I Became Injured

Heroes Remember

I Became Injured

Transcript

In ’95 the Airborne Regiment was disbanded so we ended up being back to Edmonton to form the para company and then ’96 was the year that I went and did a year with the parachute team, the SkyHawks. So I did that for the 25th Anniversary of the SkyHawks in 1996 and then found myself in ’97 down on Ranger School so I did the US Army Ranger School and came back. And at that time I’d figured I was far enough along in my career that I wanted to go into really what I wanted to do and go Search and Rescue. So I applied and did the PT testing and the physical testing and all that for Search and Rescue and had been selected to go on the course starting the next year and then that’s when I ended up getting injured. We were doing a daytime no equipment jump and then we were doing an evening night time full equipment jump. The jump went off fine, we were ready for our night jump and it was coming in for landing waiting for the landing to come in and a young guy still had a problem with his parachute and it hit mine and mine collapsed and it never reopened so I hit the ground. The doctors figure from about 75 feet, ya, in the end of November in Alberta so the ground wasn’t too soft at that time of the year. So I ended up breaking nine bones from my waist down. So my pelvis was open five centimetres, my right wing sacrum was broken, all my lower ab muscles were torn from my pelvis. My left leg was shattered and I hadn’t had a chance to remove my rifle from the jump so when I landed and I tried to roll as best I could, my rifle barrel went through my right foot so shattered my right foot into a lot of pieces and then I was conscious the whole time. It never knocked me out so I was laying there and it was at night and the doctors came and took me and put me on a stretcher and ended up taking me to the hospital. And that’s when I found out the extent because that night they just saw that my leg was broken because of the compound fracture and that’s all they thought that happened but when I started doing the X-rays and the CT scans and stuff they found out what the damage was and it was a lot more than I had thought.

Description

Mr. Feyko speaks in detail about his injury from a jump exercise and his path of recovery.

Michael Feyko

Mr. Michael Feyko was born July 12, 1970 in Windsor, Ontario. Immediately out of high school, Mr. Feyko joined the military and held rank of private with the Princess Patricia Canadian Light Infantry. He attended battle school in Wainwright, Alberta. First deploying to Norway, Mr. Feyko then continued on with tours to Cyprus and to Somalia. Realizing his true passion was to be a jumper and following his desire to gain a career with Search & Rescue, Mr. Feyko found himself back in Canada with the SkyHawks attending many air shows across the country. While in Edmonton, Mr. Feyko was involved in a parachute accident where he was left with a lifetime injury. With major injury to his body, Mr. Feyko rehabilitated himself back into civilian life and in 2000 a decision was made for medical discharge. With great determination and desire to continue life as it was prior to his injury, Mr. Feyko was inspired by the Soldier On program and assisted as coach of the Team Canada Golf Team leading them to five medals at the Invictus Games held in Toronto, Ontario September 2017. Now married and with a family, Mr. Feyko enjoys a career as a PGA golf pro and continues to train golfers who are part of Soldier On in preparing for the next Invictus Games to be held in Sydney, Australia.

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