Teen overcomes horrific accident to win national title

by Lim YuFan, The New Paper on 29 Apr 2012 Just five months ago, 16-year-old sailor Jonathan Yeo could not even walk after a cycling accident caused severe trauma to his spine. Doctors told his parents then that the teenager might never sail again. Miraculously, even though he still cannot break into a run, Jonathan defeated 63 others to win the Schools National Sailing B Division Byte class last week.

Jonathan's dramatic tale started on a dark night last November, when the Raffles Institution student was cycling along Changi Coast Road with his brother Jeremiah. After cycling for more than 45 minutes, Jonathan was 'looking down on the road and starting to get tired'. The next thing he remembers is crashing headfirst into a stationary trailer truck at full speed.

When Jonathan's mother, Josephine Wong, heard her phone ring that night, she sensed that something was amiss. She said: 'I was reluctant to answer because the boys don't usually call when they are cycling, and I had a funny feeling that something was wrong.'

On arrival at the accident scene, Josephine found Jonathan 'curled up on the ground and there were two puddles of blood, one under his head and the other around his right knee,' said Josephine. 'He couldn't move or talk. I was terrified.'

The accident caused Jonathan to suffer from Brown-Sequard syndrome, which is a loss of sensation and motor functions caused by injury to the spinal cord.

Jonathan spent the next two months in Changi General Hospital, missed the Asian Sailing Championship in February (where he was to partner Andrew Tang in the 420).

Full story:
http://news.asiaone.com/News/Latest%2BNews/Sports/Story/A1Story20120426-342237.html