Former New Zealand all-rounder Chris Cairns does not know if he will ever walk again but says he is lucky to be alive after a series of life-threatening surgeries left him paralysed waist down. The 51-year-old suffered an aortic dissection — an often fatal rare heart condition — in August and was on life support. He was saved by four open heart surgeries but he had a spinal stroke on the operating table.
Four months later, he is living at the University of Canberra hospital in a special rehabilitation facility.
“I don”t know if I will ever walk again and I have made my peace with that,” he was quoted as saying in stuff.co.nz.
“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.”
Cairns, who played 62 Tests and 215 ODIs for New Zealand between 1989 to 2006, is facing the possibility of spending the rest of his life in a wheelchair but he said he is simply “lucky to still be here”.
“It has been 14 weeks since I had my injury and it feels like a lifetime when I look back. I have zero recollection of the eight or nine days when I had four open heart surgeries.
