We stayed at Scott and Monica Barrett's in North Belmont (near
Newcastle) for three days after Christmas while they were visiting family in
Victoria. We had the opportunity to have dinners with Conrad Loten (and Annucia
and Myra), Billo (and Julia) and Adam Parer (who is now living at his mother's
house in Newcastle). I took the opportunity to teach Billo additional aspects of
the Davis' Scoring Program which he will use to also score the NSW State Titles
(Jonny's favorite competition) and the Dalby Big Air. A little time with the
program's author always helps. He also got an updated version.

Discussions with Conrad and Adam, who, by the way, is doing very well, revealed
the extent of Adam's peril from his injuries in the few hours after he sustained
them. Adam has already detailed how fortunate he was to survive his tuck, tumble
and subsequent high speed spin in articles here in the Oz Report and on his
blog. What was not quite so clear was how lucky he was to survive the wounds
sustained from his deployment in free fall.

Adam had massive injuries to his chest, six broken ribs on the right side
(Conrad described this side as flailed), two (not found at first) on the left.
A collapsed lung and cracked sternum.  Because of the collapsed lung and
internal bleeding there he had trouble breathing. But he could have easily had
two collapsed lungs which would have suffocated him.

Because Adam is healthy and fit (and still is) he was able to able to reinflate
the right lung within twenty four hours when it is usual to have to do much more
invasive measures to deal with the damage. The fact that he was helicoptered out
of the field to the John Hunter Hospital in Newcastle brought its own peril as
reduced pressure on the lungs could have caused further damage. The pilot flew
200' off the trees and skimmed over the Great Dividing Range into the Hunter
valley.

Adam is well on his road to a much greater recovery than was expected. Conrad
was initially skeptical that the upper right ribs would ever go back into place
but now it looks like that is already a possibility. Adam is swimming a
kilometer every day, running hard and feels that his lung capacity (six weeks
after the accident) is back to normal or close to it. His lung capacity will be
tested soon.

He is being careful. Not flying and not riding a bike. He doesn't want to
endanger his recovery progress. He will return to work at the fire department
next Monday, but at a desk job for now. He has six months of accrued sick leave,
but doesn't want to use it up.

He looks thin (he lost a lot of weight after his wife died) but healthy. His
eyes (you may have seen the pictures) have whites instead of reds. I could see
him favoring his right side, but not extensively.

We were very happy to visit with Adam and see that he is doing so well. He is
enjoying staying with his mother and she is happy to have him there. Adam is
particularly happy to see the huge interest in High Energy parachutes which can
sustain freefall. Many pilots are ordering them to replace their existing
chutes.