A local musician faces a slow road to recovery after he was badly injured while on tour in Nashville.
Nick Zubeck was touring with the Great Lake Swimmers in the U.S. On a night off he and a couple of his bandmates were on Music Row when Zubeck was struck by a cyclist.
There is a chunk of the night he can’t remember because he suffered a traumatic brain injury.
The incident happened on March 11 and he was discharged three days later. Great Lake Swimmers’ Tony Dekker made sure Zubeck was comfy in the band’s van and drove nonstop to get him home.
Dekker reassembled the band and performed for the last show of the tour on March 16 in Michigan.
The tour was idyllic up until Zubeck was injured. It was going smoothly, he was with a great group of people, travelling to different places, playing music and having fun along the way.
What happened was a shock. “It's a real freak accident,” Zubeck said.
The band clocked about 15,000 kilometres in the van “and it's so much more likely that something bad or an accident could happen during those hours, then in that split second,” said Zubeck.
His bandmates told him what happened because the last thing he remembered was waking up in the hospital puking blood. The walking signal was on while Zubeck was crossing the street and just as he was about to make it to the other end a cyclist came barrelling down a hill, went through a red light and hit him, he says.
Zubeck’s bandmate Colleen Brown was behind him when he was hit.
“She said it looked like I went unconscious immediately and flew through the air, like a sack of potatoes, hit the ground on the side of my head and face. And then I was lying there in a crumpled heap.”
A couple of nurses came by to tell people not to move him in case he had a neck or spine injury. The ambulance came and whisked him away.
His right eye was swollen and there was a chance he was going to lose his vision. This worried him because he already has poor eyesight and his right eye was his good eye. Luckily he is regaining his vision.
He’s stuck with a $52,000 U.S. hospital bill.
An old friend of his started a GoFundMe campaign to help raise money. In just two days it raised $18,082. This shocked Zubeck. He’s honoured and humbled by the support people have given him.
He was reluctant to say yes to the campaign because he has a hard time asking for help.
A friend of his is thinking about organizing a music fundraiser.
Zubeck wants to encourage people to get travel insurance if they plan to travel outside the country.
The part that is stressful and frustrating for him is he said the police down in Nashville have closed the case, deeming it an accident because the person was on a bicycle.
“And so I have no recourse to pursue criminal charges, which leaves me no recourse to victims compensation,” he said.
He will likely contact a lawyer but in the meantime he’s focused on his recovery.
Vanderbilt University Medical Center where he was treated referred him to a surgeon who specializes in brain injuries in Toronto. He suggested that he not undergo surgery right now. His progress will continue to be monitored.
If the injury occurred in Canada he thinks things would have been different. He hears people complain about our deteriorating health system but this situation was a reminder about how much better it is.
He doesn’t know how long it will take for him to fully recover. His doctor in Guelph kept reiterating the brain heals slowly and the problem with people who have brain injuries is they can be impatient. He told Zubeck he needs to be patient.
He’s got support from his partner, son and friends. Day to day things change where one minute he’s at the grocery store and the next he realizes he’s done for the day. His head feels weird. Things are still foggy. He’s sore and tired a lot.
The music gigs he had lined up for April had to be cancelled. Zubeck just started playing music again a couple days ago. He’s able to pick up the guitar a little bit each day. It feels good. It’s better than lying around, he said.
He hopes by June he can be a bit more active musically with performances and studio recordings.
“As unlucky as I feel to have been the victim of this,” I also feel lucky it wasn’t worse and I’m still alive, he said.
