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A quick motorcycle ride before a family dinner could have been Michael “Hooky” Walker’s last.
It was supposed to be a 20 minute ride on his beloved Harley-Davidson.
But the 47-year-old’s next memory after the Oct. 24 accident was waking up from a month-long coma with more than 50 fractures scattered throughout his body.
Walker was about four miles from his home in Lake Coleridge Village in rural Canterbury when he took evasive action to prevent the lambs from partially blocking the road.
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He was thrown off his bicycle and crashed into a bench, and was soon found by a passerby.
Alarm bells rang throughout the small township, and it wasn’t long before the local fire service and Walker’s wife, Jo Walker, arrived at the crash site.
At first glance, she believed her husband was dead.
STACY SQUIRES / Stuff
Michael “Hooky” Walker and his wife Jo, with their dog Russell at their home in Lake Coleridge.
“It didn’t look good. If I hadn’t heard him breathe [would have] he thought he was already gone … I didn’t think there was any hope. “
Jo Walker insisted that the Westpac Rescue helicopter be called, as she doubted it would survive the 90-minute ambulance ride to Christchurch Hospital.
“If Jo hadn’t insisted that one of our friends call the air ambulance, then I wouldn’t be here. They saved my life, ”Hooky Walker said.
Jo Walker / Supplied
Walker spent a month in a coma. He said that the worst part of the ordeal was the terrifying and vivid dreams he had.
His injuries were extensive.
There were significant brain hemorrhages, while the right side of his scapula was fractured like a “puzzle”.
His left femur was also “shattered”, and he suffered a broken shoulder, about 10 fractures to his back, broken ribs and a collapsed lung.
Walker then spent about a month in a coma while undergoing several serious surgeries. He suffered twice from sepsis, a life-threatening condition that occurs when the body responds to an infection by damaging its own tissues.
“They (the doctors) told Jo to go find the family because they didn’t expect her to make it. Every few days he lived hour by hour, ”he said.
Jo Walker / Supplied
Emergency services at the scene of Walker’s serious accident on October 24.
However, Walker defied the odds and woke up from the coma.
His first memory was of seeing his father and sister, who had traveled from the North Island.
“I didn’t know who they were because my brain kept bleeding.
“When I saw my father, he burst into tears. He couldn’t speak but I gave him the old universal brow [raise] and then he started crying again. “
Jo Walker / Stuff
Skid marks remain on the curve where Walker crashed his Harley-Davidson.
He was in and out of sedation for the next several days. When he came to, he had forgotten that he was married, had children and even where he lived. The memories started coming back after about two weeks.
Walker said that despite the traumatic injuries, the worst thing about the experience was the terrible dreams she had while in a coma.
“They were absolutely horrible. I constantly felt that I was running away from people who wanted to have a part of me. “
STACY SQUIRES / Stuff
Jo Walker, who spent every day by her husband’s bed, says she is “grateful” to still have him.
While he was extremely grateful for the support given to him by his family, friends, and the community at large, he still felt terrible about putting them through the ordeal.
Jo Walker, who spent every day at Hooky’s bedside, said she was “grateful” to still have her husband and couldn’t express how much the support had meant to her.
Walker was discharged four days before Christmas and now does hours of rehab work every day at home.
Jo Walker / Supplied
Walker was treated by personnel from the Westpac rescue helicopter shortly after the accident.
He remains determined to lead the active lifestyle that he led before the accident.
“Now it’s about trying to understand what normality looks like and adjusting my life to that.”
Walker is an engineer at Trustpower Lake Coleridge Power Station and served in the Royal New Zealand Navy. He was made a member of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 1996.
The couple volunteer for the New Zealand Air Force Marine Soldiers Association, which helps current and former Defense Forces personnel cope with post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental health issues.
Jo Walker / Supplied
Walker’s beloved Harley-Davidson before the accident.
An avid hunter, fisherman, and vagrant, Walker plans to continue doing all of his favorite hobbies, including getting back on his Harley-Davidson.
“They have thrown me off the horse, so I have to remount it. It’s not in my nature to bend over, but I’m very sensitive to what Jo would think if I walked out the door again.
“There is no talk of taking a step back, everything is moving forward.”
