When Wendell Hollis woke up in the intensive care unit at King Edward VII Memorial Hospital just before Christmas, one of the first things he did was post a message on his Facebook page.

"For all of you wondering, I think I woke up in Heaven, because everyone here is either a saint or an angel," he typed on December 20, using the one hand he had which still worked.

The 57-year-old lawyer had visited the ICU several times in the past as deputy chairman of Bermuda Hospitals Board.

But a horrific bike crash four days earlier, which left him with a paralysed left arm among other injuries, meant he was now getting first-hand experience of the care on offer to patients.

"The message was deliberately directed to the staff at the intensive care unit — truly that's what they are," Mr. Hollis told The Royal Gazette.

"They deal with the most serious of accidents in the most caring and understanding way. I felt in intensive care, the whole time, very well cared for."

Non-fatal accidents don't come much more serious than the one Mr. Hollis suffered on the evening of December 16 on Parsons Lane — though the crash is a complete blank to him. "I have retrograde amnesia," he said. "I have no memory of the accident whatsoever."

He had been to a party at Government House and then to watch his 11-year-old son Malcolm in his school play at Saltus when his Daelim 150 motorbike hit some trees at about 9 p.m.

"I have no memory until people were bringing me to on Parsons Lane," he said. "My first thought was: 'How the hell did I get here in this condition?'

"I'm fairly pain tolerant but this went way over the top of any pain I've had before. I wasn't aware at the time of what exactly was wrong with me. But I was aware basically from the outset that I had no feeling or control of my left arm and pins and needles in my fingers."

The next morning, doctors at KEMH operated on his broken collarbone and put about 30 stitches in his tongue, which had been cut almost in half. Other injuries included a heart contusion, partly collapsed lung, numerous cuts and an inability to walk for three days after the crash.

"To be honest, for the longest time, it was a surreal experience for me," he said. "I just didn't believe it was happening."

Mr. Hollis was moved to ICU and spent just over a week there before being released on Christmas Eve. A vacation that he and wife Margie had been planning with their son and two teenage daughters in the Dominican Republic was now out of the question.

"We decided in a very quick way that our children would still go because the holiday was with their grandparents," he said. "It was just me and my wife for the entire Christmas period and it became a special bonding experience.

"She had to do so much for me at the beginning. I couldn't really do anything for myself when I first came home and slowly I have built up the ability to do more.

"I'm still very dependent on her and my children have learnt by watching my wife what they need to do to help me."

He added: "My wife has been a saint. She met me at the hospital and she hasn't really left my side in support ever since."

By New Year, Mr. Hollis was back working part-time at his law firm, HCS Group, based at Belmont Hills. He was getting physical therapy at KEMH but it was clear there was something badly wrong with his left arm.

He was referred to the Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) in New York and travelled there last month for tests. The diagnosis from orthopaedic surgeon Scott W. Wolfe was traumatic brachial plexus injury, meaning damage to the nerves which carry signals to the shoulder, arm and hand.

"It's amazing the things you can't do," said Mr. Hollis, who is right-handed. "I never thought about it before. Planning how to dress myself now is a whole new technique that they had to teach me.

"Opening a bottle with one hand or even taking the cap off a beer bottle is a challenge and, work-wise, I can type with one hand, but it's awkward. Now I find that it's far quicker and easier to do most of my communication with a BlackBerry using one thumb."

For the keen golfer and cyclist — Mr. Hollis was doing more than 100 miles a week on his pedal bike before the crash — the idea of being permanently paralysed was devastating.

In adults, brachial plexus injuries are almost always the result of a high impact accident, such as on a motorbike, snowboard or skis, and in the past usually meant a permanent loss of function for the patient.

But for the past decade, specialist doctors have been conducting complicated nerve transfer microsurgery to restore function — and Mr. Hollis is scheduled to have just such a procedure on February 19 at HSS.

"The plan is to...take nerves from other parts of my body and connect them to other nerves," he said. "They are going to take nerves from other parts of my left arm and if they can't get enough, then they go into my right leg.

"They have to find pieces of nerve that are active. The human body creates its own glue and they use that to glue nerves together. Once you get this glue, they reconnect within a ten-minute period."

He has become fascinated by the science behind the procedure and has agreed to take part in a study on recovery after the surgery, which could last up to 11 hours. He hopes to have movement in the arm within six months.

Dr. Wolfe told The Royal Gazette that it was normal for a patient given such a diagnosis to crumble — but that a positive attitude could make all the difference.

"Patients like Mr. Hollis are our best patients because they are absolutely positively motivated to get better and they will do everything they can to get there," said the surgeon.

Mr. Hollis said of the diagnosis: "The first 30 seconds knocked me back but I very quickly came to terms with it and I know what we have to do and am anxious to move on with it.

"I think anybody would be naturally apprehensive about an operation of that magnitude and length. But I feel very comfortable and confident with the level of expertise and care that they will bring."

There is a chance the surgery won't succeed but he isn't focusing on that. Instead, he is back at work full-time and has already spoken to KEMH's bosses about his experiences at the Paget hospital.

"I used the opportunity to basically look at the hospital for the first time from the other side and was able to provide what I think is meaningful and constructive criticism," he said.

The accident brought home to him how lucky people living here are in terms of medical care. "Our health care system and our economy afford every Bermudian, effectively, to have this level of treatment; anyone with health insurance who had this type of accident would be able to get this.

"I realise that so many other people in the world would have to live with the disability if they had this injury. That's where I feel blessed."

He still finds it hard to understand how the accident happened after he rode motorcycles for 41 years without a crash.

"I don't think I was going too fast," he said. "One theory is that the road is just dangerous. But I had ridden the exact same route exactly the same time the night before, because I had gone to my son's play twice. Was there something coming the other way? I really don't know."

He doesn't think he'll ever ride a motorbike again — but he is looking forward to getting back on his pedal bike.

"I have since compared the accident to other things that have befallen people," said Mr. Hollis. "The whole Haitian experience gives you a great example to be thankful for what you have."