Gold Coast surfer Damien Rodgers dodges death after discovering surfboard lodged in his skull

A Gold Coast surfer has recounted the harrowing tale of how he was dragged from the water covered in blood and the moment, seven-months on, when he discovered a piece of his board lodged in his skull. WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGES.

A GOLD Coast surfer has narrowly dodged death after having the nose of his board lodged in his skull for seven months.

Kirra Surfriders member Damien Rogers, 19, was surfing at Duranbah in July last year when he pulled his hamstring, forcing him to fall and hit his head on his board.

“I was barely conscious,” the Coolangatta resident said.

“I looked down and there was blood all over my wetsuit and all around me. I started freaking out so I touched my head and straight away there was blood running down my arms.

“Luckily, I was pretty close to shore and a wave pushed me in where I just lay on the sand. My partner Brianna (Pinard) was watching and a guy dragged me up the beach, put me in his car and took me to Tweed Hospital.”

Doctors flushed out the wound on his head, stitched Rogers up and sent him home, not realising a piece of board measuring 4cm x 2cm was still inside his skull.

“I haven’t felt myself for the last seven months,” Rogers said.

“I have had a lack of energy and I’d get headaches.”

A friend’s mum, who is a nurse, recently saw an image of Rogers’ head which still hadn’t healed and suggested he go back to hospital immediately.

“I went in on Tuesday last week and they found the piece of board after doing some scans,” he said.

The board was lodged so far into his skull that Rogers was sent to Gold Coast University Hospital where they conducted an operation on Thursday to remove it.

“The doctors were surprised I was still walking around. They said if I wasn’t surfing every day and keeping it clean from the salt water then the infection would have gone to my brain or spine and I would have been a vegetable.”

Incredibly, Rogers surfed in the recent swell generated from cyclone Dovi and featured in the prestigious Usher Cup competition at Snapper Rocks in January.

“I’m so lucky I didn’t fall on any of those waves and hit my head again,” Rogers, who can be seen surfing a barrel at Kirra at 2.43min of the video below, said.

“I have had an open wound for seven months and just surfed the last swell that came through Kirra.”

Rogers is still on heavy painkillers and unsure of when he will be discharged from hospital.

Doctors have told him he will still have a drip attached to his chest at home while he won’t be able to drive for six months.

It leaves the apprentice electrician uncertain of his future given he has a mortgage and will likely be unable to work throughout that time.

“I tried to get ahead in life and went out and got a house,” he said.

“It’s annoying because I don’t know how I am going to pay for everything like my mortgage.”