While family and friends are thrilled that they will have Brad Martin back at the family's home over the holidays, for his wife Tessie it will also be a homecoming of sorts, as she has rarely left her husband's side since the accident.
Last week, Brad was transported to North Bay Regional Health Centre, returning for the first time to the city where the accident took place, after nearly three months in hospital in Sudbury.
Tessie has taken on a lead role in her husband's recovery since the day of his motorcycle accident, so she figured, why not care for him at home this Christmas?
A donated hospital-style bed and lift from a friend, plus the installation of a ramp for accessibility, and a steady scheduled rotation of visits from medical aides, and the witnessing of Tessie's firm, yet caring bedside manner with Brad were all it took for doctors to agree that Martin could go home for the holidays.
Tessie says that Brad will also get to spend his birthday, which falls on Dec. 24, at home, in addition to Christmas.
Brad has undergone multiple surgeries, including the removal of the bone flap from his skull (the flap will be frozen and reinserted in a separate surgery in Sudbury early next year), the insertion of a steel plate from his hip to below his knee, and the amputation of his big toe, requiring multiple skin grafts.
After three months of intense pain and recovery, Brad has made what doctors continue to term "remarkable progress," but still suffers from confusion and irritability, and remembers nothing about the accident.
Tessie says that they are "in a bit of a holding pattern. They won't put the bone flap back in until they're done with the surgeries on the leg, and physiotherapy can't begin until the bone flap is replaced."
Tessie, in a phone interview from NBRHC, said that she has been told that it could be a year or two before knowing how much Brad's injured leg will heal, but that he would most certainly walk with an impediment due to the amputated toe and the steel plate. The damaged leg will have to be augmented with a lift, as it is now shorter than the healthy leg.
Tessie has said all along that Brad's recovery will not always be smooth, but that he is a fighter. She believes that his setbacks are as important as his successes, especially when it comes to the intense physiotherapy on the horizon. Most of all, though, she's just happy to have her husband home for the holidays.
