Doctor in the wrong place at the wrong time

Bob Hyland said it’s a parent’s worst nightmare – to learn that their child has been seriously injured in a car crash.
It was his daughter Meaghen Berresford who was seriously injured in an early morning collision on June 17, on Dufferin County Road 18 (Airport Road) just north of Mansfield.
Hyland said his daughter was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Berresford, a radiologist at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, had been staying at her Creemore area farm during the pandemic. She was commuting south to work in the wee hours of the morning when the vehicle in the northbound lane, Hyland was told, hit two deer and veered into the oncoming lane, causing the two vehicles to hit head-on.
Both drivers were seriously injured, but Berresford more so, according to Hyland.
Berresford was flown to Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre by helicopter, where she spent the first 12 hours in surgery and was on life support for many hours.
Her father, who was an intensive care physician at St. Michael’s Hospital, was kept well informed of her care by his former medical colleagues. Berresford had multiple internal injuries, and has undergone grafts, tissue transplants, and reconstructive surgeries. Her spine, leg, pelvis, arms and feet, were all broken. Luckily, neurologically she is fine and her spinal cord is intact so she has full cognition and no chance of becoming paralyzed.
“It is unbelievable to me that she is alive,” said Hyland. He is extremely grateful for the high level of care his daughter received, from the first responders, to the hospital staff.
“We should be very proud of our health care system,” said Hyland. “I can’t say enough about it.”
Berresford has months and months of rehabilitation ahead of her, but the hard part for now is that her family cannot visit her because of restrictions due to the pandemic.