The accident

Many of you in the dental community may know Dominic O’Hooley but you may not know that he was recently involved in a horrendous cycling accident.

Dom, as he is affectionately known, is a very keen cyclist and fitness enthusiast. Dom was cycling to work, as he has done for many years, when he was hit by a lorry at a cross roads as it unexpectedly turned in front of him leaving him with no time or room to stop.

Dom has been very badly injured and has lost the use of both hands, obviously tragic for a dentist. The bones in both forearms were shattered. His right arm has explosive compound fractures, meaning the bones burst through the muscle in his arm and through the skin, and his left wrist was shattered leaving him with numbness on most fingers on the left hand. At the immediate time after the accident, the surgeons thought they would need to amputate his right arm but luckily they managed to save it.

But why the crowdfunding?

Whilst, like most dentists, he has critical illness cover, broken arms are not covered by this so there is real financial pressure now on the family. The lorry driver is being prosecuted as dash cam footage showed it was the lorry driver's fault. Dom however cannot remember the accident as he suffered a head injury and bleed on the brain. In the longer term there will hopefully be some compensation from the lorry driver's insurance but as you all presumably know this can take a couple of years to come through.

Dom is very much a family man and needs to continue to provide for them all. He has 5 children -Jemima and Rufus are still at home, his teenage son Humphrey is in full-time austaic care as he has severe autism and is unable to live at home because of this. He also has a son at Liverpool University and the eldest lives away and is working. His lovely wife Rebecca doesn't work as she had to dedicate her time to caring for the children especially Humphrey until he moved to his autistic home. Dom’s dentistry is the main source of income for this lovely family.

But what can we do?

Everyone at BioHorizons was devastated to hear of Dom’s accident and subsequent long recovery. I, Ken O’Brien General Manager BioHorizons, and Dean Lenihan, BioHorizons Territory Manager for the North East, have both just started training to take on the Camino de Santiago in May 2019.

El Camino de Santiago de Compostela (in English: The Way of St. James) is a network of routes across Spain and Europe which all lead to Santiago de Compostela, in the northwest of Spain. Nowadays, tens of thousands walk or cycle the Camino de Santiago every year in an epic journey of 500 miles.

Well I heard about it through my lovely wife Roisin and decided heck “let’s give it a go” I love adventure! Then when Dean was on board we set ourselves the challenging task of completing this feat in only 10 days! Experienced hikers have called us crazy and even an ultra-marathon runner only completed it in 9 days. But we love a challenge and, as initially planned, the motivating factor would be to raise some money for mental health at the same time.

However, much like a local community where everyone knows everyone and everyone pulls together to help one of their own in times of need, it is time for us to step up…or lots of steps forward in fact(!)……. and support one of our own!

So we are dedicating this walk to raise money for his lovely family.

Are we relishing the challenge? Certainly! Are we excited for the training in winter? Hmmmm.

Plus help us out and share any walking that you have done with us on social media as it’ll really help us in those wintry months when we are training. Hey if anyone then gets the bug for it maybe we can make it an annual trek, perhaps different locations events with different causes. Dean and I as well as everyone else at BioHorizons love a challenge especially for good causes!

Get donating!

Now where did I leave those hiking boots??