What year...? It went well. Is it morning, afternoon or night? ...seven minutes. Can you tell me what day of the week it is? Raise your left hand. Had a pretty severe brain injury. Can you open your eyes? We're just trying to get you better here. You're at a place called ABI, which is Acquired Brain Injury. Copyright Able 2016 CAR HORN BLARES, TRAFFIC HUMS This treacherous piece of road is where Te Kaha Chase's life changed forever. Yeah, I think that's where I had the car crash. Yeah, I think so too. This place, for me, it's a turning point for me, because, you know, this is where I had my car crash. You know? And, um, really, this place is pinnacle for me now. I'm never gonna forget it. Never. SOFT MUSIC GENTLE GUITAR MUSIC 21-year-old TK wasn't wearing a seat belt. The impact of the head-on collision caused extensive brain damage that left him in a coma for six weeks. POIGNANT PIANO MUSIC When TK finally woke up, he was transferred here, to ABI Rehabilitation, for six months of intensive therapy. He had to relearn almost everything ` Is that one right? how to think, how to speak and how to walk. I wanna walk outta here, but I can't... walk yet. You only get one chance to live life, and I blew it, because I had a car crash. Basically, um, I feel that I've had my second chance now. And, um, I'm on my second chance... of life. LAID-BACK MUSIC K, he said you can (CHUCKLES) come in. This is like a bloody comedy show. < (CHUCKLES) (LAUGHS) You gonna get me up? I'll help me to get up, and you'll help me... (LAUGHS) Ah. < OK. Leaving ABI was like, 'Yeah! 'Whoo!' Like, 'Ooh. 'Ooh.' (CHUCKLES) 'Oh wow, it's the outside world.' Being without the full-time support and... For this next two years, I support what he needs to move forward. What help? You need me to go to the left s...? You OK? Mm. BRIGHT MUSIC Can I wear this? Yes, you can. Remember, right past your elbow. Yeah. I kind of feel like the same person that I was. You know, I feel at peace with everything. I mean, emotionally I'm still the same person. TK, please be mindful of your walking... Yes. ...down through your... Yes. Yeah? OK, 'yes' all you want. But do it. I do get upset sometimes that I can't walk, that I can't` that I'm still using a walker. Right. (SNIFFS) Well, my mum is, um, helping me every day. Uh, you can turn on the tap. Yeah. WATER RUNS I can't go to the toilet by myself. I can't shower myself. I mean, I can't even get myself into bed. That's done, TK. BRIGHT MUSIC Oh my God, there's heaps there. (LAUGHS) Oh, he totally strives towards independence, and I absolutely support that. Do you want to try and get it, TK, please? Nah. Yes. Do it. You've got to try. See? It was easy. There. Thank you. I am vigilant at the holistic approach that we will work together and keep transparent and keep communicating between one another for TK's interests, always referring back to him about his dreams, about his goals. BRIGHT MUSIC CONTINUES I don't think you realise how much you can do. I've been coming here with you for a while, and, um, you've always got me to do your sushi, and you can actually use the tongs ` look at me ` and you can reach up and get it for yourself. You can turn the lid in the soy sauce and put it in the bowl. So from now on, that's how it will be. Cos it's awesome to do those things for yourself, eh? Yeah. Cool. Awesome. So, for you, TK, when we first came back, > and our first time` Remember that first time we went into the supermarket? Like, being back in the community, people ` how was that? The first time I was outta ABI, um, it was really good, because I got to see my mates again,... Mm. ...who I hadn't seen since my accident ` well, since I` I went to ABI. And, um, yeah, it was good seeing them, and it's good being out in the community again. I mean, (CHUCKLES) man. Mm. I was just gone for ages. Yeah. Can you take off my glasses? Yeah. RATTLING Hey! Hey, bro. Hey, dude. Hey, man. Hey, Summer. How are you? I` Good. Good. I` I saw you only a couple of days before your accident. You came up` Oh, did you? Yeah, I was sitting in the car outside the takeaway, and you came up and said hi. Oh. Yeah, you were, like` you were asking me how my new job was and stuff. So, what are you doing now, man? Oh, I'm doing an apprenticeship ` um, bit of welding ` which is engineering, yeah. Nice. Yeah. Good. Where are you doing that? > Uh, Te Aroha, yeah. Oh, good. > TBI causes a person to become self-obsessed, so to remember to ask questions about the other person, because they get locked about their accident and, 'This is what happened,' and, 'Did you know this?' And people actually do know that, and it will be the thing that will` will injure and stunt the growth with relationships and friendships. I'll let you carry on. Awesome. Lovely to see you. Yeah, catch you. I'm so glad that you're all right. Yeah. Good. Yeah. Cool. Good to see you. Yeah, see