This Nova Scotia man survived a terrible fall. This CTV News host's voice kept him going.
For most of his life, Danny Hart of Boylston, N.S., has been, and still is, pretty much a regular guy.
“I retired two years ago,” Hart tells CTV Atlantic. “I like to hunt and fish, and antique cars.”
It was back in 2004 that Hart had an accident that changed his life. He was up on a ladder cleaning his ceiling window when he fell face-first on the concrete floor below.
“The ladder slipped on the floor, and I went down and landed on the floor, and broke 17 bones all in my face,” he said.
Hart spent a week in an induced coma in a Halifax hospital. He had always been a regular CTV Atlantic viewer, and a relative had a TV put in his hospital room.
“The seven days I was in a coma, the only thing that I remember from the time that I fell to the time I woke up in hospital is Maria Panopalis’ voice,” said Hart.
Since then, CTV News at Five has come to mean a whole lot more to him.
“I don’t think I’ve missed too many shows since,” said Hart. “I’ve got to get home to see the news.”
More than 18 years after walking out of the hospital, Hart says he’s made a full recovery.
Now that he’s retired from 38 years driving a school bus, he spends plenty of time with his three children and five grandchildren -- not to mention shining up his precious classic cars, like his Corvette.
He still has a few more things he’d like to accomplish, including a chance to connect one day with the person who was with him – on some level, at least – during his hardest time.
“At some point in the future, I would like to meet you,” Hart says of Panopalis. “It’s on my bucket list.”
While he’s always wanted to say "hi" to the long-time CTV News at Five co-host, family and friends figured that the 50th anniversary celebrations of the station he’s watched most of his life was as good a time as any for him to get the word out.
“I don’t know what it is, I guess everybody might have an angel. She might be mine,” said Hart.
At the very least, after decades of watching CTV News at Five religiously each night, Hart finally got the chance he never expected – to see himself on the TV screen in his living room, and to share his one-of-a-kind story across the Maritimes.
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