A heavy shoulder charge at hurling training two weeks left Oisin Merritt on the flat of his back – and it was the moment that the Stranorlar man finally ‘felt alive’ again.
Almost three years after suffering horrific, life-threatening and now life-changing injuries after falling 20 feet from a balcony in Majorca, Merritt has been given the go-ahead to return to playing sport.
A fortnight ago on Tuesday, he met with Consultant Neurosurgeon Donncha O’Brien from Beaumont Hospital for his annual check-up and was given the news he thought he’d never hear.
Merritt’s injuries were so severe that he had almost half of his skull removed.
His skull, he muses, is now ’48 per cent this plate thing’.
“It’s a chalk-like substance that’s a thousand sheets and it forms into a skull – they say it’s actually stronger than steel and it grows with me,” he explains, hurley-in-hand at Sean MacCumhaill Park in Ballybofey.
With a protective cap beneath his helmet, he’s ready for battle again with Sean MacCumhaills – the 2016 Donegal senior hurling champions – and he could even feature for Ireland at the Paralympic World Cup this year.
“There was no hope of me going back playing until two weeks ago – I can’t believe that I’m back with the boots on,” he says.
“There are no words for how much I’ve missed it.
“Sport was my life and I was told I wouldn’t have it. I started to accept that I wasn’t going to play.
“I’d finally started to watch football on tv again. For a long time I watched no sport. I couldn’t go and see the Harps or anything. I couldn’t watch other people do what I wanted to do.
“I had started to accept it and I was going up there with no hope – but he handed me my life back again.
“I was bursting my balls in the gym, trying to stay fit and healthy. A mental battle started when I went out of the limelight and I was by myself.
“I had to stay positive – that was the big one. I wanted to be ready if that call ever did come that I could lace the boots up again.”
Merritt was dubbed ‘The Miracle Man’ by doctors at Son Espases Hospital in Palma after falling from a balcony while on holiday with friends in June 2015.
After a month-long vigil, the chief medic told his family: ‘It’s time to say goodbye’.
The following day, a glimmer of hope appeared as Oisin’s right arm began to move.
On July 8th, he woke and whispered: ‘How’s Brazil getting on?’ Brazil were playing Germany in a World Cup semi-final and Oisin had backed Brazil to win the tournament earlier in the summer.
He spent a month in an induced coma and he suffered two brain haemorrhages, one of which was so severe surgeons removed part of the skull to allow the swelling to ease.
His injuries list is a terrifying read, even now nearly three years on: A broken skull; a broken bone at the top of his neck; five breaks in his jaw; a broken cheekbone; a ruptured spleen; and he’s been left permanently deaf in his left ear.
Oisin says: “I’m still piecing the story together for myself. It’s eight months after the accident before I have a clear memory, but I know that day I had the fall should have killed me.
“People don’t see brain injuries. I do have a lot of problems with memory, attention and concentration.
“I’ve adapted. I set alarms on my phone and I have a white board at home to tell me what I have on day-to-day. I live with it and my friends and family help me out.
“It was a huge mental battle. That was the toughest thing of all. There are a lot of things behind closed doors in darkened rooms that people don’t see. That’s tough – but now I’m out the other side.
He was transferred back to Letterkenny and subsequently spent nine weeks at the National Rehabilitation Hospital in Dun Laoghaire.
While he was at the NRH, he was approached by Oisin Jordan, the Irish Paralympic Manager.
“I was just learning to stand up at that stage, never mind walk or anything else,” he says now.
For the last two weekends, Oisin has been with the Irish Paralympic Team for training at Abbotstown in Dublin. He’s made a 20-man panel and is hopeful of making it to Argentina later this year for the World Cup.
“That’s just mind-blowing,” he says.
“The last time I saw my surgeon, he said I’d never play again.
“I went there with the hope that he’d tell me that my brain was ok and that I’d have a healthy life. There was no-one who’d even an intention of asking a question of playing sport. I expected him to nod it off and tell me: ‘I don’t think so’.
“Now, I’m back hurling and could go away with Ireland to a World Cup.
“I have a second skull that I wear all the time now. It’s been delivered from America. I wear it below the hurling helmet and it takes the vibrations that come through from the helmet.
“For soccer I’ll have to get another helmet made. It’s like a scrum cap with a bot of hard plastic.
“It has to be exactly specified to fit my head. I can’t really head the ball. Well, I’ll have to minimise the heading, in training sessions anyway.”
MacCumhaills won the Donegal senior hurling title last year and Merritt – who had been on the books of Finn Harps at the time of his accident – was in the dressing rooms for their big games.
Now, he’s back where he feels he belongs: In the thick of the action.
“There’ll always be a wee bit of fear there for a long time. Even with day-to-day things my first instinct is to protect my head so going out with a crowd of men swinging around wooden sticks isn’t a natural environment,” he says.
“I came back into a hurling session the day after I was told I could go back. The boys couldn’t believe when I came strolling in.
“One of the lads hit me a shoulder and put me on the floor. He was apologising. I was like: ‘Why are you apologising? I’ve waited three years for someone to nail me with a shoulder like that’. I’ve waited so long to be treated like everyone else.
“I’m so damned close. Playing in a game might be the closure I’ve wanted.
“It feels like I’m that game away from that story being over and the book being closed.”
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