Jack Galvin, owner of Peddler’s bike shop on the Independence Square, is in North Kansas City Hospital recovering from a broken neck. Jack slipped on some ice in front of Peddler’s and lay there frozen to the ground for at least half an hour before he was discovered. Fortunately Jack is in good spirits and is expected to recover.

Independence Examiner
January 20, 2007

 

Fall on Ice Nearly Kills Shop Owner

 

Jack Galvin broke his neck, nose and nearly died Monday evening.

His daughter Carrie Sharp credits an angel from Independence for saving his life.

“God just put him in the right place,” she said about Mark Foster.

Sharp said Galvin, 82, was outside of the Bike Peddler Shop he owns and operates at 139 E. Lexington Avenue when he fell on the ice about 7 p.m. She said Foster had gotten off a city bus and happened to see Galvin on the ground in a shadow. He fell 30 to 40 minutes before Foster saw him.

“He was frozen on the ground,” she said. “He broke his nose and snapped his neck when he fell.”

His neck broke between the third and fourth vertebrae.

Surgery lasted eight hours, she said. Galvin was sitting up in bed Thursday at the North Kansas City Hospital. He still had a tube in his throat making it difficult for him to talk.

“That is the hardest thing to do for Jack, which is not talk to me,” she said.

Once the word got around, people from Independence, with a lot from the Square, came to the hospital and filled the waiting room.

“We were never ever by (ourselves),” Sharp said.

Reach Robert Hite at robert.hite@examiner.net or 816-350-6321.
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