The kindness of strangers is making a difference for Dave Inglis, who was paralyzed from the chest down last fall after being struck by a falling tree at Elk Lake.
The incident happened in October 2012 when the 54-year-old was struck by a large tree while walking his dog in Elk/Beaver Lake Regional Park, as he did almost daily. Friends walking with him that day escaped serious injury.
Inglis was airlifted to Vancouver, where doctors worked to keep him alive. He was in a coma for close to three weeks and has spent the past several months at Victoria General Hospital.
A fundraising garage sale held recently for Inglis was a huge success, said his sister, Susan Yates, who has taken a leave from her job in Kelowna to spend time here helping her brother.
Family and friends were hoping to raise money for an electric wheelchair, so they were grateful that publicity about the event brought offers of donations of electric wheelchairs, van lifts and other items.
One of the wheelchairs seems to be what her brother needs, she said.
“People just had such kind words and were so encouraging,” Yates said. “Absolute strangers came by and were very generous with cash donations.
“It was really, really heart-warming.”
She said the garage-sale crowd included many dog walkers who had heard about Inglis’s affection for taking his dog to the Elk Lake area. The park is only about a kilometre from his home.
“There was a good response from people that use the trails, people that run and walk over there,” Yates said.
She said an arborist has offered to be an expert witness should the case lead to any formal proceedings, although the family is not in a financial position to hire a lawyer.
For now, efforts are underway to get Inglis into a care facility and establish a regular physiotherapy routine, Yates said.
Larisa Hutcheson, the Capital Regional District’s general manager of parks and environmental services, has said the district runs a tree-inspection program that follows provincial guidelines for checking trees. What happened to Inglis was extremely rare, she said.
