothers made the trip from Calgary to see him for the first time Tuesday.
“A couple of teammates have come to visit and seem to be doing OK. Reagan Poncelet, Matt Gomercic, Blake Berschiminsky and Nick Shumlanski have all come by. It’s just good to see them.”
It’s almost as good to see countless Canadians leaving hockey sticks in front of their houses for the departed Broncos to use as part of a #Sticks out for Humboldt Twitter campaign.
“I think that’s absolutely awesome,” he said.
“Ittouchesmyheart.It’s pretty extraordinary what’s going on. When you think about it, what kid growing up in Canada didn’t play road hockey?
“We love the game and they’re showing if they’re still out there, pick up a stick and startagame.”