Donations are pouring in for a Surrey man whose foot was crushed by a train while on the job at a local rail yard.
Kyle Mclauchlin’s brother, Fraser, was first on the scene to help him in the early-morning hours of Nov. 26. “We build and yard intermodal trains coming into the lower mainland and going eastward all over Canada and the the United States,” Fraser explained.
At around 1:30 a.m. that Thursday, Kyle had his right foot crushed by a train he was building to head east.
“I was the first responder on the scene and I can’t tell you how relieved I was to find him still alive but in enormous amounts of pain,” Fraser told the Now-Leader.
“With my guidance I had the trainee Kyle was working with brace Kyle as he was going into shock,” added Fraser, who said he tried to remain calm during the horrific ordeal. “I then proceeded to brace Kyle’s foot and leg while we waited for paramedics.”
Kyle was rushed to hospital, but the medical team was not able to save his right foot. “The doctors were able to save 27cm down from his right knee,” Fraser noted. “He now has 75 per cent of his right leg left.”
• RELATED STORY, from June: Go Fund Me campaign for family of CN rail worker who died at Thornton Yard in Surrey.
Kyle is now on his way to a very painful and discomforting road to recovery, his brother says. “He is up all hours of the day and night, calling us in pain. We are just trying to be with him to keep him calm as of course this process is very slow.”
Fraser has launched a GoFundMe campaign to financially support his brother, with more than $34,000 raised in less than a week.
“He will need a prosthetic leg for him to try to learn to walk again,” the webpage explains. “On top of that his only remaining foot is deteriorating as the foot/leg he has just lost was taking most of his weight/pain off of it. So Kyle will have more hurdles to try to keep his remaining foot strong enough to help him walk again.
“Kyle is still a very young man and has his whole life a head of him.”
Fraser says the love and support Kyle has received is “overwhelming in such an amazing way.
“My family and I can not thank everyone enough for their generosity,” he says.
On the “Kyle Mclauchlin’s road to recovery” page, some of the 250-plus donors have given their best wishes to the former Frank Hurt Secondary student.
“Kyle, you are and always have been a strong and resilient person,” posted Jason Southwell. “Wishing you all the best in your recovery and into the future. Once a Hornet, Always a Hornet.”
Wrote David Rodriguez: “(Everyone) deserves a chance to live (their) dream regardless of the circumstances whether it’s second chance at life or battling life or death. There’s to much crazy stuff going on in this world, we all need to help each other in any way we can. It doesn’t always have to be money, any support is help.”
tom.zillich@surreynowleader.com
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