A hunting accident Sunday morning on the Shelley reserve has left a 16-year-old star athlete paralyzed in Vancouver General Hospital, where he's recovering from a bullet wound to his back.
Trent Seymour, a pitcher/first baseman for the B.C. under-19 softball team that won gold in July at the North American Indigenous Games, was hunting near his home when one of his friends tripped while carrying a loaded .22-calibre rifle.
The gun discharged and the bullet hit Seymour in the back and side. He was rushed to UHNBC by ambulance and immediately underwent surgery to repair organ damage caused by the bullet.
He was sent by air ambulance to VGH, where he underwent a second surgery on Tuesday to stop internal bleeding.
Seymour's father Barry, a former chief of the Lheidli T'enneh First Nation, said Wednesday his son was in stable condition while awaiting a visit from the hospital's spinal team, which will assess the extent of spinal cord damage.
"As it stands right now, he can't feel his legs," said Barry Seymour. "Of course we're praying this isn't the case but there is a high likelihood he'll be paralyzed from the waist down. It was just a freak circumstance. My son was crouched down showing them how to call elk. Normally he wouldn't be crouched down like that."
Barry and his wife Phyllis, Trent's three older sisters, his niece and five nephews made the trip to Vancouver to be with him this week. Barry Seymour said the family has secured long-term accommodation to stay in Vancouver while Trent makes his recovery over the next few months.
"The whole immediate family is around him and he's getting a lot of support from his friends," Barry said. "It was an accident, and his friend who caused this is in a very fragile state right now. He feels guilty and we're in constant dialogue with his friends' family that were there when it happened. It's not only Trent that we're worried about, it's the other boys, so we've done whatever we can to make sure that it doesn't get any worse than it has to."
Barry has informed the Lheidli T'enneh band office he will be on indefinite leave from his job as lands manager.
To deal with the flood of inquiries from family members and friends, the Seymour family started a Facebook page - Love, Support & Prayers for Trent Seymour - to inform people about what has happened and offer updates on Trent's condition.
A trust fund at Integris Credit Union has been opened under Trent's name to help the family deal with expenses of travel to and from Vancouver, where Trent is expected to remain for at least the next three months. If he remains paralyzed, the family home will have to be renovated to make it wheelchair-accessible. Donations to the account, No. 80122861, will be accepted at all Integris branch locations in the city.
Barry Seymour praised the efforts of the B.C. Ambulance Service and hospital staff at UHNBC for saving his son's life. Trent arrived at the hospital within an hour of the time of the accident and was in surgery within 30 minutes.
"By all indications he's surviving the ordeal but it's a life-changer with regards to him potentially being paralyzed," said Barry. "There are a lot of things that'll have to happen after this. With his recovery time they're already saying he will be down here for quite some time. It all depends on him. He's semi-conscious and he knows what's going on around him. It's overwhelming. We need all the support we can get."
Trent, who turns 17 on Dec. 22, is a Grade 12 student at Kelly Road secondary school where he's popular among his peers. He's an honours student and has already been accepted in the power engineering apprenticeship program for trades training at the Career Technical Centre at CNC.
This past summer, Trent played in the Spruce City Major Men's Fastball League for Falcon Contracting and was one of the youngest players for Team B.C. in the under-19 fastball tournament at the Indigenous Games in Regina. B.C. beat Saskatchewan 14-5 in the championship game.
Trent had already started the new hockey season, playing in the Prince George midget house league in his fourth season as a goalie.
"He's a good athlete," said Randy Potskin, who coached Seymour's fastball teams. "He's always been on the cusp of making a rep team as a goalie even though he's only played for three years. It's amazing how he's picked that up, for not being a goalie all his life. He was our second pitcher and first baseman [on Team B.C.]. He's a very likeable kid."
