Tempting Fate

Three years ago there was a tragic story about a motorcycle accident in which an orthopaedic surgeon who specialized in sport injuries was so seriously mutilated after a driver cut into his path on an Ottawa road on a sunny summer mid-afternoon that his family was counselled for grief, while being asked to consider donating his organs for transplant.

Dr. Don Chow was driving his motorcycle around three in the afternoon on an Ottawa Street when a car cut him off. Dr. Chow slammed into the vehicle, was tossed from his motorcycle, striking his head on the passenger window of the car. He landed about ten metres away. His condition was critical, with a serious head injury, ten broken ribs, a punctured lung, his heart bruised and his hand badly broken.

Dr. Donald Chow is in critical condition in hospital after his motorcycle collided with a car on Fisher Avenue, Saturday, Aug. 28, 2010. CTV News

He was a team sports doctor, a surgical expert in his field, and for a while it was touch-and-go whether he would survive his injuries. And whether, if he did manage to survive, what the fallout from his injuries would amount to. On that 2010 occasion he was on his way to the trauma unit of a local hospital because he had volunteered to take a shift for a colleague.

But though he was in a coma for two weeks suffering bleeding and swelling of the brain he did survive. And because he did, his next concern was the condition of his right hand that was "completely dislocated"; a catastrophic turn of events for a bone surgeon dependent on the dexterity of his right hand, to enable him to resume his professional career when recovery permitted.

He did recover, recovery allowed him the use of his right hand and he is once again capable of performing his professional miracles. Anyone surviving such a near-death experience might be thought sane in deciding to surrender his love of motorcycles. It appears that Dr. Chow decided to resume driving his motorcycle. Because for him it was a source of pleasure and relaxation.

Dr. Donald Chow, one of Canada's top orthopedic surgeons, speaks at the Ottawa Hospital Foundation's Hope and Heroes event on Feb. 21, 2012. Chow, a team doctor for the Senators, talked about his recovery from a devastating motorcycle accident in August 2010 that sent him to the trauma unit. (KELLY ROCHE/OTTAWA SUN)

 

This past Sunday, Dr. Chow was out driving his motorcycle. Police have confirmed a collision between a car and a motorcycle, around 4:00 p.m. at the intersection of Prince of Wales Drive and Fisher Avenue. Fisher Avenue was precisely where the August 2010 collision occurred with Dr. Chow broken-bodied after the accident that almost killed him. 

 

The car that struck Dr. Chow this time around, almost three years to the very day and time of day as the previous accident, was driven by a 21-year-old man who has now been charged with a highway traffic offence; he made an improper left-hand turn, driving directly into the path of Dr. Chow's northbound motorcycle. 

 

Dr.Chow's injuries this time were relatively slight. A broken ankle, cracked ribs, concussion and a broken clavicle. Injuries that no one would welcome. Perhaps it really is time for the 55-year-old orthopaedic surgeon to put away his motorcycle. He may be an extraordinarily good driver, but motorcycles are vulnerable, like bicycles, like skateboards, to the stupidity of oblivious drivers.