Your Stories
Brain injury survivors and their carers have many stories to share about life after injury.
We would love to hear your story and, if you wish, publish it on our website - please phone or email us to discuss how you can contribute your story.
Ralph Perrin's Story...
I dedicate this story to all the people who were about to give up but never did. I've been told I could write my story. Over the years I have tried many times to put it together only but this time I'm going to persevere...
by Ralph L. Perrin
The Nightmare Begins...
At the age of just 12 years old, Cheryl Koenig’s son Jonathan was involved in a horrific car accident and suffered an extremely severe traumatic brain injury. He was in a coma for six weeks and given very little chance of survival. His doctors predicted that if he did survive he would never be able to walk or talk. Twelve years later Jonathan has completed his Higher School Certificate and a TAFE course and is currently learning to drive. He can walk well, and has just begun to run. He can snow ski, swim and play tennis. And he astounds family and friends with his piano playing skills. All this as well as working five days a week in four part-time jobs.
How did I find myself travelling to Washington with a small bird cage in my suitcase?
How did I find myself travelling to Washington with a small bird cage in my suitcase? My journey that led to this journey to The Eighth World Congress on Brain Injury, has been long, confronting and challenging.
Backstory
Bang! In the blink of an eye my life was changed by an horrific car accident! Days passed and then I struggled, slipping in and out of consciousness in intensive care. I thought I was pinned to the bed by steel spikes from innumerable breaks in my ribs, I couldn’t move my left side, I didn’t know who I was and I was terrified to see two headed people emerging from the gloom (double vision). I had no words to express this strange fact. But somehow in all the trauma and chaos I ‘saw the light’ that the most important things we own are our own thoughts.
Over the last 19 years I have been challenged to discover how my own thoughts could help me recover my life, and, as a teacher, how thoughts could give hope and help people overwhelmed by brain injury, the ‘king of change’. I captured my thoughts slowly on the backs of envelopes and scraps of paper and gradually put them together, typing with large print with one finger. This manuscript “Doing Up Buttons” was published by Penguin Australia in 1997. Since then not a week has gone by without someone contacting me to say how the book helped them ‘see’ and understand. I’ve been invited to speak to many groups of people affected by brain injury.
Chris's Bird Cage
Download Chris's story [Adobe Acrobat PDF - 209.63 KB] or follow the link below to continue reading.
Read more: How did I find myself travelling to Washington with a small bird cage in my suitcase?
My name is Prue Ward...
My name is Prue Ward. I was 27 years of age when my life as I knew it came to an abrupt end. At 7.45 am on the 15th of December 2005 I was on my way to Blackburn Animal Hospital when my car was hit by another vehicle running a red light. I have no recollection of that day or the next 15 or so days to follow...
Download or read my story. [Adobe Acrobat PDF - 2.62 MB]
My name is Prue...
“Wii … I can fly mum!”
When you're disabled, as I am, often the last place you want to be is stuck right here, in your body, in the same place, (and yeah, there’s many readers agreeing whole-heartedly with me, and they’re perfectly fit.) But what if you didn’t have to be? We’re witnessing the advent of some cool and quite sophisticated technology that has the potential to transform the confined corridors of disability into a ‘wormhole’ of potentially creative ability.
I’d like to briefly talk about just two of these products: Nintendo’s Wii and in a subsequent paper, the ‘Second Life’ 3D virtual world application. In this article I will briefly discuss how Wii can potentially augment the psychological and physiological well-being of participants. I’ll initially cite some research and together with my own experience, attempt to evaluated Wii’s supportive role for disabled persons.
More Stories from BIA NSW
You will find more personal stories on the website of our member organisation in New South Wales - the Brain Injury Association of NSW.
1000 Voices
While a lot of research is conducted in the field of disability using statistics and other medicalised forms of data, we rarely hear about the experiences of people who live with disability. The 1000 Voices project hopes to remedy this situation by collecting and displaying 1000 life stories from people with disability from around the world.
A Coma Victim Speaks
Young worker Luke Walker remains positive after suffering electric shock and associated brain injury. When Luke Walker is questioned about what happened to him the day he climbed into the roof to help his father on an electrical job, he says "I don't remember."
Rebecca's Story
BIA's Executive Officer, Nick Rushworth, talks with Rebecca - a
victim - survivor of inflicted Traumatic Brain Injury - on the ABC's
Gold Coast FM [MP3 Audio - 3.55 MB]
Rebecca and her Mum
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