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Canada Day mystery: A broken body and a moustached rescuer

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Cyclist doesn't remember accident, but remembers man with the moustache and dark suit

Show more Frederic Hore is searching for the people who saved him after his bike collision on Canada Day. 0:37

His body is broken and his face is bruised, but Frederic Hore has no idea how he was injured. Only a hazy memory of one his rescuers remains after he fell off his bike while crossing the Portage Bridge into Gatineau on Canada Day.

"I'm on the bridge, I look to my right and say 'Great view.' I see the Ottawa River - it was super. Then I wake up inside an ambulance," recounts Hore from a hospital wheelchair.

The Montreal-based freelance photographer is recovering from a concussion, a broken arm, a broken leg — fractured at the hip — and two crushed ribs.

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Hore, 64, says he was on his way to meet a friend and photograph the giant horticultural statues at Jacques-Cartier Park when he fell off his bike while riding in the designated bike lane.

He doesn't know what knocked him off his bike, but remembers a "guy with a moustache and black suit" hovering over him when he regained consciousness in the back of an ambulance.

'Wheelchair diaries'

Before he blacked out again, the moustached man reassured Hore they had his bike. When he was moved out of the emergency room, Hore learned that the paramedics transported his bike to the hospital as well, and locked it up for him in a storage locker.

For the past few days Hore has tried to find the good Samaritans who came to his rescue but has had no luck, so he contacted CBC News in hopes of locating them.

"I really want to thank the paramedics for getting me here (to hospital) and for the person who called 911 and didn't just walk by," said Hore.

Photographer Frederic Hore says that all he remembers is looking out over the Ottawa River before he woke up in the hospital. (Supplied)

A 911 call about an injured cyclist came in at 4:40 p.m. on Canada Day, CBC News confirmed, but Hore hasn't been able to locate the caller and the paramedics who transported him to the hospital. Hore will soon be transferred to a Montreal hospital, but was hoping to find his rescuers before then.

The injuries have forced the freelance photographer to put his latest project on hold. He says he was hoping to travel across the country and publish a book titled Canada 150: From Sea to Sea to Sea. Yet, Hore has found inspiration for another project while stuck in his casts.

Although it hurts for him to pick up his camera, Hore says he has been wheeling down the hallways of the hospital taking photographs of hospital staff for a social media project he plans to put on Instagram. He's calling it the "Wheelchair Diaries" — and has his fingers crossed that he will be able to feature his rescuers in the project.