Morrison rallying from stroke a year after crash
Speedskater Denny Morrison clearly still had his sense of humour Sunday in spite of suffering a stroke upon completion of a 25-day mountain bike trek on the Arizona Trail.
“Just stayed in the most expensive hospital in the world — a U.S. hospital,” the four-time Olympic medallist wrote Sunday morning in a tweet from his room at the Intermountain Medical Center in Murray, Utah. “Such a baller.”
Morrison, 30, remained in hospital under observation Sunday after an MRI and CT scan confirmed he suffered a brain blood clot and carotid artery dissection — the most common cause of stroke in young adults — on Saturday afternoon while relaxing in Salt Lake City with his girlfriend Josie Spence. Carotid artery dissection occurs when the layers of the wall separate in the artery that supplies oxygen-bearing blood to the brain.
Spence, 22, is also member of the Canadian long-track speedskating team and, thankfully, a trained lifeguard. She noticed the signs of a stroke and drove Morrison to a local hospital in Salt Lake City. It turns out she might have saved his life.
The scare came as Morrison approaches the one-year anniversary of escaping death in a motorcycle crash near Calgary’s Olympic Oval.
“Almost a year post accident and done mountain biking 800 miles across Arizona,” the Fort St. John native wrote Saturday night. “I’m back in a hospital bed again. Had a stroke today.”
Initially, doctors feared Morrison would require surgery, but his symptoms improved upon transfer from the local hospital to the Intermountain Medical Center. As of Sunday afternoon, he was not taking blood thinners.
“The doctor suggested that I recovered quickly because I am a very healthy young person,” Morrison said in a statement provided by Speed Skating Canada. “I would like to thank everyone for their messages of support, and especially Josie who is with me and who was able to recognize the signs quickly.”
On Saturday, Morrison’s Facebook page showed a picture of him eating ice cream in his hospital bed, with Spence by his side.
“Denny understands this is serious, but he’s in good spirits,” agent Russell Reimer said. “I told him he should rebrand as Survivor Man, because he’s always on the right side of these brushes with death.”
Morrison broke his femur, punctured his lung, ruptured his kidneys and bruised his heart last May 7 when his motorcycle crashed into a left-turning car. A police officer on scene wondered out loud how the motorcyclist could have possibly survived.
Known for his dry wit, Morrison kept the one-liners coming Sunday — sarcastically pointing to Speed Skating Canada’s mandatory athlete fee and the International Skating Union’s exoneration of two Russia skaters after short-lived doping bans for the heart drug meldonium — as reasons for this latest crisis.
Morrison tweeted: “ISU retracted the suspension of doping athletes. SSC imposed an athlete fee. It’s enough to give me a friggin’ stroke.”