WINNIPEG - Wheelchair-bound Heath Proden is "recovering comfortably and nicely" from a partially crushed skull suffered in an assault in Australia, says the victim's father.
John Proden said Heath -- a resident of Winnipeg Beach -- underwent skull surgery that took a couple of hours longer than expected at a Sydney-area hospital, but without complications.
"Everything was good -- the surgery went totally great," Proden said from his home in Portage la Prairie.
Though he didn't have details, John Proden said he's assuming the surgery ran longer than anticipated "because this has attracted so much attention, and they just wanted to do the best possible job" during the operation.
Shellan Proden, the 35-year-old's mother, said he is "fine now" after Wednesday night's surgery to repair the collapsed section of his skull.
"They went in and cleaned the fragments up, and brought this piece back up," Shellan said, adding she spoke by telephone to Heath and his girlfriend, Kristin Sharrock, after the operation.
"He knew everything, he was coherent. He knew who he is."
A spokeswoman for the Sydney West Area Health Service said only that Proden is in stable condition.
"It's kind of hard to say how long he'll be in the hospital," she said. "He sustained a head injury, so I suppose they'll keep him here for a little while."
Meanwhile, Shellan Proden hasn't decided whether to accept a Calgary travel agency's offer of a free return flight to Sydney to visit her son.
"I haven't refused it," she said from Winnipeg Beach. "I'm going to play it by ear and see what he's up to. "
"He's doing good," Shellan added. "He tells everybody, 'Thank you for the wishes.' He's doing really well."
ross.romaniuk@sunmedia.ca
