I left work and headed home biking along the cycleway down Te Rapa Straight, Hamilton. A car parked on the cycleway opened his door right on me. I’m usually really careful because I know how dangerous roads can be but I didn’t see this fella, he just opened his door onto a 60km/h busy road, which struck me, and I bounced off the door into an oncoming car going past which also ran me over.

I don’t remember anything at all of this day. I had seven broken ribs, both of my shoulder blades were broken, and I was in a coma from a head injury.

I was in Waikato Hospital ICU for about 10 days and had surgery to stabilise my ribs so I could manage breathing better. I have flashback memories of only after the first couple of weeks. Those early days were perhaps the hardest on my family. Not knowing how I was going to be, the time off work required to support me and meet with doctors. Managing our children and their anxieties, not to mention the everyday life stuff that continues while basically your world has slammed to a stop.

I was in hospital for four weeks – that’s a long time for anyone to cope, but then I had to go to Auckland to have ongoing rehabilitation. Sometimes the traffic was so bad for my partner it would take her 3 hours to get back home. It also was really hard for my family who live in Tauranga and Tokoroa to visit so actually I felt quite isolated. After seven weeks I needed my family, my friends, my house and some sense of normality so I discharged myself.

I have been told by my specialists that I have come a long way and made a miraculous recovery. I am now back working full time, but on a daily basis I still suffer dizziness and balance issues and feel crazy tired at the end of a day. I also had a lot of work pressures in the past few months from my employer where I had to get a lawyer involved to save my job.

One split decision by someone else changed my life so dramatically. Last year was seriously the worst year of my whole life. Until cycle lanes/roads can be made much safer for a cyclist, I don’t envision biking again.

(Courtesy: Midland Trauma)