On this particular afternoon my brother decided to stay at the club to play with his friends instead of going home to the farm, which was 25 km out of town, with my dad. After my mom had finished playing tennis and I had had my lesson my brother and I had a fight in the car park because my mom used to drive a single cab farm pickup and whoever sat in the middle did not have to get out and open the gate on the way home. Unfortunately for me I won this fight and later nearly lost my life.
I do not remember any of these events, but know that they happened because every Tuesday was the same and all the other details have been filled in by various people. I only remember the Saturday before my accident when I travelled with my family up north to a town called Kwekwe, Zimbabwe for me to play tennis and my brother to play cricket. I remember winning my tennis and later on having an argument with my dad. He was cross with me because he had spent the day watching my brother play cricket in the hot sun with having no refreshments at a different place to the sports club where we had been playing tennis, and the first thing I had asked him was “if we were going home soon?” when he had not even had a chance to get himself to drink. I do not remember travelling home or the braai (barbeque) that took place that evening or the people I met that evening who came to dinner the following night.
On the way home we hit a bull on the road. It is believed that at the time of the accident it was approaching dusk and the truck lights did not really improve vision as there were no skid marks on the road. To cut a long story short we were flown up to St Anne's Hospital to Harare by MARS (an emergency service) where we were stabilized. My Dad's diagnosis of me being a C3 spinal cord injury was confirmed, my mom was diagnosed with brain injury and my brother was fortunate to enough to come out of the accident with only a concution and a few bumps and bruises. I underwent surgery, having a spinal cord decompression on my neck to reduce the pressure on my spinal cord by seperating the bone fragments. My family was basically told to prepare for two funerals as my mum and I were not expected to live.
After 5 days we had stabilised and it was decided to transport us to a hospital in Johannesburg (South Africa) called Selby Park. It was here that I had a bone graft done. A bone was removed from my leg and put into my neck to fuse and give some stablility for my neck. This operation took over 13 hours. My first memory of being in this hospital was waking up in the dark and asking the nurse for a pillow to be put behind my head as the back of my head was sore from the pressure of leaning on it for the past two weeks. I did not understand why I was so uncomfortable. I have a few other vague memories of these early days but fortunately my mind had subconciously prepared me for the trauma ahead. I remeber asking my dad at one stage why I couldn't move but do not remember being very devastated at his response. Maybe it was aslo the fact that I did not realise how much this would effect my future.
I spent about two months in hospital doing physio and recuperating. About a week before christmas I was discharged because my Dad is a doctor and was lucky enough to spend christmas day with my family. We spent the whole of christmas day in tears and found it really hard. The thought of my mom lying in hospital in a coma while we were unwrapping christmas presents was really hard to deal with. It was the saddest christmas day ever!!!
For eight months after the accident my mom was in a coma. When she came out of the coma she was unable to do anything for herself and was not able to communicate very well at the best of times. When she was taken back to Zimbabwe she lived in an old age home and had nurses looking after her as my dad was unable to look after me and her at the same time. I can not imagine what it was like for her to be trapped in her own body and not be able to communicate with anyone. Nine years down the line she passed away (July 2006) because of a chest infection. I see this as a blessing in disguise because she now does not have to suffer anymore. This has also allowed us as a family to move on and finally 'close the looming door' as such, of not having a mom.
In the new year my brother went back to Zimbabwe in January with friends and after a month in boarding school he couldn't wait for us to get home. When we finally arrived home at the end of February we were emotionally drained and seeing the 'welcome home' banner and balloons that friends had put up set us off in tears. It was great to be home!