William (TBI): Chapter 2 - The accident & initial treatment

Episode 1:  Chapter 2 - William Cole - Recovery from a farm motorcycle accident which resulted in a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) - The accident & initial treatment in hospital.

In the first episode, we meet William Cole, a 25 year old farmer from Bookaar in Western Victoria. William had a farm motorcycle accident in 2017 which resulted in a traumatic brain injury. In this second chapter of the episode, William talks about his accident and we discuss his initial treatment in hospital.

Transcript and show notes are available for each episode on the podcast website: storiesofrecovery.buzzsprout.com

Shownotes:

• 10:50 - The air ambulance flew William to the Royal Melbourne Hospital. Have you got an Ambulance Victoria membership? It's possibly the best value membership you'll ever own,
• 14:40 - The article in The Standard newspaper online which includes the images of William's scans (before and after the 12 hour surgery he underwent),
• 16:40 - William was moved to the Epworth Hospital in Richmond following his surgery, to begin his rehabilitation.  He stayed here working with a trauma rehab team for 3 months,
• 16:51 & 18:36 - William's trauma rehabilitation team included: A speech pathologist, a neuropsychologist (another useful description of this speciality here), a psychologist, a physiotherapist, an occupational therapist and a dietician,
• ^18:08 - Make friends with your treaters (the people treating you),
• ^21:00 - Watch movies or tv shows that you enjoy and have seen before with the subtitles and volume both turned on to help your brain reconnect the sound with the word,
• ^22:27 - Time is a great healer.

^William's main tips

Transcript

Robbie - Introduction: 0:10

Welcome to Chapter Two. In this chapter William talks about the accident and the initial treatment he received in hospital.

Robbie - Host: 0:32

So then do you want to talk us through in as much, or as little detail as you like...the event itself?

William Cole - guest: 0:41

Yeah, yeah. The... well...the big crash. It was, well, just to start off, it was really funny because all of a sudden you're somewhere and then you're somewhere else. It was like teleporting.

Robbie - Host: 0:51

That was your experience?

William Cole - guest: 0:52

Yeah, it was strange just because I dunno if it was just my pain tolerance or maybe I was bombed out on the medication that the doctors were giving me. But yeah, well, on the 8th of October, it was a Friday. I knocked off work and I came home and I was welding. And when you've got your eye'in', it means you can sort of weld anything. So I came home to my workshop and kept welding because I was'in form'.

Robbie - Host: 1:23

Nice.

William Cole - guest: 1:23

And then I had a mate come over. And he was hanging out. Yeah, he was staying for the weekend, all weekend. He got down from Melbourne and we were just hanging out here, just chatting and catching up and had a beer or so, and, the neighbours were having their daughter's 25th(birthday) and they've been good family friends since they moved in about 12 years ago. And so being a good neighbour I thought it's her birthday and she's got all her mates, we'll go over and say g'day. I was catching up on their news and yeah... So I stayed there for about two hours or so. Nothing too big, from about 7:00pm to 9:00pm, had a bite to eat, and they were playing some boccé out on the lawn and so I played that... And so I was chatting to her mother and she was just sort of walking me out saying thanks for coming. And I was like, yeah, no worries, Allison. Good to see you. I chatted to her post-accident and she said, yeah, you seemed fine. I think across the whole night I would have had two beers. So, you know, I was quite, fine,

Robbie - Host: 2:25

Lucid?

William Cole - guest: 2:26

Yeah. And she said I got on the motorbike fine and put my helmet on fine. It was just, you know, normal Will, like he's just doing his thing. And so yeah, I jumped on the bike and set sail off back towards home, from that party. And so yeah I went home with that thought, that you know, I've got to work tomorrow. And so I was just driving home and for me I was just went into a black cloud, like I can't remember, but for the description of it, I was heading home and I think roughly would have been(travelling at a speed of) about 30 to 40 kilometers per hour. T he right side of my handlebars of my motorbike, I was on a two wheeler agricultural motor bike, and the right handle of it clipped into a Bluestone cattle grid, which resulted...

