A young paraplegic dream of getting back in the bike

Photo courtesy
Camille Rene was treated for 10 days in the Hospital Fleurimont, Sherbrooke, after having lost the use of both his legs in a snowmobile accident.

Catherine Montambeault

Thursday, February 15, 2018 01:00

UPDATE
Thursday, February 15, 2018 01:00

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An amateur of strong sensations already dreaming to go back on a motorcycle, barely two weeks after he lost the use of his legs in a snowmobile accident.

“My uncle told me that it was possible to make the bike even being a paraplegic. I’ve always been a girl, snowmobile, motocross, motorcycle… That’s for sure that I want to do it again. I would not be afraid at all, ” says Camille René, without hesitation.

On 3 February, the 23-year old girl hitching a ride on a snowmobile in the yard of his best friend in Saint-Félix-de-Kingsey, Centre-du-Québec. It hit a snow mound and was ejected from his car.

Her friend, who was a witness of the scene, immediately called the emergency services.

“I was on the ground and I tasted blood in my mouth, but I was not hurt, said Ms. Rene. I think I was on the big adrenaline rush. […] But on a certain moment, I realized that I couldn’t feel my legs, ” she continues. There, I was freaking out. I’ve really been afraid to die. “

Transported to the Hospital Fleurimont, Sherbrooke, Ms. Rene was operated in emergency because she had several vertebrae were fractured. Despite the meticulous involvement, his spinal cord has been reached. She is now paralyzed from the navel to the toes.

Photo courtesy

It is a vicious motorcycle.

Mourning difficult

After having spent 10 days in the hospital, the snowmobile has been transferred in the rehabilitation centre on Tuesday. It is at this moment that the reality hit her with full force.

“I just started to realize that I never find my legs,” she says. […] At the rehabilitation center, I saw all the world in a wheelchair. Let’s say that I had not the moral usual. “

Ms. Rene has always been a great sport, or even an overactive. The fact of not being able to walk or run therefore represents a mourning particularly difficult.

“I am not capable of sitting, it is always necessary that I move,” she says. [It is difficult] to be sitting or lying down all the time. “

“New life “

Ms. René tries to stay positive by saying that a “new life” ” begins for her.

“I really did not want that someone is taking care of me all my life,” she says. I like to be independent, do my business, then it is that which motivates me. I want to learn to do it all alone. “

Before her accident, she worked in a factory for processing of cranberries in the meantime of finding a job as a correctional officer. She reflects now on how it wishes to redirect her career.

►The accident of Camille René is not covered by the public automobile insurance plan, since it occurred on a private road. A fund-raising drive has been launched for the young woman on the site GoFundMe. More $ 15,500 had been raised yesterday.