Gidday Everyone

This is my story for Natalie. It was June 2000 and we had just landed at Brisbane (Australia) airport after a holiday in NZ. Our car was being looked after by friends, so we took the nearest taxi to go and pick it up to begin our 600km drive home. Natalie (then, 7 years old) sat in the middle front alongside her father and the driver. I sat in the back with my other two children Kimberly (12 years old) and Lewis (2 years old). The driver pulled out from the kerb and immediately planted his foot on the accelerator so that the tyres began to squeal. He smashed straight into a boomgate but to my horror did not attempt to slow down or stop. I leaned over the front and asked him what the hell he was doing but he just kept on accelerating. We were fast catching up to a car in front and I thought his intention was to ram it from behind. I remember thinking "this guy is a "fruitloop" and wants to kill us all". Then suddenly he swerved the car to the right, straight into a concrete pillar which we hit head on. All this happened in an instant and we were right outside the airport terminal so there were many people to assist. Kimberly, Lewis and my husband, Peter were OK. The driver had an airbag and was OK also. (we have yet to discover what his problem was as the police have ruled out mechanical problems with the car.) I suffered a perforated bowel and Natalie was unconscious. Natalie and I went to hospital by ambulance and Pete and the two other kids followed in a police car. From this point on I do not know all the details as I underwent surgery and my husband was left to look after the two uninjured children and worry about Natalie. He did such a heroic job and was a pillar of strength. (Just looking after a healthy active 2 year old confined to hospital surroundings is hard enough!!) We were 6 hours drive away from our home and had little support. Pete did it all on his own. I was unable to see Natalie for 4 days due to my injuries and we were in different hospitals which made life "busy" for Pete and made me feel helpless. She was in ICU for 2 days in an induced coma with a closed head injury. When she had stabilized she was moved onto a ward. She was paralysed on her right side and also no vision on her right. Could not walk, talk or eat. She used to thrash around on her bed just wailing and moaning constantly and seldom slept. Her good arm was splinted to stop her from pulling the tubes out and to stop her from climbing out of bed. But her determination (the trait that used to make me so angry before the accident - but I believe, in the end, helped her recovery!) was such, that when no one was around she would remove the tubes by rubbing her cheek on the pillow until the sticky tape peeled off, and then she would rub some more until the tubes came out!! The nurses couldn't work out how she was doing it!!! If I tried to hug her she would bite me and get more agitated. It was heartbreaking to watch and we did not know if she could understand us. We now know it was anger and frustration at not being able to verbalize and we also know that she could understand everything said. One of the hardest things to deal with was that no one knew her prognosis and we could not get a lot of information. When we discovered she could understand us we got a Yes/No board which we used to ask her questions. This alleviated a lot of the frustration for her. A week on the ward went by then a rehab team began working with her doing intensive daily speech, psysio and occupational therapy. 7 weeks later she was talking (slurred) walking (short distances) and eating (like a horse) and we could go home at last! We wonder if Nat will ever be the same but we try not dwell. Whats done is done and God only knows what Life has in store for her. We thank God everyday that she is alive and realize that we have changed also. Tragedy has put our lives into perspective and opened up a whole new world. Among this world is the TBI world, where there are many wonderful people and inspirational (but often heartbreaking) stories.
Thanks for listening.
Tracy (teecee)