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OUR STORY

The idea of creating a brewery came about after our Brewer survived a near-fatal car accident. His recovery was documented through a series of blogs we'd like to share here. Read on to explore his journey to become whole, one beer at a time.

Zack Heuff Brewer

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The Accident Part 4 – The Injuries

When they finally found out everything that was wrong with me the list had become extensive. Much of my body was broken but thankfully my spine, and my heart were intact.

Fracture right hand. The surgery involved putting two pins to straighten my bone out and allow it to properly heal. I found this amazing because I didn’t even know that was a thing. Also I didn’t know that after four to six weeks they simply remove it with a good old pair of pliers then a twist and pull! (Photos are before and after the pins)

Fractured right clavicle. This didn’t require surgery, just time.

 

Fractured right femur. This bone had split in a way that opened up the side of my right thigh, exposing the bone outside of my body. This required surgery where they added a bar with 4 screws to permanently keep the bone in place.

Fractured right foot: Another surgery that puts two pins to keep the bone in place. They were removed about a week after the ones in my hand via the twist and pull technique, that I love. (X-ray is after pin removal but you can still clearly see the three fractures in toe two, three and four.)

Fracture left tibia: This is the big one. My tibia shattered into many pieces and I believe that without the talents of the Montreal General Hospital, I may have lost this leg because the surgery was complicated to say the least. I will try to regurgitate what the doctors explained to me in the best way I can. There were two surgeries on my tibia so far and I am waiting for a third to be done in late April / early May. The first surgery, they cleaned my bones and tried to salvage what they could. I also lost one of my arteries that must have been badly damaged or severed. They then transferred me to the MGH where after I was stable and about a week passed, I underwent a second surgery. They put two plates on each side of the remaining bone and put a piece of cement that has antibiotics in it. They then took muscle from my calf and moved it to cover the front of my shin. I guess I lost a lot of skin because I needed a skin graph taken from my thigh in order for them to be able to close my wound. The third surgery will involve taking out the cement block and replacing it with bone from my left femur and / or pelvis. They may also need to do another skin graft.

 

Fracture right and left side pelvis: This one also didn’t require surgery. I have a photo of the X-ray, but we will leave that guy out because it’s NSFW.

Left side Brachial Plexus nerve damage: When I first woke up, I was unable to move my left arm. From the the shoulder to the hand was completely paralyzed. Then the next day there was some movement in my fingers, then the day after that my hand. Since then everyday has continued in that direction but to be honest, this is probably the injury that scares me the most because I still have very little muscle activity in my left bicep. Most nerve damage takes 4 to 6 months to heal, so there is still hope!

Internal damage: I had blood in my colon, my stomach, gallbladder and I had fluid in my lungs. I have multiple blood clots in my left arm. I also had blood in my brain and minor brain trauma. Because of this, I experienced some disorientation and short term memory loss. I told the neuropsychologist that I was 25 years old which was way off.. I think I’m doing better in that department, reading and writing this blog has helped a lot!

I think that’s it! With all that metal you can understand why my doctor called me “the bionic man”. I am truly a living example of the fantastic skill and talent of the multiple teams who worked on me. I am extremely grateful to every nurse, surgeon, doctor, receptionist, orderly and of course my entire family and amazing wife who has taken the term G.O.A.T. to another level. Everything fell right into place as it was supposed to, so that I could wake up this morning and be able to say, I’m still here.

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The Road To Recovery – Part 1

I spent 3 weeks in the hospital where, after another surgery on my tibia I began to heal and regain my bearings. Due to Covid I wasn’t able to see family which was very difficult given the circumstances. Luckily, because I couldn’t use both hands, Élo was able to come everyday, as my caregiver and help out with things like feeding me. Useless doesn’t fully describe how I felt at the time. Immobile and in bed, any movement I made hurt. I pretty much spent most of my time staring at the clock and thinking about the accident and seeing my dad. Then Élo would get there and things would get better. We shared many laughs (which is always how we get through the tough shit) and we ate lots of junk from restaurants in Montreal that brought back nostalgia from my time growing up there.

