Sinking His Teeth Into Life
December 2015: Coming home from work on my bicycle, I got into a serious accident. A car ahead of me decided to turn left at the last second. I braked as hard as I could but it was too late. The impact was violent: my head hit the side of the car, destroying my jaw and a dozen of my teeth.
I woke up a week later in intensive care at the Montreal General Hospital (MGH), hooked up to multiple devices. By some small miracle, the surgeons managed to reconstruct my jaw without having to graft bone from my leg or my shoulder blade. On my first day back at home, I was already back on my stationary bicycle, despite my remaining injuries and my neck brace.
Today, I dream of biting into an apple or a cob of corn. But above all, I want to give back and transform my experience into something positive, something concrete.
On August 19, I will compete in the Mont-Tremblant Ironman. I want to use this opportunity to raise funds for the MGH’s Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Clinic. This team has been supporting me since my accident: they are the ones who reconstructed my jaw and it’s thanks to them that I’ll soon be able to turn the page on my accident and move on to a new chapter.
Did you know?
The MUHC Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Clinic, based at the Montreal General Hospital, offers leading-edge care to thousands of patients and is entrusted to treat some of the most complex cases in the province and beyond. It has developed specialty programs in the treatment and diagnosis of oral cancer, comprehensive facial trauma and complex facial reconstruction.
