By Shermain Bique-Charles
The road to recovery for Andre Simon may be a long and weary one, but the national cyclist continues to push through despite some stumbling blocks.
Almost 100 days after the accident that nearly cost him his life, Andre continues to ride out the storm with the finish line in mind.
In his latest weekly update on social media, Dwayne, the brother who accompanied him to the US hospital where he is being treated following May’s horrific road accident, told well-wishers “we are committed to standing by him and we thank you for standing with us”.
But he went on to detail another setback.
Andre had previously had a tracheostomy which is essentially a hole created at the front of the neck into the windpipe (trachea). A tracheostomy tube is placed into the hole to keep it open for breathing.
Dwayne said when the tube was capped off recently, his brother was struggling to breathe.
“Upon inspection with a camera, they noticed a mass in his throat area. They arranged to get an endoscopy at a nearby ENT [ear, nose and throat] specialist.
“The procedure went well but the wait times caused a significant strain on his wound which resulted in bruising and inflammation. This setback meant that he spent the last few days on wound recovery and a debridement [a procedure for treating a wound in the skin],” he wrote.
But he said the results from the biopsy thankfully showed that the mass was not cancerous. “We are grateful to God for that,” Dwayne said.
Andre is also showing emotions, he continued.
“I went back into the room and started to talk to him and I saw tears coming down his eyes slowly but continuously. I held back my tears as I tried to encourage him and asked him to focus on his son and how they both need each other. His tears stopped,” he explained.
The sportsman and meteorological officer was airlifted to the TIRR Memorial Hospital in Texas on July 2, two months after he and three other cyclists were struck by a motorist during a training ride on the Sir George Walter Highway.
While the other three were treated for minor injuries and later discharged from the hospital, Andre was left in a critical condition landing him in the intensive care unit at the Sir Lester Bird Medical Centre.
He was eventually flown overseas following a mammoth fundraising effort that remains underway.
The man who allegedly struck down the riders, 39-year-old Kenyatta Benjamin of Union Road, Hatton, has been charged with dangerous driving. He is set to return to court on October 5.