In March of 2007 Jordie Dorman was in his pickup truck heading home, looking forward to playing for the Nanaimo Pirates that summer and hoping to be offered a baseball scholarship to a US college.

Life was good. He was in great shape after six months in the forest near Port McNeil working as a bucker and he couldn't wait to get back on the diamond. Baseball was his life.

The next thing he knew twenty days had passed and he had just regained consciousness after falling out of his hospital bed in Victoria.

He had no memory of being hit from behind by a fully loaded logging truck and having been hung up inside his vehicle for several hours before emergency people arrived on the scene with the Jaws of Life needed to extricate him. Eventually he was flown to Victoria to be treated for a golf ball sized blood clot on his brain as well as back and neck injuries.

For the first six of those days he can't remember, he lay in a darkened private hospital room. There was an initial hope that his brain might be able to absorb the blood clot making surgery unnecessary. For a while it appeared that just might happen. But it didn't and surgery was required.

Sixty days after the operation, he was back in Nanaimo ready to begin working on what he plans to be a full recovery. His therapy involves regular work with a chiropractor, a rigorous daily stretching program for his back and neck, consistent limited workouts at the gym and daily exercises designed by his occupational therapist to help regain his short term memory and retention abilities compromised by the head injury he received in the accident. He describes both as somewhat "brutal", although, he says, they are slowly improving.

When he first started to feel a little better, he tried to go back to logging but his back and neck wouldn't let him. He also tried to play ball this season but, as well as his back and neck problems, his reaction time isn't what it used to be and the peripheral vision in his left eye is still somewhat compromised; something that is more than a little challenging for a right handed hitter!

So this 19, soon to be 20 year old, has more than his share of challenges but he's definitely not giving up. For the rest of this year, he plans on working extra hard on his various exercise programs. Next year he sees himself playing for the Nanaimo Coalminers men's baseball team and going to and playing for VIU. And yes he is still holding onto his dream of getting a baseball scholarship to a US college. This kid is definitely not a quitter.

In the meantime, it should come as no surprise, given that he comes from a lumber family, that he has a love of wood working, so he's begun making and selling unique handmade picture frames. If you are looking for a special frame, you might want to call him.