While in Sturgeon Falls, Tom Hogan’s son Zachary Hogan was out with his girlfriend, Chrissa, for an ATV ride on the country roads near Tomiko Lake. The pair had ridden ATVs at the cottage before, but they didn’t know that it would be the actions of another person on the road that would lead Zachary to be transported with Ornge twice. 

It was August 1, 2025, and Zachary and Chrissa were out on the trails and made it to a small town called Field. While on the way back, a reckless driver came around a corner and forced Zachary off the road. He fell off the ATV, tumbled headfirst into a three-foot ditch and into a tree on the side of the road as the car sped off. Chrissa, who was two minutes behind, had also almost been run off the road by the same driver. She stopped when she saw the ATV sticking up out of the ditch and realized Zachary was hurt. 

“She almost went by him but then she saw the ATV in the ditch kind of pointing out towards the road and thought that was kind of strange. She thought he just stopped there. She went back and he was in the ditch,” said Tom Hogan. “[Zachary] was unconscious but flailing like he was trying to fight even though he was unconscious.”

Chrissa called 9-1-1. When Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) arrived, they taped off the scene. The local paramedics arrived and loaded Zachary into an ambulance for transport to West Nipissing General Hospital. Tom Hogan, who was in Oakville at the time, only heard about what happened once Zachary was on his way to the hospital. 

“I wasn’t at home at the time I was just down the road, so I just waited, and I didn’t know what to do, I didn’t know what to think,” said Tom Hogan. “I started packing a bag because I knew I was going to go somewhere waiting for Chrissa to call and tell me where [Zachary’s] at and what the status is.”

Once at the West Nipissing Hospital, the extent of Zachary’s injuries were discovered, and they were too extensive for the resources at hand. This is when Chrissa notified Tom that Ornge will transfer his son to Health Sciences North in Sudbury. With Zachary still unconscious, he was airlifted by the Ornge transport team.

“I didn’t leave until maybe 9 p.m. that night until I knew for sure that he was in Sudbury,” said Tom Hogan. “Chrissa's parents drove her towards Sudbury, and then a friend of theirs met them halfway and picked Chrissa up and brought her to the hospital.”

Once Tom arrived in Sudbury, he found his son in a coma. Zachary was wearing a neck brace and on a ventilator. The doctors told Tom all they could do was wait to see if or when Zachary came out of the coma. On day 12 of Zachary’s hospital stay, doctors told Tom they were considering a tracheotomy to help Zachary breathe as the tubing was causing extensive damage to his esophagus. Unexpectedly, overnight, Zachary’s breathing tube was disturbed and the nurse noticed he began showing small signs that he was slowly coming out of his coma. 

 “In the final days that he was up there, they would take his medication down to see if he could wake up and try to talk to him, ‘squeeze my hand, open your eyes’, stuff like that. It was just a little indication that he was going to wake up,” said Tom Hogan.

On day 13, clinical staff cleared Zachary to be transported with Ornge to his local hospital back in Oakville while Tom and Chrissa made the drive from Sudbury to the Oakville hospital. This time, Tom was able to meet the Ornge crew before seeing his son off. Critical Care Paramedic Devin was also the paramedic for Zachary’s initial transport to Sudbury as well. 

“One of them said ‘oh I think I did this one two weeks ago’ like he was from the initial transport Sturgeon Falls to Sudbury. They said they were going to take care of him and not to worry. They were just amazing,” said Tom Hogan. “They were just so kind. They could’ve been business like, and that would’ve been fine, but they were just so kind and understanding.”

Once at Oakville Trafalgar Memorial Hospital, Zachary became fully conscious and was able to speak his first few words to his dad and hear about what had happened to him and the accident.

“His first raspy words were ‘I Love You Dad’,” said Tom Hogan. “He didn’t know what happened at that point; he started to figure it out. I guess he thought it was all his fault; he got very depressed about that. Through the conversation, he realized it was not his fault.”

Zachary was discharged from Oakville Trafalgar Memorial Hospital on day 28 and is part of the out-patient rehab program to continue regaining his mobility, strength and function. His most recent achievement was doctors clearing him to start driving again. Tom said Zachary is continuing to reach his recovery milestones and return to living a more normal life one day at a time. 

“His girlfriend comes over and they go out and do things. He’s been shopping too. We’re starting to get back to normal. We have a few things going, on like 3-D printing and furniture refinishing, some other kind of side hustles so we’re working on that. He’s very slowly trying to get back into his video editing,” said Tom Hogan. “You wouldn’t know it after a month, almost two months now, it’s quite remarkable, really. We did an assessment and submitted a report on what they recommend he needs to do moving forward.”


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