Manitoba man defies the odds and recovers from snowmobile accident

Rob Hollohan has defied all odds.

The 43-year-old Brookdale, Man. man was involved in a snowmobile crash last January and despite being told he couldn't and wouldn't make a recovery, he continues to clear hurdles and do everything doctors told him he wouldn't do.

But now there are fears his treatment could grind to a halt.

Speaking from their home near Brookdale, a village 174 km northwest of Winnipeg, his wife Vickierecounted the crash with him by her side.

Rob doesn't remember anything from that day, but according to Vickie, he had been working on a snowmobile in the garage on Jan. 6, 2015 when he decided to take it for a test run in the field just east of their house.

It wasn't long after when she knew something wasn't right.

"The dogs wouldn't stop barking, I knew something was wrong," she said. "The stereo and lights were still on in the garage. I couldn't hear the snowmobile running."

Hollohan said that's when she jumped into her vehicle and drove around the area, eventually spotting the snowmobile upside down and Rob's orange jacket about 50 feet away.

The ski on the machine caught the top of a barbed wire fence and flipped.

"I was terrified," she said. "I didn't know what was going to happen or how long he had been there."

Rob was rushed to the hospital in Neepawa and later to Health Sciences Centre in Winnipeg, according to Hollohan. He was put into an induced coma and went for emergency brain surgery shortly after arriving at HSC.

Hollohan diagnosed with traumatic brain injury

He was later diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury, identical to shaken baby syndrome, according to Hollohan.

Four days after arriving at the hospital, she said one of the doctors called a family meeting.

"His response was that we should look at care and comfort measures and turning life support off," Hollohan said. "I knew for Rob to be there and still alive, there was no way I was letting him go."

"I said I'm not letting him go that easy," she added.

Vickie said she then made a trip back home to meet with a lawyer to try and do everything she could to keep Rob alive.

It was early the next morning that she said she received a call from the doctor saying that Rob had wiggled his fingers.He hadn't showed any signs of brain activity before that.

"He listened to me, he heard me," she said. "The doctor said to me that they were going to give him nothing but time.He apologized for the meeting the day before."

Rob would remain on life support in the ICU for six weeks.

"As we went along, their diagnosis constantly changed," Vickie added. "He has constantly proved them wrong."

Since the accident, Rob has had to basically learn to do everything all over again. He had no memory, couldn't walk, couldn't talk and couldn't feed himself. According to Vickie, he was given the all-clear to go home on weekends at Easter and was discharged in October 2015.

Vickie had spent much of the past 10 months by Rob's side in Winnipeg while family and friends looked after the couple's 14-year-old son and 10-year-old daughter back home.

Rob and Vickiestill travelto Winnipeg and Brandon for rehab appointments on a weekly basis and Rob is still battling left-side weakness as well as issues with his eyesight in his left eye.

Crash hits family financially

The accident not only took a physical and mental toll on the family, but also hit them hard financially.

"We've exhausted everything we've had in savings, I've taken out a line of credit against the house just to try and keep up with he expenses and the travelling," she said.

Rob works as a self-employed flooring installer and Vickie as a nurse at the Brandon regional health centre. Both haven't worked since the crash. Manitoba Health doesn't cover the sessions Rob now attends and Vickie's benefits have also been exhausted.

Rob needs special prism glasses and regular therapy to now help with the vision issues, however costs for the glasses and therapy are estimated to cost in the range of $10,000, an expense Vickie says the family won't be able to bear.

"At this point we can't. We're at a dead end," she said, "We have nothing left to exhaust. Without funding it probably won't happen."

In a last-ditch effort, family friends have started a Go Fund Me campaign to try and raise the amount needed.

"It's been amazing," Vickie said of the support so far. "We can't believe the support from people that we know and total strangers."

She said community members and family friends have also stepped up over the past year and is very grateful for the help they have provided.

And now that Rob is on the mend, life is starting to fall into a new normal at the Hollohan house. The kids, who had to give up sports and other extra-curricular activities for the past year, are looking forward to getting back to their activities.

And Rob has already been on the snowmobile.

"I loved it," he said. "If you want to compare it to a guy that rides horses... You get kicked off and you get right back on."

"He will be the Rob that he was before. He has always been that Rob," said Vickie. "The physical part will come. He's proven every doctor wrong, he's beat all odds."