Jacks Road to Recovery

Jack de Jonge is an 18 year old Apprentice Mechanic based at Coopers Beach Garage. Jack has incredible work ethics and loves going to work. He’s determined and takes on all the hours he can. Jack is one of the most caring people that I know and is extremely close to his family (de Jonges, Beards, Parsonson’s) and his friends and especially close with his partner Tayne Beard Parsonson, who has not left his side since the accident. Jack has never sat still for long. He enjoys driving, motorbike riding and everything that living in the far north offers. He would help anyone who asked.

On the 26th of February Jack had a dirt bike accident on 90 Beach, which has left him paralysed from the chest down. He was helicoptered down to Middlemore Hospital, where he has undergone multiple surgeries regarding both his neck and leg. The first surgery was to replace the vertebrae (C6 and C7), which was damaged during the accident. Using bone from Jacks pelvis, they constructed two replacement vertebrae. The second Surgery was to stabilise his neck, installing steel braces, while the third has restored his badly broken leg with a steel rod and surrounding plates.

Jack has recently been relocated from ICU to the spinal ward, awaiting movement to the spinal recovery unit, where he’ll begin his journey to recovery.