Nunavut parents fundraise so injured son can see the Oilers

Daniel Mannilaq and his mother Jennifer Jayko are now in Edmonton where the 10-year-old continues to have physiotherapy and other doctors’ appointments. (PHOTO COURTESY OF J. JAYKO)

Watching his favourite hockey team play on the ice: that’s among the dreams of a 10-year-old Taloyoak boy, Daniel Mannilaq, who is recovering in Edmonton from life-threatening injuries he sustained this past August when an all-terrain vehicle hit him.

Daniel continues to undergo physical rehabilitation at the Glenrose Rehabilitation Hospital in Edmonton, where the former goalie is learning to walk again.

“He wants to see the Oilers—he can’t stop talking about it. He wants to go to the arena, but we don’t have the money for that,” said Daniel’s mother, Jennifer Ogruk Jayko, from the Larga Edmonton patient boarding residence where they’re now staying.

Edmonton Oilers centre Connor McDavid is Daniel’s hero, Jayko said—and her son would love to see him play.

As well, Daniel would like to get out and about in Edmonton a bit, she said, to see attractions such as the West Edmonton Mall.

To realize her son’s dreams Jayko and her common-law husband Peter Mannilaq, who is also in Edmonton with Daniel and his mother, have started an online crowdfunding page, called “Daniel’s Dreams.”

Until this past August, Daniel was just like other kids his age in Taloyoak. Then an ATV plowed into Daniel and another nine-year-old boy while they were out riding their bikes.

That took place Aug. 21, three days before Daniel’s tenth birthday.

The two boys were riding up the airport road to the community golf course when an ATV swerved into them, his mother told Nunatsiaq News.

A 27-year-old Taloyoak man, Lester Uquqtuq, was later arrested and charged with dangerous driving in connection with this incident.

Uquqtuq served some time in jail, Jayko said. But now he’s back in Taloyoak.

The nine-year-old boy, who was with Daniel, suffered some injuries but he was able to return home after a short hospital stay in Edmonton.

But Daniel is still confined to a wheelchair.

Among other things, Daniel suffered injuries to his brain when he was thrown off his bike.

Daniel also broke several ribs and his back in two places. As well, he punctured his lungs, bruised his kidneys and fractured his left wrist.

After the ATV hit him, Daniel was medevaced to Edmonton—a four-hour journey, his mother recalled—where he remained in hospital in an induced coma for two weeks.

Her son is now getting better every day, but Jayko doesn’t know how long they will remain in Edmonton while Daniel heals.

“He can talk, but he forgets easily about the past. Sometimes he can’t remember which way to go,” she said. “He really doesn’t know about some stuff he used to.”

Before his traumatic injuries, Daniel loved being a hockey goalie, but it may be some time before can play his favourite sport again.

Unfortunately, serious injuries related to ATVs are on the rise and, between 2001 and 2010, hospitalization for injuries involving an ATV increased by 31 per cent Canada-wide, the Canadian Paediatric Society said in a 2016 report on off-road vehicle safety legislation.

The fundraising effort for Daniel, which you can see here, is the first crowdfunding effort that is related to an ATV collision in Nunavut, although such incidents continue to be more common in the territory than in the South.

However, Nunavut residents have previously turned before to GoFundMe.com to raise money for medical expenses while they’re in the South: In 2016, Romeo Tucci, who ended up losing two hands to frostbite, raised more than $12,000 to help pay for prosthetics, while former Cambridge Bay mayor Michelle Gillis and Janice Simailak of Baker Lake both sought money for additional expenses they incurred while receiving medical care in the South.