Return <snip> ALMAGUIN NEWS, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 4, 2006 VOL. 120 NO. 2

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Richard Thomas continues fighting

ALMAGUIN: Richard Thomas continues his fight in a Toronto hospital bed after a headon collision last week.

The 73 year-old Reeve of Armour Township is in the intensive care unit at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto in critical condition.
Thomas suffered a badly broken pelvis, a dislocated hip, spine fractures, four broken ribs and a broken leg when he collided headon with a transport truck at 9:19 a.m. on Tuesday, December 27th.

His daughter Sarah reports in a message from the family that his future is still very uncertain.
“If he survives to recognize and talk to us again, if he ever moves his limbs, it will be a miracle,” writes Sarah.

The collision occurred on Highway 11 at the north entrance to Burk’s Falls. Almaguin Highland OPP reported that Thomas was travelling southbound on the highway turning into the village when his truck was struck by the transport. The sudden violence threw Thomas from his light pick up.

Members of the OPP, Ambulance and Burk’s Falls and District Volunteer Fire Department were quickly dispatched to the scene and transported Thomas to Huntsville Hospital before being airlifted to St. Michael’s.

Along with the intensive care to save his life, Thomas has undergone two surgeries to partially repair the extensive damage to his body. One, to relocate his hip and stabalize his pelvis, the other to fuse the detached vertebrae in his neck.

Hopeful signs, reports Sarah Thomas, are that her father has at times tried to squeeze her and her mother Jenny’s hands, turned his head towards their voices and responded to commands from doctors and nurses to open his eyes and move his thumbs.

Sarah Thomas’s entire message about her father’s and her family’s ordeal can be read in the space [And Another Thing] that Richard generously filled each week with his musings, contemplations and wisdom.