Robbie - Host: 3:23

So into the wall?

William Cole - guest: 3:24

Into yeah. Into, into it. Into a the bluestone wall.

Robbie - Host: 3:30

So you're driving past a...through the gate and clipped the edge of the gate?

William Cole - guest: 3:32

Yeah, yeah. Yep. So it's just over the road where the crash site was. Um, but yeah, so driving up towards to exit the property and drive through the entry onto my property and yeah, there was these, um, there's a blue stone cattle grid. So you drive over that to stop the cattle obviously, getting onto the road and, uh, yeah. Being made out of bluestone, it obviously impacted quite hard and resulted in the, um, right handlebar jerking down hard to the right and the wheel hitting, and, um, it, it's, it's quite funny because there's a few marks on that side and then there's few marks on that side, and some people think that I would have hit there, and I did hit that part of the stone at that time with my head. Um, I didn't have my helmet done up, so I think my helmet would've came off and I hit it with my head on the right side, and then I've managed to stay on the bike and drive across as it would have bounced back across and driven onto the other side of the wall. But that amazes me, like I must've somehow really got it on a sharp angle because of the cattle grid. Like there's, it's like when you tram track on your bicycle, it's sorta no escape. Yeah, somehow it must've been over the grid and then came back and hit it or something because they found the bike on the left side, out through the exit about 10 meters. So I may have stayed on the bike and fell off there or I might have fallen off at the first impact or the second impact. We're really not too sure. I guess the fight or flight response takes over and... to me, like, I cannot recall this at all, the brain's completely blanked it out, but I, yeah, from that accident, I did get up and started to walk back towards where my friends were having their birthday party.

Robbie - Host: 5:30

Because how far were you from there?

William Cole - guest: 5:33

Uh, it was about 200 meters.

Robbie - Host: 5:36

Okay.

William Cole - guest: 5:37

Yeah. So it was, yeah. I did have a break on the way with the walk, cause they found my boot, so I must've fallen down and taken my boot off and they found a pool of blood as well, the next morning. So I was obviously moving quite slowly and steadily but yeah. And I walked back towards the friend's birthday party and jumped in to a car and jumped into the boot of my neighbour's car, who was Alison, the lady I was talking to before I jumped on the motorbike to sail off back home. It was just chance of luck that Alison actually had to catch a flight the next morning, quite early and it was about 6:00 AM or something. So what did she do, she woke up, packed her stuff and jumped into her car and heard scuffling in the back and she was like, oh, what's that? That's strange.

Robbie - Host: 6:34

Is this a sedan or a wagon?

William Cole - guest: 6:36

Ah, this is a four wheel drive.

Robbie - Host: 6:38

And so you've closed the back behind you and you're like huddled up in..., in the back of the boot. Yeah. Wow.

William Cole - guest: 6:45

So, um, the brain must've been working quite well to be able to close the boot on yourself.

Robbie - Host: 6:51

It sounds like the return from sort of a late night at a B&S(Bachelor and Spinsters- Agricultural Ball) or something, where you crawl back into the back of your ute and crawl into your swag for the night.

William Cole - guest: 7:00

Yeah, it was, well, it was funny because before Alison found me, I had started dreaming and these were very vivid dreams. Like I was dreaming that I was at their property, but we were having this massive party and there was all my old workmates from the sale yards were there and they were drinking and we were watching the cricket and in then there were these people from like Mexico there...

Robbie - Host: 7:26

You can still remember this two years later?

William Cole - guest: 7:27

I remember that. And I remember I got locked in this garage. It was a girl called Megan. I've never seen this face or met a lady alike before. Another younger...I can't remember her name and this old, like 60 year old dude from Hungary. Like he had like a very European accent and it was, it was classic. Um, but the funny thing in my dream was, Megan or whatever her name was saying that she had to go to town to buy meds because I said I had a headache and she was like, okay, I'll run to town and get you some medicine. And then I can remember the dream, I was like, where's that Megan chick? And as soon as I thought that she popped up and she was like, oh, here you go... So yeah, I'll leave it at that, but, well, yeah.

