‘Lucky to be alive’: Teen motorcyclist Linden McQuire loses 75 per cent of eyesight after motorbike crash

A teenage boy who has lost 75 per cent of his eyesight after a horrific motorbike accident says he is “lucky to be alive”. Linden McQuire, 16, has undergone seven major surgeries — including four brain surgeries — since his motorbike crashed into a tree in Mount Observation on August 31. Linden — a budding roof carpenter who had just been put forward as the WA Young Apprentice of the Year — was out biking with his dad and his mates when the accident happened. “I got a phone call from my husband saying Linden had had a really bad accident and that a helicopter was coming to bringing him to hospital,” Linden’s mum, Toni McQuire, told The West. “My other child was at an acting class so I just got in the car and picked him up and just sat there in the carpark because I didn’t know what to do because I didn’t know where to go. “I just decided to drive to Royal Perth Hospital at 3.15pm but Linden didn’t arrive until 5.40pm so I was just waiting there which was just awful. “When he got there they brought me through and he looked terrible ... he went off and had all these CT scans and MRI’s done and the injuries just came back in dribs and drabs.” Ms McQuire said her son — who has spent 10 weeks in hospital — had suffered major fractures to his skull, arm and spine. “It looks like something went through the opening in his helmet and that’s where the impact has been, right in the face,” she said. “He had a massive fracture up his head at the back of his skull where his head hit forward and then clumped backwards.” Ms McQuire said the skull fractures were so severe they had punctured Linden’s brain membrane, causing fluid to leak out of his nose “for weeks”. “They were trying to see if it would resolve on its own but it didn’t, and so they put a lumbar drain in and start draining the fluid out through his back,” she said. “There was a big risk of infection ... he caught an influenza virus, and from that, developed pneumonia. “He ended up having a craniotomy, a huge surgery where they cut from ear to ear right across the skull and bring the forehead skin foreword and then remove that bone. “Then they repaired those tears in that membrane using fat from his stomach ... they grafted fat from his stomach and put that into the brain membrane and then put it back together.” Linden — who has now spent four weeks in the Sir Charles Gairdner State Neurological Unit — has also lost up to 75 per cent of his visual field. According to Linden, he has “almost no vision” in his left eye and has lost his peripheral vision in right. “I’m confident with my vision, I can still see sunsets ... but if people are walking right beside him I can’t see,” he said. “If I’m going to cross a road I can’t see the cars coming on the side so I have to fully turn my head and shoulders.” Linden says he has no memory of the accident but says he remembers feelings of “pain”. “The last thing I remember was the intersection two-kilometres before the accident even happened,” he said. “I just remember big events ... like this time (in hospital) I had to get a big needle stuck in my bed and they couldn’t get it right so I was screaming at them to stop. “I remember all the pain ... but I’m happy to be alive.” The family are now hoping to send Linden to a world-leading eye specialist in Berlin in a bid to give him the “same opportunities he had before”. “He’s really athletic, he loves water sports and was doing squad training and scuba diving,” Ms McQuire said. “I want him to be able to do whatever job he wants to do and be able to drive.” The family have created a GoFundMe with a target of $50,000 in the hopes the public will rally behind Linden’s recovery. “Linden still has some air in his brain which expands on a flight so we have to wait for the air to dissipate before he’s given clearance to fly,” Ms McQuire said. “As soon as given clearance to fly then we can plan to go over there for the first round of treatment ... we’re hoping it’s early in the new year. “I just want my child to have the same opportunities that he had before ... I want him to be able to do whatever job he wants to do and be able to drive.” The link to Liden’s GoFundMe can be found here.