Page 9 - YOU Magazine | Issue 2

FEATURE
Dinesh Palipana is a Medal of the Order of Australia recipient, the subject of an
Australian Story documentary, a rugby league team doctor and a decorated medical researcher.
That is but a small part of his story.
The Queenslander is also a breaker of ground, a buster of red tape, a smasher of glass ceilings and a spokesman for all those who refuse to be defined as something they are not.
In January 2010, Dinesh, who already had a legal degree under his belt, was midway through his medical school training when
he found himself driving down Brisbane’s Gateway Motorway.
It was raining. The speed limit on the road he was driving was 100 km/h when suddenly his car aquaplaned and he lost control.
The car went up an embankment and violently rolled nose to tail. When it came to a stop, the-then 25-year-old medical student found himself conscious, but unable
to move.
Dinesh was taken to hospital and
when he eventually regained consciousness after surgery, the keen snowboarder and basketballer had been robbed of the use of his legs, with his fingers and everything below his chest impacted.
“Early in the piece, I was frozen in fear partly because I was scared about how the world would see me. There are some that say ‘don’t get your hopes up’. But, it’s easy to be a pessimist. It’s hard to be an optimist. It’s even harder to be an optimist for a long period of time.”
Hospitalised for seven
months, he endured months of rehabilitation upon being released.
In the following four years, he spent a further five months of cumulative hospital admissions as a result of life-threatening complications arising from
his injuries, including sepsis, pleural effusion and tension pneumothorax.
“It was challenging adapting to using my chair. It was more a psychological challenge
than a physical challenge. Like anything though, once you see something in the right light, things become easier. Today, it’s just like a pair of shoes.
It helps me get around.”
In the early days, when he
was dependent on his carers for everything from getting dressed to toileting, Dinesh says he
spent many of his waking hours questioning what his new life may look like.
You WINTER 2020 9