A Canadian man who dreamed of opening his own trampoline studio has a long road to recovery ahead after an accident at a trampoline gym left him paralyzed.
Joshua Noronha, 25, from Collingwood, Ontario, worked as a coach at Collingwood Trampoline for at least seven years on and off before he crashed into the floor, seriously injuring himself on Aug. 18, the Collingwood Enterprise Bullet reported.
According to the Enterprise Bullet, Noronha was practicing flips when his head and arm went through the trampoline springs and "smashed into the floor breaking his neck and leaving him paralyzed from the chest down."
"He missed a landing and his head went between the material part and the springs and he snapped his neck," Chris Dopp, who is in a relationship with Noronha's mother, told Simcoe.com.
This week, he was still in intensive care. He'll remain in the hospital for "an extended stay" and will spend at least three months in a rehab facility, the Enterprise Bullet reported.
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Guy Laporte, a family friend of Noronha, created a GoFundMe account to support Noronha, who has mounting medical costs.
“He can use his right hand now so he communicates with us by writing on a white board,” Noronha’s mother, Leslie Pocklington, wrote on the page. “His messages are often heartfelt and leave you in tears. His sense of humor still comes out even in the face of such adversity ... The spirit of a lion still exists in our boy but he is very tired.”
“He’s a fighter, this guy,” Laporte said.
It’s likely that Noronha will never walk again.
“His life went from a missed trampoline landing to a wheelchair in a matter of seconds,” Dopp wrote. “He has to learn how to do everything again.”
Dopp said Noronha had already begun saving money to start his own trampoline business.
"I have his business plan sitting on my coffee table. That's how close he was to getting it going," Dopp said, according to Simcoe.com.
"It's very comprehensive, outlining every dime coming in and out," Dopp wrote on the GoFundMe page.
Read more at the Collingwood Enterprise Bullet and Simcoe.com.
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