By NIKKI TODD
IT’S been a long, hard road for the Duroux family, but finally there’s light at the end of the tunnel.
The well-known Tweed Heads family suffered a terrible blow just before Christmas when their 19-year-old son Jeffery was hit by a speeding car after running out onto the Pacific Highway near Yatala.
The tragic accident, witnessed by his parents and siblings who tried in vain to stop him, left the former Tweed River High student a paraplegic with swelling on the brain.
“He’s extremely lucky to have survived,’’ his mother, Lavinia “Beany” Duroux said.
“But now he can talk, he can converse, they are just trying to teach him how to use his upper body because he has been bed-ridden for six months he has to learn how to use his muscles again.
“He still has some trauma on the brain which slows his thinking down and his speech.
“He’s only really been doing this for two weeks, but I think he is going really good, he’s picked up so much.
“The whole way through this they told us Jeffery might not survive, that he might be a vegetable for the rest of his life, but now he is talking, he is moving his arms, he is thinking – we are staying very positive.’’
But the family must defy the odds again, with inter-state funding arrangements forcing Jeffery to be relocatedfrom Brisbane to the Royal Rehabilitation Hospital in Sydney.
The transfer, completed two weeks ago, has forced Ms Duroux and her eldest daughter, Karen, 17, to leave the family at home and move to Sydney to support Jeffery.
“The biggest part of us being down here is to push him and give him some incentive and drive him through this,’’ Ms Duroux said.
“We are looking at eight to 12 months – he’s got a long trek ahead of him.’’
Ms Duroux said she was trying to raise funds to fly Jeffery’s nine-month old son and his partner Daisy down to Sydney to visit them.
“I’m hoping they can come down and see Jeffery because he really wants to see his baby,’’ Ms Duroux said.
Father Jeffery Duroux (senior), who has remained at home to look after the family’s three younger children, said they had to look on the positive side.
“The good thing is, he is coming good,’’ Mr Duroux said.
“It’s still a long road, but we are grateful he is still alive.
“He is making good progress, but it is just a long wait to see how he goes. It is hard going, but we are all pulling together.’’
The accident is the latest in a series of tragedies to strike the family, after they lost all of their belongings in a fire which gutted their Tweed Heads home in October 2011.
They are still waiting for their house to be rebuilt, which will now have to be adapted to suit Jeffery’s needs.
Mark Madden, who manages Tweed Heads PCYC where Ms Duroux worked for many years as a childcare worker, urged the community to rally behind the family.
“I know the family is doing it tough financially,’’ Mr Duroux said.
“We have to wait and see what Jeffery will need when he comes home. Beany has been so involved in the community, she’s always organising kids to do something, it will be good to turn the tables and do something for her.’’
The PCYC is organising a fund-raising appeal to help the family.
Anyone interested in making a donation is urged to contact Mr Madden on 07 5599 1714. All donations are tax deductable.