Robbie - Host: 8:20

So, so what happened? I guess, just from the story...like you obviously don't have the memory of any of this, but what happened at that point? So your friend's Mum found you halfway to the airport?

William Cole - guest: 8:32

Well, no, luckily she didn't leave the house.

Robbie - Host: 8:35

She would have been surprised to find you there!

William Cole - guest: 8:37

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. It would have been a great shock. And because of the impact that I had on the stone, I wasn't looking pretty. So it would have been quite the, um, initial shock to see someone in that state, especially someone that you've known for quite a while, but then also just the wonder of, you know, what the hell happened to you? Yeah."Where'd you come from and why've you been in my car and what's going on?

Robbie - Host: 9:01

So she drove you to the hospital?

William Cole - guest: 9:04

She didn't drive me to the hospital. She raised the alarm with her husband and he came out to check on me, but somehow they got me to the shower.

Robbie - Host: 9:21

So were you awake?

William Cole - guest: 9:22

I was, but I cannot remember this. Um, very groggy, like very slow responses like, ah, nah. But yeah, and so they would have woken up some others and put me in the shower and my good mate, who was their son Elliott. Um, he put me in the shower and he turned it on and he thought um, oh, why are you sitting down? So he stupidly thought he'd stand me up. And then it was that classic realization, as soon as you take one step or two steps away, he was like, maybe I shouldn't have done that. And he hears this massive thump and down I go straight back onto the ground. But luckily in a funny sense, luckily it did happen because I had long hair at the time down, past my eyes. Um, and he looked at me and I looked up at him and then he actually could see my skull. So, um, he then just ran out of the bathroom, was like, all right, nah we need to, let's call the ambulance. Let's just raise the alarm. And, um, he woke up his older sister and luckily she had a few, you know, being a birthday party. Some of her mates were nurses and, um, studying something, you know, in the medical world of things. And yeah, they woke up and sorta took my aid and were looking after me with the most care, which was, very again lucky. And then they had called the ambulance and the first ambulance rocked up and that was the local ambulance from town and they put me in the stretcher and stuff and they were going to take me to Warrnambool. But through my Mum's and everyone's around here...local knowledge, they know that the roads are pretty, how you going, like bumpy and potholes and stuff. And they knew that someone in such a state, they didn't really want to risk it. So they decided to call the air ambulance and just re-jittering back to my story, it was funny because Mum was there and I can remember her being like"how are you? Can you feel my hand? Squeeze my hand". Um, but I was telling her that I owed Megan money for the medication she got me from those dreams. And Mum questioned me about it like a year or two after the accident and I was like"oh, I was dreaming" by then. Yeah, anyway.

Robbie - Host: 11:48

So you got air lifted to Melbourne?

William Cole - guest: 11:50

Yeah. So yeah, so the air ambulance came and landed and they strapped me up, or put me in there and I got flown to the Royal Melbourne hospital. Now when I got there, I think I would have been seduced( sic) into a coma at the Royal Melbourne. I don't know if the ambulance did. Um, but anyway I got flown there and got seduced(sic) into an induced coma for nine days, and that was more weird dreaming, but yeah, it was just strange because that whole...it was about 10 days, I'd say, yeah just solid, straight dreams and yeah, it was a strange and funny place. I mean I could ramble on about those dreams for hours, but there's no point. But yeah, I can remember, waking up. When it came time to wake up. And...

Robbie - Host: 12:47

Was that something that the medical team had decided for you? Like, were they controlling you in that state for nine days?

William Cole - guest: 12:54

Yeah. Well they did actually try to wake me up earlier and as I came re-awoken, I was convulsing wriggling around, so it was still obviously healing a bit. So they put me back into the coma for a few more days. I don't know at what time they tried to wake me back up, but yeah that might've been a couple of days or so. But then during being in the coma I got all my scans and everything.

Robbie - Host: 13:25

So they assessed everything?

