A GoFundMe account has been set up to help with the recovery of an Abbotsford man who is lucky to be alive after being struck by a truck in late August.
Jacob Wilson, 21, was struck by a Mazda truck just before 3 a.m. on Aug. 31, and his mother, Shirley Wilson, says while his injuries were life threatening, he has recovered at New Westminster’s Royal Columbian Hospital in “leaps and bounds.”
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“He’s not in critical anymore, he’s still in serious but stable condition. This is quite remarkable given where we started,” Shirley said. “Considering that their investigation could have been for a fatality, and yet he’s now already, this is day 15, he’s in a trauma ward [opposed to intensive care]. … We’re optimistic for him, right, but we still don’t know what the future holds for him in terms of his recovery.
“He does have a brain injury, but he’s awake, he’s talking, he has relapses with memory from time to time. He does not remember what happened, which in my world, I think that’s a blessing at the moment because it sounds quite traumatic.”
A GoFundMe page has been set up to help the family gain resources for Jacob and access for family as he recovers, and a Facebook page has been set up to provide updates on his recovery.
His recovery, after those leaps and bounds, has now slowed, Shirley said, to “slow and steady wins the race.” But Jacob can hold basic conversations, and he can walk — “by walk, by the way, [I mean] he slides on a walker. He can weight bear on his left side, not his right. His spine is not broken is what they mean when they say that,” she said.
“But he has a titanium rod in his right leg. He has a rebuilt right side pelvis, pubic bone breaks and low back. He’s been through some, let’s say, restructuring on the right side. And his left eye is sutured to hold it in place, because it was partially detached. Quite an extensive set of injuries that he’s had.”
Shirley described Jacob as stubborn, which she said she sometimes lamented as a parent, but now says that quality may be playing a role in his speedy recovery.
“It’s that desire to persevere,” she said, adding he is also a generally optimistic individual.
He’s had a seven-and-a-half-hour surgery, most of which was for facial reconstruction, Shirley said, and still has some more reconstructive surgery yet to come. She added his mood “varies from agitated to frustrated and angry to optimistic.”
Jacob was in between jobs at the time of the incident and has a heavy machine operators certificate, Shirley said, noting that at this point it still isn’t clear if, how or when he will return to work.