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The Day My Life Changed Forever…

Caution: This contains graphic pictures.

If you are in any way squeamish do not read further

I am Dougal Macdonald and I have been a Health and Fitness Professional for over 10 years.  I have come to realise that Health and Fitness begins in the mind,  in order to create permanent change.

I have developed a personal mission statement which says, my goal is  ” To empower 5 million people to find and fullfill their purpose through Health and Fitness.”

I believe that when an individual is healthy, fit and strong, only then are they able to decide with a strong mind what their life purpose is…and go about pursuing it with energy.

I have been living my ‘mission’ all these years and have suffered adversity along the way like most of us. However one day, not long ago, something happened to me which changed my life forever…for the BETTER.

This is my story

In April 2008 I was surfing a shore break at St Francis Bay, right next door to Jeffries Bay, on a beautiful sunny morning at around 10.45am.  I’ve surfed all my life so I knew what I was doing, but this day was different.

I’d been surfing the backline at the point earlier in the morning and had been in the water for hours so I was pretty tired. Mentally I was ready to head in to my girlfriend and her two and my two little ones on the beach; we were on a 10-day vacation at our favourite spot on the beautiful South African Cape Coast.

I saw a set coming through and the shore break was pretty big…I’d taken a couple of tumbles but nothing serious when I saw a decent sized wave coming through.

I paddled hard, picked up the wave and stood up quickly….with a shore break you have to get up fast otherwise you’ll get taken out. As I stood up I realised the wave was too steep but it was too late, I started to go over the falls…there was no time to bale out and I got dumped.

I landed head-first onto an exposed sandbank. BANG! I hit the sandbank with a sickening, bone crunching thud. I heard and felt the bones, and cervical vertebrae shatter; I literally saw stars.

Immediately I knew I had broken my neck; I knew it was very serious as I had to hold my head up since it wouldn’t stand up on its own. I was in the most excruciating pain I had ever experienced.  Somehow I got to the beach and managed to get out of the water and paramedics were called.

I was stabilised and taken to Port Elizabeth, a sixty minute drive away by ambulance, with large quantities of morphine helping to dull the searing pain but I was alert enough to know I was in real trouble; the paramedic actually told me that if I didn’t lie still I wouldn’t make it to the hospital.

X-rays revealed I had what is called a hangman’s fracture and had badly damaged the C1,2,3 and 4 vertebra in my neck.

The neurosurgeon, a nice young man, said he was sorry but no I could not go home today and after drilling holes in my head and attaching some scaffolding I was told not to move for two days whilst I stabilized.

Two days later I underwent major surgery which involved a spinal fusion and the insertion of a whole bunch of titanium bits, pieces and screws; I felt a bit like a mobile Mechano set!

I was transferred to Johannesburg where I contracted Septicemia – a blood infection which can kill you within 48 hours if it’s not caught in time – so op’ no 2 which took three hours and provided even more pain.

Next on the agenda: a pressure wound in back of my head that refused to heal lead to op’ no 3 – plastic surgery to fix the gaping hole left by the pressure wound.

Then persistent infection resulted in operation no 4 to open me up and scrub me out again.  After that came some recovery time – boy did I need it! – during which I walked vast distances every day;  I wish I was going skiing as that’s where it looked likeI was off to…

After 9 months on antibiotics, and feeling terrible due to the constant infection, the neurosurgeon and I decided to have the hardware in the back of my head removed; a very dangerous op’ working so close to the spinal chord but the alternative was death so I figured the risk was worth it and the deed was done.

It all worked out and this is what they took out of my head and what my head looked like after the op…

Now the amazing thing about all this is that the above pictures were taken after my last op was taken in hospital at the beginning of February 2009.

I started gentle training about two weeks after that and then started a 12-week physique transformation; how’s that for a miraculous recovery time?  Less than two months after my last op’ I was training hard and getting visible results as was evidenced by the pictures I took daily.

I have no mobility between my neck and shoulders and there are many things I can’t do any more such as running, riding a bike, obviously surfing is a no-no and driving a car is difficult.  But I have long since come to terms with what happened to me and I can only see positives. I am alive, I am mobile and I should be dead; I have a greater respect for myself and others and I’m able to serve others, which gives me great joy, I value myself more and I LOVE AND LIFE AND LIVE IT TO THE FULL.

My reason for writing this was to firstly to celebrate 2 years of living differently, secondly to illustrate that there is no such thing as adversity….only bumps in the road which we can easily run over IF WE CHOOSE TO.

When I came out of hospital in February 2009 this is what I looked like…

This is what I looked like in December of the same year….nine months later…

Anything is possible…