Rainbow Beach’s Tristan Sik continues on his recovery as owner of Sik Ladz
Six years ago Tristan Sik’s family was told to turn off his life support. Now the teen like no other is still hitting recovery milestones and fast becoming a business star.
Gympie
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Tristan Sik has just moved into his own place. While this might be normal for a regular 19 year old, Tristan is no regular 19-year-old.
A fateful morning in July 2017 turned his life upside down when he was riding his bike near the corner of Carlo and Karoonda Rds in Rainbow Beach. He came into direct contact with a 4WD moving at 60 km/h.
The impact destroyed the bike and left the 13-year-old with a broken collarbone, pelvis and lower left leg, fractures to the skull and right eye and bleeding and pressure on the brain.
The driver of the vehicle, who did not want to be named, said that Tristan just came out of nowhere.
“I could not do anything about it. He just appeared in the middle of the road. I did not even have time to brake,” the driver said.
“His bike just disintegrated. I look at the dints on it now and I see his face. I see his face in my windscreen.”
He said 20 to 30 people arrived at the scene and did everything they could to help,
The incident left him traumatised, suffering sleepless nights and haunted by the dints in his vehicle.
Tristan was flown to Lady Cilento Children's Hospital in Brisbane, placed in an induced coma and then spent months in intensive care.
Two weeks after the accident, Carolyn Elder was advised to switch off her son‘s life support.
“I guess we were given the worse case scenario,” she said.
“We were encouraged a number of times to turn life support off but I knew in my heart we needed to give him more time.”
Through her unwavering hope and hard work, along with Tristan’s determination, they have beat all the odds. At the start of this year he moved into a cabin on his parents property, and is just shy of his two year anniversary as the business owner of SikLadz.
“Life has gotten back to normal and Tristan’s kind of moved out of home,” Mrs Elder said.
“So we’ve now gone from being carers to parents again, which is amazing and it’s made a huge difference to the whole family unit.
“Everyone’s journey is different, every brain injury is different.
“At the beginning, you’re told it’s a journey – it’s a marathon, not a sprint.”
THE JOURNEY
Fourteen days after Tristan’s accident, he took one breath on his own. That was enough for hope.
“We were told it would take two years to be able to say yes and no,” Ms Elder said.
Four months later, they brought him home with his eyes wide open.
Nine months later, he gave his mum the best birthday present she could wish for. He called her “Mum”, following it the next day with, “I love you”.
“There‘s no words to describe how proud we are of him every day,” Mrs Elder said.
“He brings tears to my eyes every day. He‘s 20 times a miracle.”
A year after his accident he was walking with the assistance of two people, the reality of throwing and kicking a ball soon followed.
This was an event that brought tears to the eyes of medical staff who had been beside Tristan when he was in intensive care in Brisbane's Lady Cilento Children’s Hospital.
Any other family may have been saddened by the anniversary of the event that turned their son‘s life upside down.
But Tristan’s family is not any other family.
“I want to make it a happy occasion to celebrate his survival and that he’s alive because he very well shouldn’t be,” Tristan’s mother said.
“He has a clear memory of the accident.
“He remembers the colour of the car, flying through the air and the pain on the side of his body.
“The fact he can remember it is a good thing if you look at the meaning behind it and not the incident.”
A year after his accident the Victory College student was warmly welcomed by his best mates back into the classroom, two years later he was on school boot camps, and four years later he graduated with them.
A strict physical program requiring two to three hours of structured activity a day shaped the teen‘s rehabilitation aided by a pool at home – a crucial training tool that allows weightless recovery that helps form muscle memory.
Tristan and his family have participated in focus groups at the Queensland Children‘s Health Hospital, where he was first cared for after the accident.
Mrs Elder said the family welcomed the chance to help doctors and staff at the hospital become more familiar with how to handle cases like Tristan‘s, where his progress has surpassed the doctors’ highest hopes.
“They've all been such a great help,” Mrs Elder said. ”They really do think of Tristan as one of their babies. He’s their little miracle.”
THE MARATHON
Things got really hard for Tristan half way through his last year at school. The reality of the accident changed his whole world in how his body was affected. He had wanted to be a diesel mechanic in the army.
“He got to a really low point, and was asking what’s the point in being alive?” Mrs Elder said.
“He came home one day, after being out with a support worker and wanted to start a clothing brand.
“He’s always been interested in business. He wouldn’t leave the house unless he was looking good.
“It was really something for Tristan to actually give him purpose in his life. At first, we thought, ‘If it becomes a nice little hobby for him, that would be great’.
“Then he graduated high school and it’s just gone full steam ahead.”
Sikladz is growing beyond being a clothing brand, and last year the business made a turnover over almost $90,000, all of which has been invested back into the business.
One odd product found among the T-shirts are the Sik Ladz beer snorkels, which were an Australia Day special.
“The idea came from my stepfather, Dave,” Tristan said.
Apart from some help getting the business up and running, and a collaboration with a local graphic designer, there is little doubt who is running the show.
“It's all him,” Mrs Elder said.
“He wants the design to be about all the things Sik Ladz do: camping, fishing, surfing, four-wheel-driving and his designs are going to reflect that.”
Tristan walks with a frame for most of the day, and only really sits in a wheelchair towards midafternoon when he gets tired.
Now one of the most challenging obstacles he’s working to overcome is “selling products with my speech problem. I am working hard everyday and I have a speech therapist,” he said.
The evidence of his determination and motivation is not just in his physical recovery, but also in his business.
He wants to see Sik Ladz “in more shops with worldwide exposure”.
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