Athlete given just ONE PER CENT chance of walking again after horror crash beats the odds to become a bodybuilding champ
Shane Dyck was paralysed in a motorbike accident just three years ago but is now competing as muscle man
AN ATHLETE who was told he had a one per cent chance of walking again after a horrific crash has become a champion BODYBUILDER.
Shane Dyck was left paralysed from the chest down after flying off his bike head first into a cement block in a terrifying accident, three years ago.
Doctors told the business student he only survived was because his muscular physique had helped reduce the impact the hit had on his body.
But they said it was unlikely he would walk again – a claim Shane refused to believe.
Determined to get back on his feet, he put in up to eight hours of physiotherapy every day and slowly rebuilt his strength. .
While he's still shaky on his legs, the 23-year-old has now defied the odds to compete in two body building competitions.
Shane said: "A couple of weeks after the accident, doctors gave me a 1% chance of walking again.
"I didn't believe it for one second and I was determined to prove them wrong.
"I didn't want to be in a wheelchair. Being athletic was my thing and I'd always played lots of sports.
"Body building saved my life.
"Doctors said my body density absorbed a lot of the shock from the cement block, otherwise my spine could have been sliced in half.
"I'm so happy I found bodybuilding and fell in love with it."
Shane, from Winnipeg, Canada, first got a motorcycle in 2010, and said that riding it made him "feel free";.
He was aware of the dangers of riding such a vehicle, but was always vigilant and kept safe.
But then, on August 27, 2013, he was involved in a "freak accident" which robbed him of his ability to walk.
Though he is unable to remember exactly what happened investigators have pieced the events together using evidence from the road and witness accounts.
Shane said: "I was heading home from my friends' house to change and get ready for work as a distributer at about 3.30am.
"Investigators believe I'd tried to avoid something in the road and ended up losing control.
"I went into a highway lighting pole, which is about three feet high, and continues for about 100 yards.
"Around a corner, my bike got caught on it and I flew over the bike and went head first into a cement block.
"My helmet cracked into four pieces."
For around a week after the accident, Shane had "no idea what was going on", but has since been told that a couple driving home from a restaurant late at night saw him lying on the ground and stopped to help.
He continued: "Apparently, I was breathing heavily because I had punctured my lungs and broke all of my ribs.
"They called an ambulance but by chance saw one coming off a nearby side street and so flagged it down.
"It was lucky because the paramedics said if I'd have waited any longer for help I could have bled to death.
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"Blood was pouring out from various spots all over my body. I was bleeding from my head, ears, side of my body and lost five litres.
"My legs were still moving at that stage."
Shane was rushed to the Health Sciences Centre in Winnipeg.
During sensation tests he realised he could not feel anything from the chest down and scans showed he had broken 15 vertebrae in his back.
He underwent 12 hours of surgery to fuse his spine together, using four metal rods and 22 screws inserted into his back to stop it moving, but he was still paralysed.
He said: "I remember waking up in intensive care to see my family and friends crying and I was wondering why.
"I had no clue what had happened, or that I had been in an accident but as soon as I woke up I realised I couldn't feel anything and it was serious.
"I was athletic before the accident and I think that helped me recover.
"I was terrified about not being able to play sports or even walk again.
"Before the accident I played football, volleyball, baseball and did track and bodybuilding."
When he left hospital six months later, Shane moved in with his parents Irene and Lorne who have been supportive.
He also praised his girlfriend Natalie Caister, 23, who he said "keeps him sane."
Two weeks after the accident he began 10 minutes a day of physiotherapy and now he does between two to eight hours a day.
About a month after the accident, he began to wiggle his toes and slowly, he rebuilt strength and movement in his legs.
Soon he was able to bend his knees, feel his quads until eventually he got feeling back.
"Right now it's dull from the chest down, but I can feel," he said.
"About eight months after the operation I ditched my wheelchair for a walker, used a walker for six months, then used two canes, then one cane.
"When I was in a walker in May 2014 I got myself back in the gym and do a couple of hours a day, working on my arms, back, legs and abs.
"Now I still have a limp and am self conscious of how I walk but really pushing myself."
He has competed in two body building competitions since the accident.
Shane participated in the Manitoba Amateur body building competition in March 2016 and then qualified for the provincial rounds in May.
"I knew I would compete again," he said.
He is having further reconstructive surgery on his right leg in mid-September and is planning on going back into his third year of university.