Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
TEEN BREAKS 200 BONES IN BIKE CRASH
Dillon, 18, facing long recovery
A TEEN has been left critically ill with more than 200 breakages after a motorbike collision.
Dillon Irvine is on a ventilator at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast, with doctors waiting to assess whether they might be able to save his hand and foot.
A Gofundme page has been set up to try and raise money to help Dillon and his family from Belvoir.
The 18-year-old was riding his motorcycle home from work on the Houston Road in the south of the city when it collided with a Ford Fiesta.
Dillon was airlifted from the scene last Tuesday and his aunt Michaela Irvine said he was facing a long battle to regain his health.
She added: “The doctor working in the Royal said she had never seen injuries like it.
“He’s still critical on the ventilator, he’s still sedated, he hasn’t been awake since last Tuesday.
“He’s going to have multiple surgeries, they’re not even sure how many he’s going to need. He has a long road ahead.
“They had to do heart surgery where the crash had impacted.
“And he might have to get a skin graft on Thursday because he still has quite a lot of multiple wounds.” Medics are working to ensure Dillon is stable enough to bring him around, at which point they will try to assess if he has suffered any injury to his brain.
Michaela said the family have been trying to make sure Dillon’s mum Jannette, brother Scott and girlfriend Samantha have enough support.
She added: “It feels like it’s happening to somebody else, it doesn’t feel like it’s happening to us.
“My sister [Jannette] is the only one that’s allowed in so she’s running up and down to the hospital.”
Family friend Allison Breadon set up the fundraising page for Dillon.
She said: “They’ve put rods in his femur, they’ve put rods in his arm.
“His shoulder, all they can do with it is to leave the wound open and keep washing it out.
“They’ve said he’s going to need moved to Dublin or Glasgow and he’s going to be in hospital for at least six months but they’re just taking it day by day to see how it goes.
“The whole community has come behind him.
“We’ve raised £1,100 already but it will be a drop in the ocean compared to what his mum and the family will need.”
The doctor said she’d never seen injuries like it MICHAELA IRVINE ON HER NEPHEW DILLON