With his rehabilitation from a serious spinal-cord injury going well, Frank Kalous was expected to be discharged from G.F. Strong Rehabilitation Centre in Vancouver on Thursday (July 14), allowing him to return home to Squamish.
For a few days back in May, that would have seemed like a pie-in-the-sky scenario to Kalous, his friends and even the medical professionals working to help the 53-year-old technology company owner.
Then again, attitude means a lot to those who have recently suffered serious spinal-cord injuries. And according to least one person who is close to him, since his injury on May 8, Kalous's can-do spirit has made all around him stand up and take notice.
"He's really surprising everyone. They didn't expect him to make it this far, so they don't tell you anything," Petra Fajkusova, Kalous's girlfriend, said on July 5, when asked how doctors and other professionals characterize Kalous's future recovery prospects.
"They're just clapping their hands every time he does something new."
Things certainly appeared grim for a couple of days after the Whistler skiing accident that left Kalous paralyzed - temporarily, it turns out - from just below his shoulders.
Kalous had suffered two crushed vertebrae -Nos. C6 and C7 -forcing a quick helicopter evacuation to the Whistler Health Care Centre, where he was stabilized and put on a second helicopter to Vancouver General Hospital for surgery to repair the damage.
Even after the surgery, though, doctors told Kalous, Fajkosova and his family that the prognosis was uncertain.
"Initially we were told by the doctors that there is nothing carved in stone, but that the injury is so bad that I may not walk, ever," Kalous said. "When you get this news, your first reaction is that maybe it would have been better if you were not saved. That was my initial reaction. You think, 'Who is going to put me out of my misery now?'"
But over the next day or so, Kalous had a dramatic change of heart.
"First of all, I realized that by feeling sorry for myself, and crying, I realized that it's actually making me feel worse," he said. "I was just going in circles thinking about how bad it is. Then I thought, 'Let's try to reverse the psychology.'"
A couple of days later, the first breakthrough: After two days of trying, Kalous was able to move his toes. Later, he was able to begin - quite slowly at first - moving his hands.
"You have to teach your brain all over again about how to make you move," Kalous said. "You start sending signals down your legs, your hands, and causing some sort of motion. It's like when you are trying to lift a bucket of water with your pinky - that's how much energy it takes when you're in this state just to move that finger."
At least in part, he credits Fajkosova for having helped him make those initial twitches of movement.
"In my case, I've been blessed with a wonderful lady friend who gives you all that she can," Kalous said. "She gives you some things that the doctor can't. The doctor examines you and says, 'Can you feel this, can you feel that,' and you say no, but then your lady friend comes around and you can feel her. She got me moving by her touches."
Fajkosova said Kalous' own will and attitude provided the impetus for those first movements and other steps that followed.
At G.F. Strong, where Kalous has been since a week after the surgery, "there are so many patients with spinal cord injuries who have lost hope, and Frank had a short period when he seemed to say, 'This is it, I will never walk again,'" she said.
"I would say it was maybe a day when he had a very low moment. When he awoke that day, I said, 'It's two of us who will fight it and we'll see what the body is capable of and the science is capable of.' I just really believe he has this great positive spirit to be able to push back."
Kalous, an immigrant from the Czech Republic, said that among the thoughts that kept him going through those first few days was an old Czech saying: "'No porridge gets eaten as hot as it's cooked,'" he said. "So, 'Don't panic, don't try to get hasty about your conclusions about a given situation. If it is really bad right now, you have to let the dust settle down and see what time is going to bring.'"
In the past few weeks, Kalous has started walking -first with help, then without assistance. Last week he was working on gaining greater mobility in his hands -Fajkosova said his right hand was the weakest, but was improving day by day.
"His fingers have a tendency to be curled and it takes him a lot of effort to put his fingers straight," she said.
Kalous remains as determined as he has been all along to get to the next level. "He used to be a chef so he's hoping to make a big meal for a party," Fajkosova said.
Kalous said he's also extremely thankful to his family and friends and to the professionals who have helped him -from the ski patroller who first reached him to the staff at the Whistler Health Care Centre, Vancouver General Hospital and G.F. Strong.
"If people go to Emergency with a common cold or something that's not really threatening, then the doctors will make you wait and probably take the most acute injury first," he said. "In my case, I went down to the clinic after they brought me in the helicopter and they were prepared for me. It was like coming to a military base in the middle of national emergency. The doctor in charge was just barking orders: 'You do that, you do that.' I think those people saved my life. It was very professional.
"That very night they called the (Vancouver General) doctors at their homes and they are ready for you. They operate almost immediately. It just shows you that when the situation is critical, the health care system works very well."
Fajkosova said that while it may be a while before Kalous can do all the things he used to, he's determined to continue progressing.
"He's promised me that he will do the West Coast Trail again - we did it five years ago," she said. "He plays all kinds of sports such as skiing and tennis. But we will probably have to focus more on water sports such as sea kayaking because he still gets very tired just walking around."
Said Kalous, "I love hiking. It's one of my visions that I keep in front of me is going up the hill with my lady friend, Petra - maybe to Joffre Lakes - just to enjoy the beauty of the nature of British Columbia."