William Cole - guest: 13:27

Yeah from head to toe pretty much, just figuring out what was going on. And well I did receive a 9, no 12 hour surgery, which did result in titanium plates and screws in my face. So under my jaw, holding my cheek bones together and part of my eyes together and up all over my skull. Because from the x-rays I had cracked my skull in many different places. And as a result they had to break more of it to be able to fix it properly. So I got a lot of metal up in my head and a lot of, a fair bit of plastic surgery as well. Because there was a lot of cracks I broke all my eye sockets, my jaw was completely dislodged and I couldn't really talk out of it and yeah, just cleanly snapped like my jaw, like there was two parts to my jaw. Yeah, there was a lot of, a lot of damage done.

Robbie - Host: 14:43

I'll just add in here, I saw there was some scans on one of the articles, I think in The Standard of what your scan of your skull at the injury and then after it'd been fixed up and it was pretty traumatic, but I must just say you're looking very good. You'd have no idea...like no idea anything's happened.

William Cole - guest: 15:05

If you want some good surgeons mate I'll get you some. Well hats off to the surgeons, I mean, they're amazing and they're a really cool group of guys, but as you say, a lot of therapists and doctors call it an invisible injury because you know, some people who recover quite well, they'll get put together back again quite well, but yeah you won't even notice like that even happened or...yeah. It's yeah. It's quite amazing.

Robbie - Host: 15:34

Yeah. Some context for people is that all of those other injuries, they would have taken some time to heal, but they would have healed up. And as you say, no one can see them anymore. So I think..., my understanding was you were nine days in a coma in the Royal Melbourne hospital?

William Cole - guest: 15:50

Yes.

Robbie - Host: 15:51

And then how long did you stay in the Royal Melbourne for total?

William Cole - guest: 15:54

I was there for about two weeks following the crash.

Robbie - Host: 15:59

Yep.

William Cole - guest: 16:00

I think about two weeks until what's it called? They've got some term for it, anyway, until I passed that term of just where I'm at, like if I was able to go and go to the toilet independently and sort of be wanting to get out of the hospital bed, I suppose. Because I was just sick of it because those days at the Royal Melbourne I was just bedridden. Just sitting there. No TV or any distractions. They won't allow you to have phones or anything. So just sitting there and really trying to hang out.

Robbie - Host: 16:35

So they put you sort of.. did that initial work in terms of putting you back together and then you had about three months in?

William Cole - guest: 16:42

So yeah, after that I got transferred to the Epworth

Robbie - Host: 16:45

Yep. In Melbourne still?

William Cole - guest: 16:45

Yeah, in Richmond.

Robbie - Host: 16:47

Yep. To the trauma rehab team or who was that to?

William Cole - guest: 16:53

I did have a trauma rehab team and we were all in a ward together, and it was people with head injuries and ABI's(acquired brain injuries) and stuff. So they could all monitor us. No doubt there was a lot of neuropsychologists, speech pathologists and occupational therapists all crammed in and around there to be able to help, because yeah, they do a lot of thoughts and understanding and memory and talking and, a lot of brain function, but then also the OT(occupational therapy) being yeah, work and stuff. And if you were previous employed and how you could ease back into work and monitoring your future days or your tasks that you can perform.

Robbie - Host: 17:42

Yes.

William Cole - guest: 17:42

And so these guys were all working with us to be able to understand where we were at, in terms of healing after such a big crash.

Robbie - Host: 17:50

Yeah sure.

William Cole - guest: 17:51

And yeah, it was good. I was learning...slowly learning to get back to walking at the Epworth. I do remember a few days I was being pushed around in a wheelchair and it felt pretty fun because you didn't have to do much and everyone was working around you. But yeah, I was slowly learning how to walk and I became...I guess my mentality was...I became really good friends with my treaters and sort of made it a friendship rather than a patient, carer thing.

Robbie - Host: 18:30

So this is the team that are kind of around you really sort of focusing on your recovery?

William Cole - guest: 18:34

Yes.

