How the first documented use of the 'brain bolt' in Canada saved a B.C. man's life

The first thing Ryan Jones remembered after his accident was waking up at the GF Strong Rehabilitation Centre in Vancouver.

Months earlier, on the morning of May 20, 2016, Jones had been driving down a snowy road in Fort St. John, B.C., when he lost control of the vehicle.

His car crashed and the force of the impact launched his body forward, slamming his chest into the steering wheel and sending him into cardiac arrest.

Ryan, who is from Smithers, B.C., had been on his way to work as a wildland firefighter. Luckily, a couple of his colleagues pulled up moments after the crash and immediately began CPR and called for an ambulance.

Once he was stabilized enough for a medevac flight, he was transferred to Vancouver General Hospital.

The prognosis was bleak — even if he survived, doctors told his family, the impacts of cardiac arrest on the brain can be devastating. 

Hole drilled through skull

But they decided to try something new: an experimental medical technique called the brain bolt. 

It involved drilling a hole through Ryan's skull so two wires could go directly to the brain tissue, with one monitoring pressure and the other monitoring oxygen levels in real time. 

This information allowed the doctors to individualize Ryan's care and give his brain the optimum amount of oxygen for it to heal.

Three years later, Ryan, now 25, is going for his first job interview since the accident.

He's also the subject of an article recently published in the Critical Care Medicine Journal as the first ever documented patient in Canada to receive the brain bolt treatment for a cardiac arrest. 

"I'm very ecstatic for that procedure and how it helps the doctors' research," Jones told Daybreak North host Carolina de Ryk. 

His case became the driving force for the first-in-human study about the brain monitoring procedure, which looked at 10 other cardiac arrest patients. 

Donna Jones, Ryan's mother, says the prognosis was bad from the start, beginning with a phone call from a police officer no mother ever wants to receive.

"They kept saying 'it's really bad,'" she remembered.

Donna, who spent every day at Ryan's hospital bedside, recalls them telling her, "even if he survives, there probably isn't going to be much of a life for him."

'All the stars aligned'

But he did survive, thanks, in part, to the work of Dr. Mypinder Sekhon and Dr. Donald Griesdale at VGH, two of the authors of the study, which was published last month.

"It's kind of like all the stars aligned on that day," said Donna, referring to the fact that both doctors had recently travelled to Cambridge University in the United Kingdom to learn the procedure, and were both working in the hospital that day.

"It's amazing that we had this opportunity."

Ryan's brain has healed, but since the accident he has been on a long road to recovery. In total, he spent four months at VGH and almost another three months in rehabilitation at GF Strong.

"I'm just going to go day by day," he said. 

His doctors hope the initial study about the brain bolt will set the path for future trials with other cardiac arrest patients. 

Listen to the full interview below: