Diver OK after Shanghai surprise

Enlarge Image

Kevin Geyson was hit by a taxi while leaving a bus in Shanghai, China, in July. The member of the Canadian diving team recently got a new knee brace, which gives him extra mobility. He’s shooting to be 100 per cent healthy for next summer’s Olympic Games. (PHIL HOSSACK / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS ARCHIVES)

Canadian diving team member Kevin Geyson says he's in fantastic spirits and on the road to recovery after being hit by a car in Shanghai while attending the World Aquatic Championships in China in July.

The 27-year-old Winnipegger suffered an avulsion fracture of the tibia bone in his left leg, the larger and stronger of the two bones below the knee, after he was struck by a Shanghai taxi while attempting to de-board a bus on a four-lane highway.

The bus that Geyson was on, travelling on the outside lane from the pool to the hotel, flagged down a pool-bound bus going the opposite direction so Geyson could get on it and head back to the pool, since he had forgotten his camera there.

As each bus was stopped in their respective outside lanes, Geyson got off, and unable to see oncoming traffic in the inside lanes, attempted to cross as a taxi came roaring through. Geyson isn't sure how fast the cab was going, or why he thought it would be safe to cross when he did. In fact, he doesn't really remember much at all.

"I left my camera at the pool and I knew I had to go back," he said. "When I got to the front of the bus, I heard the bus driver say 'go', but I think he may have meant to just get off the bus, not cross the street. I'm certainly not blaming this on the driver. Anyway, the next thing I remember really, was waking up in a hospital in Shanghai."

A nice hospital, at least. Geyson likened the Chinese health-care facility where he ended up to a comical hospitality experience.

"The hospital itself was as good as it gets," he explained. "Other than the fact almost no one spoke much English. But I had my own room, a TV -- it was almost like a hotel."

On Tuesday, a little more than two weeks after Geyson's accident, he sounded optimistic about his return to diving.

"I just got my new knee brace on," he said.

And although it may not sound like such a big step, the mobility Geyson now has in his knee will be the key to starting a full rehabilitation program.

"Basically, with the old brace, I had to sit with my leg immobile and I couldn't flex my knee at all. But now I can start to work some flexibility in and I have a little range of motion, so it feels really good."

Even with his clunky knee brace and the 16 stitches he has to cover up a nasty gash from the accident, all Geyson wants to do is get back to the pool.

While the Pan Am Games take place in Guadalajara, Mexico, in October, the 2012 Olympics are also just around the corner. Geyson, knows he must think big picture in terms of recovering from his injury.

"This was the first time I qualified for the Pan Am Games and I was definitely looking forward to going," he said. "But the 2012 Olympics are my goal and if this injury means taking it easy for awhile, then that's what I'll do. My plan is to see how rehab goes and take it from there."

robert.frankel@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition August 10, 2011 C6