A man in his 80s has learned he will never walk again after he was allegedly run off a popular track while riding his pushbike.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
Greg Hood suffered a fractured spine, 11 cracked ribs and punctured lungs following a collision at Fernleigh Track - a former rail corridor in the Newcastle and Lake Macquarie regions of NSW.
Mr Hood's wife, Wendy, told the Newcastle Herald doctors had delivered the news that shattered vertebrae had damaged the 85-year-old's spinal cord and he would never be able to walk again.
The great-grandfather from Charlestown remained in John Hunter Hospital in a critical condition on Thursday afternoon and was expected to undergo a procedure to have blood drained from one of his lungs.
He'll have a good go, but he's got a lot to overcome even before they can start looking at the paralysis - there's enough to overcome with the broken ribs and punctured lungs.
- Wendy Hood
READ MORE:
Mrs Hood said her husband of 64 years lived an active lifestyle - riding his bike at least four times a week, tending to the yard and often going for walks.
"It's going to be a very slow process of getting him well again," she said.
"He'll have a good go, but he's got a lot to overcome even before they can start looking at the paralysis - there's enough to overcome with the broken ribs and punctured lungs.
"He definitely won't be able to walk again. He's getting very good treatment at the John Hunter at the moment."
Paramedics were called to the Fernleigh Track at Redhead, near the former railway station, after a member of the public found Mr Hood seriously injured. Police are investigating the incident.
Mrs Hood said the incident showed that something needs to be done to reduce dangerous behaviour on the popular walking and riding track.
"He remembers pedalling hard up the hill and only doing 15km/h, he said he can't do any more than that up the hill, and he remembers seeing two e-bikes or those little motorbikes - he's not sure - and the two people on them were dressed in black," Mrs Hood said.
"He remembers going up the hill ... he remembers seeing them coming towards him going down the hill and doesn't remember anything else."
Nick Bielby
Nick Bielby is a crime reporter who has worked as a journalist since 2011. Having joined the Newcastle Herald in 2017, he won a Walkley Award in 2019 with Donna Page for their investigation 'Dirty Deeds', which exposed the decades of illegal dumping of toxic material in and around a Hunter waterway.
Nick Bielby is a crime reporter who has worked as a journalist since 2011. Having joined the Newcastle Herald in 2017, he won a Walkley Award in 2019 with Donna Page for their investigation 'Dirty Deeds', which exposed the decades of illegal dumping of toxic material in and around a Hunter waterway.
