He returned to Orange last week following seven months of treatment in a Sydney hospital after being hit by a car while riding his mountain bike to work.

Dr Peterson was meant to be working at the Orange hospital emergency department on March 16 – instead he arrived by ambulance in a critical condition.

Married to Deb with two sons, Luke, 4 and Tim, 2, he is determined to restart his career as a doctor and continue his association with the Orange Mountain Bike Club.

Dr Peterson said his injuries had been extensive.

“I broke every bone in my neck, but one of the fractures was bad enough it damaged the spinal chord,” he said.

“I can’t feel or move anything, there’s occasional glimmers of something but not much. I also had quite bad fractures of my arm and leg, and a vertebral artery which provides blood flow to my brain was destroyed.”

He said he could not remember the accident.

“I believe I was semi-conscious on the day but not to store any memories away,” he said.

“I’d ridden that way many times before. Maybe that was it, maybe I was too casual and too complacent.

“The police have had a look into it and said it was an accident. I couldn’t see the car and the car couldn’t see me.”

VIDEO: Dr Steve Peterson says thank you ...

He said it must have been a shock for his workmates at the emergency department. 

“I was supposed to the number two on that day. They knew a trauma was coming in and that it was bad,” he said.

“They were a little bit concerned that they were understaffed. ‘Where’s Steve, why isn’t he here?’. Unfortunately it was me,”.

Dr Peterson said it felt like a dream when he finally woke up weeks later in the intensive care unit at Royal North Shore Hospital.

“Thanks to the heavy cocktail of medications I think I was quite calm about it all apparently,” he said.

“For a while I must have been dreaming, it was just a weird dream and I’d wake up some time as you do, but unfortunately not.”

The reaction to Dr Peterson’s video on Facebook ...

He said he would be recovering at Dudley Private Hospital before going home.

“Every day there has been a lot of physio and occupational therapy. I don’t have a lot of movement, but trying to make sure what I do have is as good as it can be,” he said.

“Last night for the first time in seven months I went back to the house. It was really nice to get back home.”

However the family house is not suitable for his wheelchair and they will move in with his parents-in-law before buying a new home.

He is determined to return to work and plans to next week meet with the manager where he practiced.

“From a general practice point of view I can still take a history of a patient and make a diagnosis, and order a test and read the result of the test, I can use a computer with specialised equipment,” Dr Peterson explained.

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“What I can’t do is examine a patient, so I’ll need to have a plan where patients can see me safely but we can get around the examination, for instance with another one of my colleagues being called in to examine.”

He said he also worked at a drug and alcohol clinic where patient examinations were not required and he “might be able to start back at that very soon”.

“At 32 I’m too young to retire,” he said.

Dr Peterson thanked the community and colleagues.

“I was a keen member of the Orange Mountain Bike Club, those guys have been great. They actually ran a charity bike race that raised $14,000 for spinal research,” he said.

“I hope to be able to continue with the club in either an administration or timekeeping role.”