ELORA – The granddaughter of an Elora man whose motorized scooter was written off after a collision with a pickup truck is hoping the community will support a GoFundMe campaign to get him a new one.
On July 18, Victor Dockrell was waiting for the light to change at the corner of Metcalfe and East Mill Street in Elora when a pick-up truck took a sharp corner, clipped Dockrell’s motorized scooter and knocked him to the ground.
He was trapped under the scooter until help arrived, and he was transported to hospital with what appeared to be minor injuries.
“Nothing was broken but there was lots of bruising. He was pretty banged up,” said his granddaughter Amy Kavanagh in an interview.
“The buggy was quite destroyed.”
A week later Dockrell experienced abdominal pain and went back to hospital. He had a blocked intestine. While in hospital he got pneumonia.
Doctors drained fluid from his lungs and put him on intravenous medication.
“He’s also diabetic,” Kavanagh said. “And he has cancer. He just finished chemo when he got hit.”
Kavanagh said the scooter was “crushed” and needs to be replaced.
The family is currently renting one from the Legion but that’s only an interim solution.
“The mobility scooter is his independence. He needs it for his health and well-being,” Kavanagh explained.
“Then he can do errands. He can be out.
“He’s quite the social butterfly.”
Kavanagh called Dockrell happy, jolly and full of life.
“The room lights up when he walks in,” she said.
One look at his photo and it’s easy to see why he plays Santa Claus for the Legion.
He served in the Canadian Armed Forces as a gunner from 1961 to 1972 and is an active member of the Elora Legion branch.
He also volunteers heavily at his church.
And he shares a Wellington Advertiser paper route with Kavanagh’s kids – his great-grandchildren.
Kavanagh said Dockrell is expected to be hospitalized for a week or two to get over his most recent health concerns and she’d really like to have a scooter waiting for him when he gets out.
The one he had cost $5,600; a new one might run around $6,000 now, she guessed.
She said her grandfather would have to take the driver to court to get the funds to replace the scooter and his health is just not up to the stress that would cause.
Wellington OPP spokesperson Sarah McClinchey stated in an email the driver was charged with making an unsafe turn.
The GoFundMe account can be found at gofundme.com. As of Sept. 4 about $2,000 had been raised.
“Please help me in fundraising for a new mobility aid scooter,” Kavanaugh wrote on the GoFundMe page.
“Anything will help in this cause so he can regain his freedom.”