you, guys. Yeah, catch you, man. MAN: Selling my truck, so... INDISTINCT CHATTER, LAUGHTER Yes, yes. We've been at Beachaven Holiday Park now for probably about a month. I-It's emergency housing. Like, w... This area is our home and has been,... uh, paramount to Te Kaha's... reconnecting and reigniting and remembering of who he is as a whole person. Man, no offence to everyone, but this is` for ages we haven't done this. Hello. Now, I know my life is different to all my mates' now because I had a car crash, and I don't really care how my mates see me. You know, I just think, you know, do what you do, and I'll do what I do. LAID-BACK MUSIC VANESSA: # Happy recovery (CHUCKLES) to you. LAUGHTER ALL: # Happy recovery to you. # Happy recovery, dear Shiver Me Timbers. # Happy recovery to you. # Hip hip hooray! (LAUGHS) INDISTINCT CHATTER, LAUGHTER LAID-BACK MUSIC FADES BIRDS SING DISTANTLY I have three days. MUFFLED: Three days. Three! (GROANS SOFTLY) WOMAN: Is this every morning? Oh, he'd tell me he'd kill me and slit my throat. To deal with laziness as opposed to a brain injury is very different, and I won't tolerate that. That's why I walk away. I mean, really, I have parents who go, 'Ooh, no, you need to get them up.' And... But why? Three days! We're actually dealing with, like, a brat of a child, you know? And... The persistence to... Three days! ...not buy into that behaviour is the key, really. So it can be a bit lonely. BIRDS SING DISTANTLY And if it means TK gets well, you know... SOFT, REFLECTIVE MUSIC So, where would you like to go? It is the part that TBI survivors talk about, the grief of losing oneself, which I think that Te Kaha has a handle on, but it comes out in ways that he's not aware of ` the short-term memory loss, the lack of date-keeping around the things that he sees out in the community or with me. He... Yeah, he struggles a lot. GENTLE MUSIC Well done. INDISTINCT CONVERSATION GENTLE MUSIC CONTINUES INDISTINCT CHATTER I'm gonna talk to Hauraki Plains College, yeah, about wearing your seat belt and` and about having a brain injury and having a car crash. My name is Vanessa Chase. I am the proud mum of TK Chase. All I can say ` please wear your seat belt, cos I didn't wear it on that day, and, um, I'm disappointed now I didn't, because if I did, I wouldn't even be in this situation. Because the brain has been damaged so much, you have to learn everything again. You have to learn how to open your eyes, how to swallow. Uh, as you saw, I had to help him come from here to here. Um, he needs help with showering, toileting, moving from one place to the other. He needs help to get into the car. He needs help to... to process simple things. The bad thing about being at ABI ` because I have no fear now, because I had a car crash, um, what I did is I asked out every chick there. LAUGHTER Yeah. And sometimes I asked out a chick, like, six times. LAUGHTER I would go` I would go, 'Oh, I don't even remember.' Definitely, for brain injury, I believe that, um, TK can get, uh, the best recovery that he wants. Cool. Thank you for having us. LAID-BACK MUSIC It's so hard to walk. Yeah. You can do it. You can do it. I just love being around TK. It's so hard. You're doing really well. I think he's` he's just got something to give, whether it's more talks to young people, whether it's talks about surviving TBI in the most positive way that one could do that. I appreciate life way more than I used to. Like, I w` I could've died in my crash, but I didn't, you know? And I'm thankful for life right now. You know? I'm thankful. I appreciate every day. BRIGHT MUSIC Right, let's go home. The big trip. Terry Tansey has been in ABI Rehabilitation for three months. First thing we're gonna do ` we're gonna hop in the car and go home. (LAUGHS) Yeah. When you get home, what's the first thing you're gonna do? Um, well,... I don't know. I think I might just go for a little walk around the place and have a look. He's now going home for a weekend visit with his wife, Andrea. OK, we're going through a highway, heading to Kaikohe. 'Worst case would be, um, that he tries to do too much ` 'yeah, tries to paint the house or something like that. 