After a devastating ATV crash, one man's quest to return to the woods
Johnny Kenyon broke seven bones in his neck and back in an ATV accident. He has some advice for others
Johnny Kenyon is a man who loves the woods, be it fishing, cutting wood or riding his ATV on Nova Scotia's Digby Neck.
But for the past two years, the 48-year-old has been away from that life. Instead, he's been labouring under the fluorescent lights of the Nova Scotia Rehabilitation Centre in Halifax because of a devastating ATV accident.
In some respects Kenyon is lucky. Since 2012, more than 178 people have died in ATV or snowmobile accidents in Atlantic Canada, according to a CBC News analysis.
But he belongs to larger group. According to the Canadian Institute for Health Information, off-highway vehicles were involved in more than 2,300 severe injuries across the region from 2012 to 2017.
That's roughly equal to the injuries suffered through hockey, football, rugby, playground accidents, cycling, ice-skating, skiing and snowboarding combined.
And that means a lot of people doing a lot of healing.
"I would say there's … usually somebody on my caseload who's been injured by an ATV or snowmobile accident," said Sue MacLeod, a physiotherapist at the rehab centre who for two years has been working with Kenyon nearly every day.
"Usually if you're seeing me, you've had spinal cord damage. That's usually a serious injury."
When CBC News visited Kenyon and McLeod this summer he was practising walking on the grass with forearm crutches. He was breathing deeply, sometimes grimacing in pain. A different pace for a guy used to chopping wood and reeling in fish.
Kenyon's campaign to regain control of his body began on a Saturday morning, Sept. 3, 2016, when he crashed his ATV on a logging road as he drove a friend's elderly father to a camp.
"I lost control on the loose ground," Kenyon said. "And the wheels turned and the ATV turned and the handlebars are bent, and I was thrown over the handlebars onto the ground."
Though he doesn't remember the accident, Kenyon is grateful he put on his helmet that day. He said his body "rag-dolled" into the woods, where his head struck a tree branch and his back hit a rock. His passenger was unscathed.
Kenyon broke seven vertebrae, three in his neck, and four in his lower back, an injury he believes was aggravated by his pre-existing arthritis. But Kenyon credits his helmet for saving his mind.
"I would have had mental issues. I'm sure I would have banged up my head and given my brain a shake," he said. "Helmets are super important."
That conclusion is borne out by CBC's analysis, which shows that in 20 percent of ATV fatalities, riders were not wearing helmets.
A helicopter carried Kenyon from the woods to the QEII hospital in Halifax.
When he woke up, he was unable to control his arms or his legs. It was the day he set his mind to rehab.
His sister had flown in from Pennsylvania the day after the accident. Kenyon remembers what she said when he woke up.
"She goes, 'OK, I'm going to give you 10 minutes, you can feel sorry for yourself and pity. Then let's get on with things.'
"I just started laughing ... I don't need 10 minutes," he said.
McLeod, who has worked with Kenyon to help him regain command of his body, said she's only had "a handful of patients that probably work as hard as he has."
"He's got a positive attitude, and he's coming along much further than anybody ever thought he would," McLeod said.
After he was discharged from hospital, Kenyon moved into an apartment less than 100 metres from the Nova Scotia Rehabilitation Centre.
Part of this was made possible by the insurance on his ATV, which provided a $50,000 medical benefit he spent on a medical bed and his electric wheelchair.
"Without that insurance, a lot of things wouldn't have been possible for me," he said.
All Atlantic Canadian provinces require registration for ATVs and snowmobiles. Nova Scotia and New Brunswick require insurance, but in Newfoundland and Labrador it's only necessary if you cross a highway on your vehicle. Insurance is not required on Prince Edward Island.
Kenyon said he knows that even when rules are in place, they are often ignored.
"I know a lot of people with ATVs, they forgo insurance. It's so important to make sure you're registered, make sure you're licensed, make sure you're insured," he said.
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For more than a year, Kenyon attended 13 physiotherapy sessions a week. First he regained the use of his hands, eventually learning to tie fishing flies as his self-assigned final project.
Then Kenyon's efforts turned to standing, and then walking, which he can accomplish now with the help of crutches and leg braces.
His goal: To resume his life before the accident, including a return to his off-the-grid trailer in the woods of Lake Midway on Digby Neck.
"I could do the comfort of living in a nice apartment, have things easy. But I feel more at home when I'm smelling the salt air and I'm in the woods, and that feels like home to me," he said.
McLeod said that goal has been driving his progress.
"He just really wants to get back in the woods. He wants to get back to the water. So it's part of a therapy to make sure that he's safe in getting out there," she said.
But part of that vision involved the potential return to another activity: riding an ATV around his rural property.
McLeod gives an involuntary grimace when she talks about this part of Kenyon's plan.
"He needs to be careful, but he really could hurt himself again. And I'm sure he'd be extra cautious now. But it's admirable to get back on the horse. But with caution."
"I didn't turn into a piece of china, right?" Kenyon said. "A hard piece of wood, probably."
"You know I still love the woods, I still love the trails, I still love developing my property and clearing and hauling wood. So that hasn't changed. I can still do it."
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