Xtra Time Web Desk : Former New Zealand all rounder, Chris Cairns on Friday said he feels lucky to be alive. Cairns suffered an aortic dissection in the month of August and had to be put up on life support. He had to go through four open heart surgeries and suffered a spinal stroke on the operating table itself, which left him paralyzed from below the waist.
Now, four months after that fatal incident, the former Kiwi star has opened up on his condition in an interview to stuff.co.nz saying, “I don’t know if I will ever walk again and I have made my peace with that. It is now about understanding I can lead a full and enjoyable life in a wheelchair but at the same time knowing it will be different. It has been 14 weeks since I had my injury and it feels like a lifetime when I look back. I have zero recollection of the eight or nine days when I had four open heart surgeries.”
Cairns added, “I will try and squeeze everything I can in over the next 12-24 months. Having been in a career when bones and muscles take six weeks to repair, there is no timeline here.”
The former New Zealand all rounder is currently admitted at the University of Canberra Hospital and is going through special rehabilitation process.