Niagara Falls man rebuilds his life after near fatal motorcycle accident four years ago

It was Friday the 13th and John Sirianni was on his motorcycle riding to Port Dover for what is known as the ultimate biker’s experience.

That ride, on May 13, 2005, changed his life forever.

It was a ride he would never get to complete.

The only thing Sirianni remembers is leaving the Tim Hortons coffee shop on Lundy’s Lane in Niagara Falls and then waking up in a hospital bed in Hamilton.

What happened during that time is wiped from his memory.

For three months, his wife Angie remained by his bedside until one day he awoke from his coma.

“She’s my Guardian Angel,” said John. “When I was in a coma, it felt like I was being held hostage and my wife was a Navy Seal who had come to rescue me.”

Every Friday the 13th, motorcyclists from across Canada take part in what has become a tradition that began in 1981. Some bikers visited Port Dover and they had such a good time they decided to come back every Friday the 13th. That tradition just grew and now it has become Canada’s largest motorcycle event.

In June of 2008, their most successful event so far, it was estimated that 150,000 people and over 30,000 motorcycles visited Port Dover.

While riding to Port Dover, at one point near Hagersville, John was involved in a serious motorcycle accident.

He doesn’t remember it, and can only go by what others have told him, including two Niagara Regional Police officers, Jeff Purdie and Carl Cook, who were also making the trip. The two officers stopped to assist him until paramedics arrived on scene. Fortunately, they had nurses with them.

As it turned out, another motorcyclist who was weaving in and out of traffic caught the back tire of John’s Honda Shadow causing him to lose control. While the other driver left the scene, John’s motorcycle went into the ditch and ended up in a field.

“I was in pretty rough shape,” said John, 38, who credited the two police officers and nurses for helping to stop the bleeding until the ambulance arrived.

He received multiple injuries including one collapsed lung, one punctured lung in six spots, two broken shoulders, half his ribs were broken, his leg was broken and he injured his spine in three places.

After being transported to the hospital in Hagersville, he was airlifted to the Hamilton General where he spent three months in a coma. That was followed by another three months at Chedoke Hospital while undergoing rehabilitation.

The accident has left him a paraplegic.

Before the accident, John worked for the Chrysler Corporation at their plant in Brampton where he was employed for 12 years as a production specialist.

“He loved his job,” said Angie. “He would commute an hour and a half each way every day. He loved the people he worked with, he goes to visit once in awhile, but he still misses it.”

Angie, who works at the casino, was home that day when she received a call from a friend advising her that John had been in an accident. She was only told that John broke his leg and had been taken to the hospital in Hamilton.

“I had no idea until I arrived that things were a lot worse,” said Angie. “I found out that day that he was going to be paraplegic.”

Doctors were not able to operate on John’s back soon after the accident because he was unable to breathe on his own. He spent 10 weeks hooked up to a ventilator.

While John was in the hospital in Hamilton, Angie was able to move in with a cousin who lives in that area. She spent every day at John’s bedside helping out with his care.

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