'Um, but I think he'll be` he'll be good.' OK. All right. This is our kennels. Um, this is our house. (BARKS) We're home. Hi, Eddie. DOGS BARK Hey, Ed. Hello, mate. Hello. Terry has only recently recalled who he is, and Andrea's keen to see how he copes. Don't fall over anything. Aargh! It's triggering a lot of memories. Everything's where I parked it. I built a few buggies in here, eh? Mm. Yeah. REFLECTIVE MUSIC This much-loved father and grandfather suffered a brain injury when the truck he was driving jackknifed, throwing him from the cab on to the road. (GROANS) Can't we stand up? You get back on your bed. Get back up. Come on. Up you get. For a long time, he was stuck in a post-traumatic amnesia and delirium. Over, please. I've got it over... The early prognosis wasn't good. (CRIES) Are you ready? We're ready. Good. But remarkably he's now turned a corner. UPBEAT MUSIC How's that, guys? Is that all right? I see Terry in the mirror, that guy that used to have a truck accident, but he's coming right now, so... Off the foam cushion. Turn around. Even his sense of humour's back. Hey, well done, mate. LAUGHTER How long have I been married to Andrea? Um... 26th of May 1974 ` there you go ` we got married. There you go. I remember. (CHUCKLES) That's a good innings, eh? Yeah. WOMAN: So you just remembered that? Yep. What does that feel like? Feels good. Feels great. (BARKS) Do you want your cup, Andrea? Yeah. Do you remember which one it is? Yep. This is your cup. CUP THUDS SOFTLY You happy with that? Yeah. OK. Cool. OK. DOGS BARK They can talk to me. (LAUGHS) Can't wait to do some mowing. Wanna get the lawnmower out just to prove that, yeah, I can mow. Yeah. The biggest worry with a short visit home is that he'll push himself too far. MOTOR RUMBLES, HUMS Every time I ask him if he's OK, he just goes, 'I'm all right,' and I go, 'Well, that's not really what I wanna know. 'I wanna know if you've got pain or if you've` you know, if you're feeling tired,' because I said, 'It's no good just saying you're OK when you're not.' I said to him he's lost his inner strength and he needs to just build that up. You don't want` You don't want to overdo it. Probably enough now, eh? Do you want the earmuffs? No. I had to stop mowing the lawn, otherwise I get tired and fatigued. It'd just make me tired, so it'd, sort of, be a right time to stop, so, um, that's why I gave it to Andrea to use. Yeah. You thought it was OK? Yep. It's nice, isn't it? Yep. It's very smooth and that, yeah. It gets a bit noisy. Did you want me to go and cook a pikelet? Mm, yeah, probably better. You better have a drink too, eh? Yeah. Right. It's not so much a specialty; it's just something I love doing. It's just satisfying for me, and I just make it my way. Think that's flour. Um, plain flour, yeah. Don't you measure that by cup? No. Oh, OK. No, I just throw it in there. OK. Just make it happen. Just out of control. OK. Is that`? Am I allowed to say, 'Told you so,' if it doesn't work? You can say whatever you like. OK. I'll say, 'Go away. 'Just jealous.' Just jealous? Yeah. (LAUGHS) At the moment it's glue. It's glue? (LAUGHS) Glue pikelets. I always talk to her like this. She loves it. (LAUGHS) Oh, that's OK. Is it hot enough? This morning he said, 'When I woke up, I was in a new world,' and I went, 'That is just an amazing way of explaining how he felt.' He felt that when he` when he started getting clarity that he felt like he was in a new world, that everything was different. And I thought that was brilliant. (CHUCKLES) You know? I thought, 'Wow!' You know? This is just lovely ` sitting here, eating these. Is it? Yeah. Just lovely to be home. Mm. I spoke to a friend of mine that's a registered nurse up here. She said, 'Just make sure that they've got everything in place,' because there's not so many occupational therapists and physios and all that sort of thing up here, so she said, 'Make sure that you can get all the things, um, in place before you come up.' You've gotta make me pudding too. Remember? Yeah, I'll make you pudding. When? Tomorrow? Tomorrow. Yeah. Yeah, I'll make you` You've got lots of cooking to do tomorrow. I'm making you ginger pudding. I promise you that. He's still the same Terry but just a little bit different. He was probably always that, but he was so busy. You know, he worked such long hours and that, and then on the weekends he'd be working on the house, so... Whereas now it's almost like you're getting to know each other again, sort of thing. It's weird. It's` Yeah. Um, it's just good to be home and give you a bit of a cuddle again. Yeah. OK? You enjoyed that? Yeah. That's good. That's... And I think it's nice as well. DOGS BARK Mm. Yeah. Yeah, it's good. Yeah. SOFT MUSIC 15-year-old Jarrod Church had a freak heart attack at basketball practice. He died for eight minutes. During this time, his brain was starved of oxygen, leaving him with a hypoxic brain injury. SOFT MUSIC At first he couldn't breathe, stand up or feed himself. He couldn't even recognise faces. Where is`? Where is Jay? Can you see Jay? Oh, right there. Yeah. LAUGHTER Jarrod is one of six children, and his big brother Jason has been by his side for the entire time. Your heart rate just started getting up a little bit. (EXHALES SLOWLY) Jarrod's allowed to go home for the weekend. There they are, boy. It's just gonna be good to be home. We are planning tonight to go to... the rec centre where the incident happened just to show them how well we're doing. And tomorrow we're planning to have a barbecue just for everybody who helped support. The