Robbie - Host: 18:34

And who did that comprise? Like what professions did that comprise?

William Cole - guest: 18:38

I had a speech pathologist, a neuropsychologist. I had a psychologist twice.

Robbie - Host: 18:44

What was the difference between the psychologist and the neuropsychologist?

William Cole - guest: 18:46

I think the psychologist just wanted to chat sort of thing. Make sure you know that you had like your thoughts were fine and stuff like that. I can't really say because she flew in and flew out. Like she would just all of a sudden... cause I was laying in bed most of the day and all the people would come into your room and then leave and she rocked up and chatted for about 20 minutes and then another time for about an hour.

Robbie - Host: 19:12

Okay.

William Cole - guest: 19:12

And well I was just chatting to her about home and the farm because she asked me where I lived and of course I just started talking about the farm. I said you need to come out and visit it one day and dada... And stuff like that, and we became good friends because she was from around here somewhere. But yeah, I never saw her again and she never really did any work with me. Like we didn't really do many assessments, or any assessments or anything.

Robbie - Host: 19:36

So maybe she was just sort of assessing where you were?

William Cole - guest: 19:39

Yeah. Just sort of face value on first impression. I'm not too sure. She could have just been a random lady from the street.

Robbie - Host: 19:47

Just someone who's walked in, looking for a chat?!

William Cole - guest: 19:47

I was quite happily chatting away. So yeah, and then, well my neuropsychologist, my speech pathologist, a physiotherapist, an occupational therapist and a dietician.

Robbie - Host: 20:05

Wow. So it's quite the team. And how often would you see those people?

William Cole - guest: 20:09

The physiotherapist I'd see twice a week, the neuropsychologist I'd probably see twice to three times... no, once a week, speech pathology once a week. I think. Yeah. All the rest were once a week and dietician...

Robbie - Host: 20:24

So you've still got a lot of time by yourself...

William Cole - guest: 20:25

Absolutely.

Robbie - Host: 20:25

Because at this point you can't walk?

William Cole - guest: 20:28

I was getting back to walking. When I was at the Royal Melbourne I couldn't walk and yeah I remember waking up and my eyes...it was just all white and thin lines because my eyes were scabbed over and I remember trying to walk for the first time and they had a couple of the workers on the side of the nurses and yeah. I just tried to stand up and just fell back down and it took a few sessions to be able to get a step in again.

Robbie - Host: 20:53

And, and was that because of the leg? Ok, the leg*less(more) than the head?

William Cole - guest: 20:58

Yeah. Yeah.

Robbie - Host: 20:58

But then did you have to learn to talk again?

William Cole - guest: 21:01

Talk, well, yeah in a way. Being able to remember... like just how you asked that question. Trying to be able to remember the question and come up with a response. It was very delayed and could be very random, sort of off with the fairies I suppose, you know.

Robbie - Host: 21:20

Yep.

William Cole - guest: 21:20

And it was just more to...yeah...concentration and memory and being...having a good vocabulary. That was quite hard because I had to sort of start reading again, you know, to be able to get in tune with those words. So yeah, it was funny. Well reading was proving quite tough at the Epworth, but luckily by this time at the Epworth they gave you little screens and you could have Netflix and YouTube and stuff, and I started watching a lot of Netflix, but I started watching movies with subtitles on. So I would watch movies that I knew and just read the subtitles and just read it word for word, even though I'd seen the movie and stuff, but it was just so I could sort of get that brain power going again, just to read the words as they come up and...

Robbie - Host: 22:16

Connect the word with the meaning...

William Cole - guest: 22:17

Yeah, yeah, exactly right. And it was funny with some words, I was just like...uh, what's that mean again...? Stuff like that. But I think the best like medicine for that was time to pass by and my brain slowly became less mush and started to...

Robbie - Host: 22:40

Fire again.

William Cole - guest: 22:40

Yeah, exactly. Fire again.

Robbie - Host: 22:52

That's the end of Chapter Two. In Chapter Three William shares his main recovery learnings. Returning home.