Now he’s learnt that Traumatic Brain Injuries and Strokes are both labelled Acquired Brain Injuries. ABI’s refer to an injury that has occurred after a person’s birth – that has resulted in a cerebrovascular accident (such as the rupture of a blood vessel in the brain – in the case of a stroke) or a Traumatic Brain Injury (where the person’s brain comes into direct contact with a solid object – that also results in bleeding on the brain.)
On a February day in 1986, which was my matric year, I was riding my 50cc motorbike through the streets of Pretoria, on my way to arrange a drama lesson for the school play in which I had the leading role. I can’t remember the name of the play, just as I can’t remember what happened to me that afternoon. All I know for sure is that my whole life changed in a second.
A passing taxi connected with me, sending me flying across the face of two houses. Fortunately, I was knocked unconscious at the point-of-impact, so I only broke two bones when I landed on the tarmac. But I also suffered what is known as a TBI. A Traumatic Brain Injury.
As I later found out, one of the motorists who stopped at the scene was a medical doctor, who just happened to be specializing in Neurosurgery at the time. He didn’t have sophisticated medical equipment with him, but he cleared my airways, allowing oxygen to flow through to my brain.An ambulance arrived and I was rushed to the H.F. Verwoerd Hospital where my chances of surviving that night in the ICU was rated at no more than 5%.
The next day, the following report was printed in a local newspaper:
“A Hatfield youth, Derick Brumer (17) of Church Street was seriously injured when his motorcycle collided with a taxi at the corner of Church and Thompson Streets at abouy 3.40 PM. He was admitted to the H.F. Verwoerd Hospital and his condition is said to be critical”.
I was in a coma. As I now understand, the reason a person falls into a coma is because of the pain that the body is experiencing at that moment. The brain decides to “switch off” all non-essential functions, such as consciousness, so that it can concentrate all its energy on the vital business of survival.
Statistically speaking, a 5% chance of survival is more like 0%. But doctors never say 0% because something unexpected could happen. As it did in my case.
Several months later, I regained consciousness. I’m pretty sure that I remember waking up in a darkish room – the room I shared with my ouma as a small child. The room was dark because there was an awning outside the window, over the carport. I seem to remember asking myself, “what has happened to me? Why am I in this darkened room?”
Apparently, one of the amazing things is that I spoke in full sentences from the time I regained consciousness. And so I began my slow, laborious journey back to health and happiness. Without the constant support I received from my parents – my mother especially – I doubt if I would have been able to write this today.
I spent the next year doing initial rehabilitation, four times a week to begin with for an hour-long session. Added to that I did approximately one hour of independent exercise at home.
Music played an important role here because my late mother was a music teacher. It was natural that when I did my physio exercises independently at home, I “jived” to the accompaniment of music from a radio-audio player.
Actually “jive” is the wrong word. A more accurate word would be “wriggle” on the floor, because of my balance problems, spasticity and hemiplaegia, a condition in which half of the body is paralysed.
I believe music helped because it is controlled by the opposite side of the brain to the side that controls your logical thinking. Given the fact that our schooling emphasises our logical “left-brain” thinking, I’m sure that lateral thinking also played a role in my recovery, because it enabled me to think “out of the box”.
In 1988, two years after my accident I went back to matric. I passed five subjects, including three I had never taken before. Who says that people can’t learn anything new after they’ve suffered brain-damage? In 1992 I did a word-processing course, and the year after that I went to Midrand Campus, which runs UNISA courses.
I passed Psychology 1 in the first year. In 1994 I tried to take 2 subjects – and dopped them both! But in 1995 I was accepted into my hometown university (Tukkies), graduating six years later with a BA-degree.
Today I hold six tertiary qualifications, including a distinction for the Advanced- course in Logotherapy, offered by the UNISA School for Applied Psychology. I had an article placed in the International Forum for Logotherapy Journal, Search For Meaning. It was entitled ‘Some Personal Comments on Perseverance’.
I am a sought-after speaker on the public circuit, and I believe that I’m a role-model for all people as I demonstrate the potential ‘recoverability’ of anyone even after they’ve survived a Traumatic Brain Injury. They will definitely need support, which differs in every case. In my case it was Physiotherapy (as it taught me how to walk again) and Speech Therapy (as it taught me how to think and communicate again).
I tell my inspiring story as a Discovery member who has learned that whatever happens to you in your life should be seen as nothing more than a challenge. A challenge? Yes, provided that you are prepared to give 100% to make the most of your life, and you have the necessary goedspa to make your most cherished dreams and ambitions come true.
All it takes for anyone to be involved in an accident is for them to be in the wrong place, at the wrong time. But that’s looking very simplistically at the whole issue.
If one person gets involved in a traumatic incident, it’s not only them that gets affected. Their whole direct family gets affected. For good reason, because the moment any person gets labeled “disabled”, they automatically become “unemployable” as well.
This doesn’t make any sense, because after a person has become disabled, they must have experienced something that would have laid most people low if they were faced by similar circumstances. People can overcome anything in life, if they can just give it some meaning.
My mother used to say that “When the Lord closes a door, He leaves open a window!”