Trying to catch up to the speed of the world

At last, I was given a spot at the Rehabilitation center in St-Hyacinthe, QC and the next part of my journey began. There is a conflicting feeling about getting into a car after an accident like this. On one hand (or bandage, whatever you got at the time), there is such a relief to see anything but the same four hospital walls. On the other hand, it is almost shocking to see the speed at which life moves outside of those walls. It’s almost like you have to say to yourself “Oh yeah, that’s right, there is a whole world out here and it keeps moving and moving FAST”. And there are things like 18 wheelers, there are cars who brake at the last minute and there are sudden traffic jams that have you going from 100km/h to zero all at a pace that is maybe a lot quicker than you were ready for. Here’s the thing though, like every other step you take, you just need to do it, one foot in front of the other (figuratively). So that’s what I did and that’s what I’ve been trying to do everyday. Keep moving, even if it’s not currently at the same pace as the rest of the world, one day it will be.

St-Hyacinthe

This beautiful facility had some of the nicest people I’ve ever met. The food was a thousand times better than the hospital’s and I was finally able to see my family (one person a day for the most part, due to covid regulations). Within a couple days, I was able to transfer myself onto a wheelchair and do things autonomously like go to the bathroom and shower. You never realize how much you take these very simple, day to day tasks for granted until you lose the ability to do them. After work, a shower was something that needed to be done but after weeks of only being able to clean yourself with rags, taking my first shower made me feel like a prison inmate who’s sentence got overturned.

Much of my weeks were spent going back and forth from rehab to the hospital in Montreal. That being a one hour commute, I quickly got used to being in cars again. At the hospital, they started to remove the pins (I got my right hand back!) and certain bandages were taken off which was incredible. Unfortunately, since there was still so much of my body that was broken, there wasn’t that much progress that we were able to make at the rehab center. After 2 and half weeks of being somewhat at a stalemate, I knew I had to get back home but home had at a lot of obstacles in the way. Everyday has obstacles like just waking up, taking a deep breath and saying “I’m still here”.

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The Road to Recovery – Part 2

The road to recovery is long and full of pot holes (much like the roads in Quebec). One of them was when I went to see my doctor in early March and I was told that I will be unable to put weight on my legs for another six weeks. This put me in-between a rock and a hard place because although I really wanted to get the best treatment possible (which was most definitely the rehab I was in) I also really wanted to go home. The idea of staying in that facility while I was at a stalemate with my treatment, really started to take a toll on me. My will to get better was clearly in conflict with my fragile, healing body.

That evening, when I got back to my room after a long day at the hospital, the walls started to close in on me. The people of this establishment were top notch health care workers but I missed my wife, my family and of course my cat. There’s a feeling you get when you are in a hospital for six weeks. It’s like going to visit an estranged family member for the first time in a while. You sit on an old couch covered in plastic, perhaps they hand you a cold beer, you share polite conversation but there is always a gap that remains in between. It’s not your fault nor is it theirs, that’s just how it is. You are never truly comfortable. That’s how I felt 24/7 at the rehabilitation center. It was never unpleasant, everyone there did their best to make my stay as agreeable as possible but I was just never able to be comfortable. I won’t get into details about what made me feel this way because truthfully, it was such a positive experience and I don’t want to sound ungrateful.

At this moment, I knew that I needed to leave, so I began to talk with the staff and see if that was possible. The first step was to see if the SAAQ (government org. responsible for drivers and vehicles) would install a ramp at our house, even if temporary. After my amazing wife and the team at the center found multiple companies who could do the job, the government agreed and so my escape was set in motion and I had a release date.

The SAAQ has been amazing throughout this whole experience. We’ve never had to worry or chase after them and the agent in charge of my case has been super pleasant and caring. I’m sure not everyone has had the same exact experience with them as me and maybe because my case is in the serious accidents category, I am getting an exceptional service, I do not know. I cannot imagine throwing an extra amount of financial stress on top of everything we have to worry about and for that I am very grateful. I’m not going to get on my soapbox or anything but all in all, I find myself very lucky to be living in this country and province.

On March 6th, I got back to my house in the country, ate Chinese food from my father’s favourite restaurant, with my wife, my brother and my sister-in-law. I think it goes without saying that I was a happy man and I’ve continued to be, every day since. For a solid month after, my cat refused to leave my side and was like my little guardian. Also she takes every opportunity to steal my wheelchair, which I would love to put up a fight but she is just too damn cute.

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