How can a bob sleighing crash "fix" partial paralysis?

Factual Questions
1

I was reading about Hugh Trenchard, Marshal of the Royal Air Force.He was wounded in South Africa in the Boer War and was partially paralysed. Then…

(Emphasis supplied).

However, when he tried to rise from his bed, he discovered that he was unable to put weight on his feet, leading him to suspect that he was partially paralysed. He was next moved to Maraisburg for convalescing and there he confirmed that he was suffering from partial paralysis below the waist. The doctors surmised that after passing through his lung, the bullet had damaged his spine.[[24]]… see a specialist who said that he needed to spend several months in Switzerland where the air was likely to be of benefit to his lung… Boredom saw him take up bobsleighing as it did not require much use of his legs. Initially he was prone to leave the run and end up in the snow, but after some days of practice he usually managed to stay on track. It was during a heavy crash from the Cresta Run that his spine was somehow readjusted, enabling him to walk freely immediately after regaining consciousness. Around a week later, he won the St. Moritz Tobogganing Club’s Freshman and Novices’ Cups for 1901, a remarkable triumph for a man who had been unable to walk unaided only a few days before

I would have thought a bob-sleighing accident, a few months after being sevrely wounded by a rifle bullet would make your paralysis worse.

2

I think this is the key. The bullet may have impacted a disc in such a way that nerves were pinched, but not severed.

Standing may have been difficult because of the pinched nerves, and the crash somehow readjusted his spine enough so that the nerves were no longer pinched. That’s just a wild guess. IANAD.

3

It’s unsurprising that clinical evaluation and imaging techniques circa 1901 would have been deficient, leading to a mistaken diagnosis.

The story reminds me of a classic movie scene.

4

Of course, it’s vastly more likely that another accident would make things worse. But one-in-a-thousand chances do come through sometimes.

The doctors might have been capable of doing something similar, but they probably would have considered it too risky.

5
6

In a roundabout sort of way, this story reminds me of that boy who had very severe OCD and shot himself in the head in a suicide attempt, and not only did he survive, but he made a full recovery with only one function being lost: his OCD.

7

Not quite the same thing but it does remind me of something that happened in my presence.

I used to do cycling safety instruction and cycling skills training and coaching in my spare time. I was doing a series of skills sessions for a woman who had been paralyzed in an equestrian accident years earlier.

She had essentially recovered by the time I was teaching her but, at one point during a session, she suddenly experienced the appearance of a new physical sensation. It was a pretty cool moment.

8

I had something like that, on a MUCH less impressive scale, happen to me years ago. I had a knee problem that caused a clicking when I straightened/bent the leg, and only had about 80% range of motion. But as luck would have it, I had a ski trip scheduled. I checked with my ortho and physical therapist, and they said I’d probably be working the wrong muscles on the ski slope and might make things a little bit worse, but not enough to make much of a difference in my recovery.

Fast forward to the slopes. I took a nasty fall. Got back up, and had full range of motion in my knee. No longer clicked either. I suspect I had a little loose cartilage or other material causing an obstruction, and the fall knocked it out.