Five hours of hell
Brook Macdonald lay motionless for five agonising hours as he waited for a helicopter to arrive.
New Zealand’s top downhill rider sustained a serious spinal injury when he crashed during his first practice run at the world mountainbike championships in Quebec, Canada, last month.
Macdonald was dreaming of a podium placing, having qualified as the third fastest rider.
‘‘I felt really good all weekend and going into race day I felt like there was a potential of a podium,’’ he said.
But winning a medal was the furthest thing from his mind when he tumbled down a drop after hitting an exposed root with his front wheel 24 hours before raceday.
‘‘It kind of just kicked me and I went over the bars onto my back and I rolled off to the side and couldn’t feel anything. I was pretty scared and worried. That started my day off spending five hours on the hill not knowing what was going on, semiparalysed.’’
Macdonald fractured his T12 and L1 vertebrae. He required urgent medical assistance but it took five hours for a helicopter to arrive on the scene and one hour before he received any pain relief.
‘‘In that situation you can’t really feel anything and it is pretty scary so I just wanted to be assessed and find out what was going on,’’ he said.
Incredibly, the Hawke’s Bay rider was given the option of evacuating Mont Sainte Anne on the back of a quad bike, which he immediately refused.
Considering this was a major international event organised by the UCI, Macdonald said the lack of care was beyond belief.
‘‘It was pretty bad man. I was like ‘just get me off this hill, I need a helicopter’ but they tried to take me down on a four wheeler on one of their four wheeled drive tracks. I said ‘what are you doing? There’s no way. I have a back injury and you’re trying to take me down a hill on the back of a trailer on a quad?’
‘‘I never had any painkillers or pain relief for an hour after. I was in complete agony. I said ‘whatever you do get me a helicopter
‘‘I never had any painkillers or pain relief for an hour after. I was in complete agony.’’ Brook Macdonald
and get me off this hill as soon as possible’. They said ‘yep, we’ve ordered a helicopter and it’s coming in 15 minutes’ but they kept telling me different stories like it’d be here in 20 minutes, it’ll be here in 30 minutes, it hasn’t left yet.’’
Despite the setback, Macdonald was in surprisingly good spirits when he spoke to Stuff from the hospital bed, where he has remained since his crash.
Although the accident left him with potentially life-changing injuries, Macdonald said ‘‘it is what it is’’ and was just looking forward to returning home to New Zealand to begin his rehabilitation.
He has not asked the doctors for a timeframe in regards to a possible return to racing. However, he is determined to ride again in the future. For now though, his main concern is being able to walk again, a process which could take a matter of months.