Broken: Living with a Brain Injury

ABI Rehabilitation is the place people come to recover from Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). In this episode we meet Terry, Tekaha and Eltje. Terry was injured when his truck jackknifed on the highway. He can’t walk or talk and is only dimly aware of his surroundings. Tekaha is six months into his recovery from a car accident. He’s learning to walk now, and wrestling with various behavioral issues including irresistible laughter. Eltje was a fanatical cyclist and suffered her injury on a bike. Now she’s starting the journey towards departure from ABI.

In episode two Terry starts to emerge from his fog of confusion, Eltje comes to terms with what’s happened to her, and after six months of rehabilitation Tekaha prepares to re-enter the world a changed man. The journey is a challenge as much for their families as the sufferers themselves, as they get to know a person who may be different to the one they knew pre-injury.

Terry is learning to walk and starting to recall what happened to him. Eltje is preparing to go home. Fifteen year-old Jarrod was playing basketball when he collapsed and had a heart attack. He survived, but because his brain was starved of oxygen he must learn to talk, read and write once again.

What is it like to start again? To learn to tie your shoelaces at 56, or to learn how to walk when you’re 16? Terry’s awareness is coming back. He says he’s a new man and better one, and he’s keen to show he can get things done. But cognition involves many moving parts and Terry’s aren’t all in sync yet. Jarrod couldn’t walk. Now he can run – but he needs to remember to keep breathing.

Terry, T.K and Jarrod have spent months in Auckland’s ABI Rehabilitation, learning the very basics of how to live after suffering a traumatic brain injury. Being able to do all the things which should happen automatically like walking, talking, eating and thinking has taken intense and excruciating therapy. Now we follow them as they face their toughest challenge yet, leaving the confines of ABI and heading home. Terry and Jarrod get a taste of what it will be like when the experts and therapists are longer around 24/7, while T.K has said farewell to ABI for good.