‘I lost three years of memory’: Traumatic Brain Injury survivor shares incredible recovery story
Jason Driscoll was left hospitalised for more than half a year and now lives with a Traumatic Brain Injury after a tragic car accident. He said it was a blessing.
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Surviving a horrific car accident against all odds, Jason Driscoll lost three years of memories and was hospitalised for seven months, but he is now a proud Traumatic Brain Injury survivor and wants to help others in his situation.
On August 10, 2017, Mr Driscoll, who was driving drunk, got into an accident on his way home to his property in Pittsworth.
Mr Driscoll broke his neck and back in multiple places and was unconscious for a whole month following the accident. There was little hope he would survive.
Years later, after relearning basic motor skills, learning to speak again, and losing three years of memories leading up to the accident, Mr Driscoll said he had come out of it a better person.
“I think your brain does it on purpose to help you deal with the trauma,” he said.
“This may sound odd, but the accident did me a big favour.
“I’m a better person now than what I was before.
“I was driven before, but now I have more compassion and empathy.”
Mr Driscoll said although he didn’t have any memory of the accident, he did know he was drunk driving, and he said he was grateful he hadn’t hurt anyone else in the accident.
“I know I was drink driving,” he said.
“From speaking to people about my situation, I think I was in a really bad headspace.
“Myself getting hurt was the best case scenario. If I had hurt somebody else, I would not have been able to live with myself.”
Mr Driscoll, who still lives with chronic pain in the entire right side of his body, said with such a bad prognosis following the accident, he was grateful that he could walk, talk, and do the things he loved, but he has had to learn to live in constant pain.
“In hospital, they didn’t think my right side would ever work,” he said.
“They thought if I did survive, I would be in palliative care.”
Mr Driscoll said living with a neurological condition felt lonely even when he was surrounded by loving people and he found that animals provided company in a different way.
“Having Bruce, my unofficial therapy dog, if I’m down in the dumps and I go near him I just light up,” he said.
On his small property at Pittsworth, Mr Driscoll has set up a small homestay called Stones Throw Away, and he is now working to turn his property into an animal therapy space where people can come and feed his baby farm animals.
“I want to use my situation to help others because I am not the only one in this scenario,” he said.
“With brain injuries, your first thought is pessimistic, so giving people hope can go a long way.”
Mr Driscoll has since cut alcohol out of his life and said it was the best thing for him.
“If my accident didn’t kill me, drinking would have,” he said.
“So that is another reason that my accident was a blessing.”
Mr Driscoll recently came runner-up in the SkyKelpie award, a company that helps farmers through aerial and drone mustering.
Originally published as ‘I lost three years of memory’: Traumatic Brain Injury survivor shares incredible recovery story
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