Skateboard accident on way home from daughter's school leaves … – Stuff

One March morning in 2016, as he made his way home after dropping his 5-year-old daughter at school, Grant Donnell’s life was shattered.
He was riding a skateboard and walking the family dog with the lead looped around his wrist when Blue, a staffy cross, ran off, presumably to chase a bird or cat.
Donnell thinks the skateboard may have hit 40kph, and as he desperately tried to unhook the lead he injured his thumb.
When he tried to take a foot off the board he tore the ligaments in his ankle – before being slammed into a concrete wall.
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Knocked unconscious, he was found by a friend, who took him to a doctor’s clinic. An ambulance was called and he was transferred to Christchurch Hospital.
The torn ankle ligaments were just the start. Donnell had also fractured his ribs, dislocated a toe, shoulder and knee, and broken his right thumb.
He was given three infusions of a drug usually used for bone weakness or pain caused by cancer, which did not work, before receiving a larger dose a year later.
That too was unsuccessful in treating the pain, but massively reduced the density of his bones.
Donnell, from Christchurch, said the surgery he got to repair the ligament in his ankle with a private provider contracted by ACC left him in agony, pain shooting up his leg and into his spine.
Donnell said he was a fit and active father with a full-time physical job before the accident.
He is now unable to work, walks with the help of a stick and suffers from chronic pain since having treatment that destroyed his bone density.
“Before the accident I led an active life playing golf and coaching my daughter’s rugby team and playing touch myself. My life is not even a fraction of what it was,” he said.
The stress of dealing with ACC and the treatment injuries led to depression and anxiety, and he was unable to return to work as a welder in the family business.
He also has a constant electric shock-like feeling from his injured right hand that radiates down the left side of his body to the foot.
His ankle and knees are also unstable, affecting his mobility and causing falls – which have left him with a number of fractures because of his low bone density.
He also has recurring jaw dislocations and fractures from eating, and he said his jaw shrank as a result of treatment. But ACC rejected a claim for this.
Donnell said his ability to lead a normal life is shattered as he cannot sleep or sit or stand for any longer than 30 minutes due to pain.
Donnell moved to Australia in July because his wife – who has stage four bowel cancer – wanted to be close to her family.
He now faces medical bills for treatment there, including nerve root injections and treatment on the nerves in his spine. He has so far paid about $10,000.
Amanda Malu, ACC’s deputy chief executive for service delivery, said the support provided to Donnell included childcare, home help, pain management, hand therapy, dental treatment, psychological help, physiotherapy, ankle surgery, and occupational and medical assessments.
“Grant has also been receiving weekly compensation since 2016 and will continue to receive this even if he is not living in New Zealand, for as long as he remains eligible,” she said.
She said he was eligible to apply for a lump sum compensation as he had left New Zealand.
ACC covered Donnell’s treatment injury claims for bone density issues and a rib fracture caused by drug infusions, and another for complex regional pain syndrome caused by ankle surgery.
A treatment injury claim was lodged in October 2016 for shrinking gums caused by the infusions but was declined, and ACC’s decision was upheld at a review.
A Te Whatu Ora spokesperson said it could not comment, even with a privacy waiver signed by Donnell.
She urged him to send a complaint directly to them.
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