main risk of Jarrod's heart rate not being able to reach 150 ` they don't want him to be at risk of maybe having another incident. He will have to take regular breaks and time out away from other people while we're at home just to get his heart rate back to` to normal, I guess. Oh, what basket? (KNOCKS ON DOOR) Hey. INDISTINCT CHATTER, CHUCKLING Oh, Kelly's here. (LAUGHS) Where else would I be? At work. At work? No. Since he's been gone, there's been something missing, and, of course, yeah, it's him and Jason, so having him here, it's` it's like, a bit of normality. Yeah. The kids are loving it. I'm loving it. It's... Makes me feel a lot better. (CHUCKLES) A tracheotomy caused scar tissue around his vocal chords that's left him with noisy breathing. Ohhhh! Yeah, Jarrod does get a bit annoying when people ask about his breathing ` more new people that haven't really cared for him. Jarrod. Breathe. KIDS LAUGH, CHATTER What does it say now? 1...19. 119. His heart is still very weak, so any excitement or exertion could trigger another heart attack. His oxygen saturation can be no lower than 94. 96. It was 96 before. Need him to keep remembering to breathe while he's standing up and moving around, cos I think when he concentrates, he, sort of, holds his breath in. (CHUCKLES) BASKETBALL SQUEAKS ON FLOOR Although he doesn't remember, this is where Jarrod had his heart attack. INDISTINCT CHATTER Hey! Aw! Wow! Look at you! Eh! You're looking good, my friend. So good to see you back, eh. So good to see you. I hear you've been getting cheeky. Yeah. Yeah? How you feeling? I'm all right. Yeah? If you were here on that Friday night and you were part` uh, here on that Friday night, can you just come to the stage area? Nice. All right. BASKETBALLS BOUNCE So, just grab a seat down here, guys, and then we'll get into it. You had played a game already, and then, uh, we had that last run, which is the run where the college boys come in. The thing was that you were on the court for quite a while, yeah, and we played two` two halves. And when we finished the game, um, you` you walked over to the side, and when you sat down on the chair, um, you collapsed and fell on to the floor. And then Lance called out, 'Willie, there's something wrong!' What happened was that the staff and Lance tried to wake you up. They tried to say, 'Hey, Jarrod. Hey, Jarrod.' When that happened, I went and called for the ambulance to come. The staff called the ambulance. And then straight away... (SOBS) < All good, boy. < You tell us when to stop. He's OK. (SOBS) Lance and the staff member here, Tim, started to do CPR on you to help you through that. The ambulance came, and then the ambulance took over. And, uh, I'm just thinking, with the boys who are sitting here, they were quite shocked about what happened, and I'm just gonna ask them if they wanna share about what they saw. I just, uh` There was quite a while you were just lying down, started going pale. Yeah. I was` I was just praying, eh. Yeah. Oh, good. Yeah, scared. Scared, eh? Mm. Had you seen anything like that before? No. No, eh. I've always been close with him. Yeah. It just scared me. Yeah. POIGNANT MUSIC I was so proud of the guys, cos I said, you know, 'That's what Papakura's about, you know? 'That's who our people are, 'and we shared in this.' So you remember ` this is your house too. Uh, Papakura Rec is where we all are, and, uh, we're waiting for you to come back when you're ready. You know, little bit at a time, mate. No need to run yet. Don't give up, cos you're gonna go far. Yeah. (SOBS) Oi, stop it! CHUCKLING Good to see you, man. Nice. Thank you. You know I love you, my boy. WARM MUSIC UPBEAT ACOUSTIC GUITAR MUSIC JASON: Jarrod's been good. He's enjoyed staying. He probably won't wanna go back. Yeah, it's good for us ` our emotional well-being ` just having the support to keep us going while we're out there. WARM ACOUSTIC GUITAR MUSIC Our journey that we've been through with Jarrod through the past couple of months, it's been... it's been very hard. We love you all so very much, and thank you for the continuous support you show us every day. Um... Yeah. This is just to say thank you to you all. BRIGHT MUSIC Thank you very much. I love you all. He had heaps of things he wanted to do. He wanted to be a famous basketball player. That was his dream, and I suppose it's just maybe not being able to do them the way he wanted. Who knows? You know, he's proved everyone wrong, so hopefully he'll prove me wrong too. Yeah, just being a part of his progress, um, it is really uplifting ` not just to me, but my whole family and, of course, to himself. We'll be right. BRIGHT MUSIC CONTINUES EXCLAIMING, LAUGHTER DOGS BARK UPLIFTING MUSIC Big shot. Big shot. Yeah! (CLAPS) < Did you see it go in? Captions by Imogen Staines. Captions were made possible with funding from NZ On Air. Copyright Able 2016.