Disabled Canadian beaten in Australia recovering from surgery: mother

WINNIPEG - The parents of a Manitoba man who was viciously pushed out of his wheelchair and beaten at an Australian train station say he is recovering nicely following surgery.

"Talking to him last night, I can just tell in his voice that he's going to be back to himself," Shellan Proden said Thursday from her home in Winnipeg Beach, 60 kilometres north of Winnipeg. "He said, 'Not to worry, Mom. I'll be home soon."'

Heath Proden, 35, had to undergo surgery for a fractured skull and swelling near his brain following an attack Tuesday night that was captured on surveillance video and has provoked outrage and shock around the world.

Proden was coming home from a concert by country music group and fellow Manitobans Doc Walker - he is a childhood friend of the band's guitarist - and was waiting for a train.

Police say two teenage boys punched him in the face, knocked him from his chair, stomped on him and hit him with metal bars. The assailants ran off at one point, police say, only to return to continue the beating.

The video, which was shown on news websites around the world, shows Proden lying on the cramped floor of an elevator as he tries in vain to fend off blows and get back into his chair.

His mother has received phone calls and emails from all parts of the globe, including messages from Australians expressing sorrow for what happened.

"It's been an unbelievable outpouring. I've made sure to email them back to say, 'It's not you, and it's a beautiful country, and thank you for your well wishes,"' she said. A travel agent in Calgary has offered to fly her to Sydney to be with her son, but she had not yet decided whether to accept or wait for her son's return to Canada.

Proden's father, John, who lives in Portage la Prairie, Man., said he has also heard from people everywhere.

"Lots of phone calls, lots of emails, people from far and wide. It's very, very nice to get that human touch," he said.

Two boys, aged 15 and 16, have been arrested in the attack and have been denied bail. They are charged with causing grievous bodily harm with intent, as well as with robbery armed with an offensive weapon causing wounding.

A sister of one of them was quoted in Australian media as saying Proden provoked the attack.

" 1/8The police 3/8 didn't show the bit of the video recording where he punched my brother in the face twice before that happened," the sister told Macquarie Radio.

Police, however, say the attack was unprovoked. Proden's mother feels the same way.

"He tried to wheel away," she said. "His back was turned, he's in a wheelchair and they slug him. I don't know what would deserve that."

John Proden was optimistic his son will soon be back to his old self.

"He'll be in hospital for a few more days. That's the best place for him. I'm sure there are some more observations that need to be done. I'm expecting a full recovery."

The assault occurred just as Proden was starting a new chapter in his life. A snowmobile accident a decade ago left him a paraplegic, but he had travelled to Australia in November to be with his girlfriend, Kristin Sharrock, whom he had met at a Pearl Jam concert in Seattle.

Proden cares deeply for Sharrock and, prior to the attack, felt that everything in his life was heading in the right direction, his father said.