Abu Dhabi: “Don’t you leave me, don’t you dare leave me,” she told her husband — words she repeated again when he stopped breathing in the ambulance ride to the hospital. “He came back and I looked at him in the eyes and told him ‘let’s do this’.”
David Derrick, best known in the community as Del, was an active and caring member of the sports scene and the community until his horrific accident during the Yas Island Cycle Race on February 19, 2016.
Del and his wife Joanna regularly took part and volunteered at sporting events and on the day of the accident, Joanna was volunteering at the race’s finish line by handing out medals.
Speaking with Gulf News, she recalled the frightening and dreadful moments when she realised that her husband had been in a serious crash.
“I just ran towards him as fast as I could … I wish I could have got there faster, I know it wouldn’t have changed anything but I just wish I had been there sooner,” she said.
The 43-year-old had crashed into the road at around 55km/h on his final lap, making the impact of his crash equivalent to that of crashing with a car.
What she witnessed was a distressful scene of her husband with severe physical injuries on the ground and screaming in agony as blood poured out from the back of his head.
Del’s examination showed that he had a fractured skull, punctured lung, a broken collarbone, broken ribs and serious flesh injuries. Within hours of the accident, he was put into a medically induced coma to help reduce any further trauma and to allow him to heal.
Four days later, Del’s skull had to be removed and his brain covered with his skin to relieve pressure and allow it to heal. His extraordinary recovery allowed his skull, which had been kept aside at below freezing temperatures, to be placed back four weeks later.
After he was brought out of the coma and the ICU, his rehabilitation began. Joanna said while Del has received the best treatment and physiotherapy both at the hospital and at the rehabilitation centre in Abu Dhabi, they have not been able to provide him with the neurocognitive rehabilitation that he desperately needs due to lack of specialists for her husband’s unique case.
She explained that the neuro rehabilitation is required to help “rewire” his brain and build the nerves that were destroyed so they can work towards getting the old Del back.
“It was like a complete reboot of the brain. He has had to learn how to do everything again, walking, speaking, eating and drinking, everything.”
Joanna spends most of her time doing what she can with Del based on advice she has been given or read. However, she said “there is only so much we can teach him. He needs a specialist”.
When Joanna and her family started to make enquiries about moving Del to the UK to receive treatment, they were informed that because he had left the UK three years ago, he is not eligible to receive the treatment free upon his immediate return home. A change in the UK laws last year means to have him admitted through UK’s National Health System (NHS) will be a lengthy procedure without any guarantees of receiving the right treatment in the time frames that Del requires it.
“He has to receive this treatment now. The first six months of recovery are crucial as the brain is more receptive to rewire itself.”
According to Joanna, his ineligibility has been confirmed to them by the British embassy in the UAE and their MP back in Salisbury. When Gulf News contacted the British embassy to confirm their response to Joanna, an embassy spokesperson said, “We are aware of the case and we are providing consular assistance. However, we do not comment on individual cases.”
The cost of facilities for a 12 week programme is about £55,000 (around Dh300,000). The type of money the family say they simply do not have. Del’s brother set up a fund-raising page on the internet to try and raise the money, which has so far raised over £12,000 (around Dh63,000).
“I am absolutely stunned by people’s generosity. I don’t know how to thank everyone.”
Joanna and her family are working towards moving Del out of the country in the next two weeks.
If you are interested in helping the Derrick family, visit their fund-raising page on GoFundMe.com/GetwellDel
