20-year-old paralyzed by falling tree during B.C. storm 'can't wait to get home'

Alex Higden had a bad feeling.

He was working in Pitt Meadows, B.C., on Dec. 20, and the storm was picking up. The weather forecast looked anything but good and wind wasblasting around 100 km/h.

Higden, 20, decided to packup his flatbed truck and leave work earlyin hopes of beating the worst of the weather.It was his last shift before Christmas and he was heading home.

Then everything went black.

Next thing he knew, Higden's truck washurtling along the pavementand he couldn't move his foot off the gas pedal.

A gust of wind had snapped and thrown part of a tree intoHigden's truck. The impact shattered Higden's C6 vertebrae and damaged his spinal cord near the base of his neck, paralyzing him from the chest down.

"Basically, it broke his back instantly," said Higden's father, Todd Higden. "He didn't even see it coming."

The truckonly stopped when itcrashed into a culvert.

The storm would go on to becalled the "most damaging" in B.C. Hydro'shistory, killing a woman on Vancouver Island andcausing around $37 million in insurance damages.

For Higden and his family, it's become a Day 1.

'What the hell happened?'

His dad, Todd, said he was shocked to find his son talking when he got to the hospital.

"He was perfectly fine, but he couldn't move anything," Toddsaid. "He was talking to us and he said:'What the hell happened?' And I said, "You got hit by a tree."

"His exact words were:'I got hit by a f--king tree.'"

Higden underwentsurgery at Vancouver General Hospital (VGH) to repair his spinebut had a number of complications afterward: pneumonia, collapsed lungsand a lingering virus from before the storm.

He spent 10 days in the ICU.

Survival 'incredible'

Todd said his son is now in the spinal ward at VGH. Ideally, he'll be there for another two weeks before moving to GF Strong to begin physical therapy. Higden hasalready regained some feeling in his arms, but it's not clear how much mobility he'll get back in the rest of his body.

"It does [change your life], but I'll take him in any form. He's alive. He's the same person. How he survived that accident, it's incredible. If anyone had been sitting in the passenger side, they'd be dead," Todd said.

"It's terrible, but in another way we're lucky. Just to have him."

Todd, who works as a contractor, said he's already started to renovate the family'shouseto accommodate Alex's limited mobility once he goes home. Friends have launched a GoFundMe page to help cover costs.

"He can't wait to get home," Todd said. "He wants to get strong again. He wants to walk.That's all I can say."