Newstalk ZB’s Mike Hosking talks to former Black Cap star Chris Cairns after his life-saving surgery following a heart attack & spinal stroke and opens up about the road ahead. Video / Newstalk ZB
Former Black Caps all-rounder Chris Cairns has been granted a leave of absence from his intensive rehabilitation schedule to spend Christmas with his family.
Four months ago, Cairns collapsed in his Canberra home and was transferred to Sydney for emergency heart surgery to combat a tear in theinner layer of the body's main artery. He subsequently suffered a spinal stroke, resulting in leg paralysis, and is undergoing daily rehabilitation at a specialist hospital.
That rehab routine involves five hours of work in a gym, six days per week, as he works to strengthen muscles that have been effectively separated from his control for months now.
However, Cairns is set to receive a brief reprieve from the grind in the gym with a big family Christmas celebration on the cards if its venue is approved by his medical team.
"My wife's family here in Canberra celebrate a European Christmas on the 24th, so we'll have a huge family get together, and I'll stay out," Cairns told Stuff.
"The hospital approve overnight stays, so the occupational therapists will go out, have a look at the property, make sure it has accessibility, just to make sure you're in a safe environment.
"We have to take a few things with us to make sure I can function wheelchair-wise, and commode for the toilet side of things. But if we can get all that in place then I'm looking forward to seeing everybody.
"They've got a lovely big house, and all the wider family will come out and we'll have a huge Christmas lunch and catch up. So it will be lovely."
"Having rehabbed during a sporting career you understand mental discipline is required. I know that some people in rehab facilities don't have that background and they struggle with motivation to get up every day. They are not seeing many gains. Having that background and single mindedness will play a role in helping me get to where I want to get to.
"It would be quite easy to give up and accept, maybe this is it. I will try and squeeze everything I can in over the next 12-24 months. Having been in a career when bones and muscles take six weeks to repair, there is no timeline here. I may get a flicker in three months in one muscle but it may take nine months.
"Your muscles atrophy over time and so then that takes time to build back up. It is one thing getting nerves to turn back on but then you have to build the muscle back up so you can stand and then walk.
"I don't know if I will ever walk again and I have made my peace with that," he says. "It is now about understanding I can lead a full and enjoyable life in a wheelchair but at the same time knowing it will be different."
