David Ham could be considered one of the lucky spinal cord injury (SCI) survivors, if you consider only his physical injuries.<\/p>\n
The 64-year-old from Wagga Wagga injured one of the vertebrae in his neck when he fell off his bike in 2017.<\/p>\n
“The spinal cord was intact, it wasn’t cut, it was just crushed and bruised,” he said.<\/p>\n
David Ham fell off his bike in 2017 and suffered a C3 incomplete spinal cord injury. (Supplied: David Ham)<\/p>\n
Recovery was initially swift. His injury was incomplete quadriplegia and he was able to walk out of the hospital on crutches.<\/p>\n
But his improvement began to slow.<\/p>\n
“It’s just static, and it’s remained so,” he said.<\/p>\n
Mr Ham needs a walking stick when he is in public areas due to a drop foot, a symptom caused by weakness or paralysis of the muscles.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“I trip on my right toe all the time and if I’ve got a stick it will save me from falling,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
If you or anyone you know needs help:Suicide Call Back Service<\/a> on 1300 659 467Lifeline<\/a> on 13 11 14Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander crisis support line 13YARN<\/a>\u00a0on 13 92 76Kids Helpline<\/a> on 1800 551 800Beyond Blue<\/a> on 1300 224 636Headspace<\/a> on 1800 650 890ReachOut<\/a> at au.reachout.com<\/a>MensLine Australia<\/a> on 1300 789 978QLife 1800 184 527<\/a><\/p>\n Mr Ham said being a spinal cord injury survivor could be an isolating experience, especially in regional and rural areas where there were limited specialist services.<\/p>\n “It’s all pretty daunting.<\/p>\n “Particularly in the early days, when you’re first out of hospital.”<\/p>\n Mr Ham said mental health challenges for SCI survivors were real and he had accessed online mental health programs run by Spinal Cord Injury Australia.\u00a0<\/p>\n “We talk about mental health and what we can do to make ourselves strong and resilient,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Bringing people together David Ham says it can be difficult to meet people with a spinal cord injury in regional and rural areas. (ABC News: Rachel Holdsworth)<\/p>\n Mr Ham has also started a community by hosting regular sessions at his local RSL with other SCI survivors.<\/p>\n “I really wanted to talk to people who had spinal cord injuries and learn their experiences,” he said.<\/p>\n Rebecca Gill attended the first session.<\/p>\n Rebecca Gill says it can be isolating living with a spinal cord injury. (ABC News: Rachel Holdsworth)<\/p>\n “It can be quite isolating in the community when you don’t know somebody else that has a similar disability,” she said.<\/p>\n Ms Gill has lived with her spinal cord injury, transverse myelitis, for nearly four years.<\/p>\n “[It] \u2026 causes your immune system to attack itself \u2026 and it caused inflammation in my spinal cord and crushed my spinal cord,” she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n “Originally, I was fairly confident that I would return to my normal self but \u2026 that hasn’t happened,” she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Ms Gill said finding appropriate services and care in regional communities could be difficult and not knowing who to talk to could make the situation worse.<\/p>\n “Wagga is quite isolated, I guess, in terms of resources for people with spinal cord injuries,” she said.<\/p>\n David Ham says the sessions are a social event but also a way to advocate for people with a disability in the bush. (ABC News: Rachel Holdsworth)<\/p>\n In addition to the meetings, Mr Ham also became a board member of Spinal Cord Injury Australia and advocates for other injury survivors.\u00a0<\/p>\n “It’s about making it your best life and improving things,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n “The obvious one is accessibility; it’s an ongoing problem and it probably always will be.”\u00a0<\/p>\n Biking, sailing and volunteering<\/p>\n Rehabilitation physician Rachael McQueen said a SCI damaged “the super-highway” connecting the muscles to the brain.\u00a0<\/p>\n She said injuries like Mr Ham’s were usually considered “high level and potentially life-threatening”.\u00a0<\/p>\n Dr McQueen said some of Mr Ham’s neuropathways were still intact, which is why Mr Ham still had the ability to walk.\u00a0<\/p>\n David Ham has returned to sailing with the help of his community, family and friends. (Supplied: David Ham)<\/p>\n “[He] would still be considered as incomplete quadriplegia \u2026 it just affects your muscles, and sensations, bladder and bowl functions in slightly different ways,” Dr McQueen said.<\/p>\n She said Mr Ham continued to undergo an intensive exercise program, which enabled him to maintain his muscles and strength.\u00a0<\/p>\n Mr Ham is now able to ride his bike again, sail regularly and volunteer with his local Rural Fire Service brigade.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"David Ham could be considered one of the lucky spinal cord injury (SCI) survivors, if you consider only…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":150954,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[64,63,101310,5214,36410,7110,22573,137,514,101308,101309,52876],"class_list":["post-150953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bike-accident","tag-community","tag-disabilities","tag-disability","tag-disability-support","tag-health","tag-mental-health","tag-sci","tag-social-isloation","tag-spinal-cord-injury"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=150953"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150953\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/150954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=150953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=150953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=150953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/p>\n
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