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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tChase Delorme-Rowan is pictured in Edmonton on Thursday, March 5, 2026. Delorme-Rowan had surgery to replace a piece of his skull, cracked in an assault while he vacationed with family in the Dominican Republic in January 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS\/Jason Franson<\/p>\n
In an interview from his Edmonton home, he said he\u2019s nervous now going out because, \u201cWho knows who you meet up in public?\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been a little more than a year since Delorme-Rowan and his family travelled to Punta Cana for his 18th birthday and had his life turned upside down. It was his parents\u2019 idea to go, he said. The family stayed at a resort.<\/p>\n
That mid-January day began like any other. He and his brother, after a day of excursions and an evening party, went for a drink at a nightclub on the resort. The pair had gone out for a smoke.<\/p>\n
Delorme-Rowan finished his cigarette first, and he headed inside. He sat down at the bar.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd it just goes black,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Delorme-Rowan later learned he had been lifted by the collar of his shirt, shaken, then slammed head-first onto a tile floor. It was alleged a fellow Canadian and resort guest was responsible.<\/p>\n
Cindy Rowan, his mother, remembers the late-night phone call. \u201cMy oldest son (called), and said, \u2018Mom, there\u2019s something seriously wrong with Chase,’\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
So she and her husband, Dave, darted to the other end of the resort and were met by a crowd and an ambulance prepping Delorme-Rowan for the hospital.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m looking at my son, and he\u2019s convulsing, blood coming out of his mouth,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
After arriving at the hospital, Rowan said her son was brought to a room and wasn\u2019t seen by a doctor until morning. The family was told his skull was cracked from the left side of his forehead to the crown, exposing his brain.<\/p>\n
A blood clot the size of a grapefruit had formed, and doctors there didn\u2019t expect him to survive.<\/p>\n
Four painstaking hours later, Delorme-Rowan came out of surgery and was in an induced coma. Doctors removed part of his skull to get to the clot and give his swollen brain room to recover and stop the bleeding.<\/p>\n
Delorme-Rowan said his comatose world was a confusing, almost psychedelic dreamland \u2014 filled with everything from an island getaway with his favourite online influencer and scuba-diving to mundane tasks like eating and drinking.<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember everything (from it),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
In his coma, he even rode in a helicopter with his mother after a life-saving surgery \u2014 and eventually he did in real life.<\/p>\n
After three weeks, he was airlifted to a hospital in Edmonton. And one week later, his eyes fluttered open. In April, he underwent another surgery to have a 3D-printed plastic plate installed.<\/p>\n
But Delorme-Rowan\u2019s recovery journey was only just beginning. The entire left side of his body was paralyzed.<\/p>\n
Delorme-Rowan said he practically became best friends with the team of health workers who helped him relearn everything from eating and drinking to breathing. His first piece of solid food was an egg salad sandwich from the hospital cafeteria.<\/p>\n
But ask if he likes egg salad, he\u2019s quick to answer: \u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
And just last summer \u2014 despite the popular saying that you never forget how to ride a bike \u2014 he had to relearn the pedals.<\/p>\n
\u201cI still know (the workers\u2019) names,\u201d he said. \u201cWithout them, I\u2019d still be in a hospital bed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cindy Rowan said the man accused of assaulting her son was acquitted, supposedly because the family\u2019s lawyer in the Caribbean didn\u2019t submit paperwork on time.<\/p>\n
After seeing more risk than reward, the family ultimately decided against an appeal. A year later, they still don\u2019t know what prompted the attack in the first place.<\/p>\n
But Rowan said the family hasn\u2019t sworn off travel. They are headed to Costa Rica in January, but won\u2019t be staying at a resort.<\/p>\n
She said she doesn\u2019t plan on travelling back to the Dominican Republic.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would never go back.\u201d<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 12, 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EDMONTON \u2013 Chase Delorme-Rowan is now one year removed from an 18th birthday random resort attack that left…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":531407,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194294],"tags":[49,48,23752],"class_list":{"0":"post-531406","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-edmonton","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-edmonton"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=531406"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531406\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/531407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=531406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=531406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=531406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}