One per cent survival, six hours to live: Brisbane teen’s miracle recovery

A teenager who was given a 1 per cent chance to live defied all odds to survive.

Josh Ditchmen made a miracle recovery. Pic: Lyndon Mechielsen

A Brisbane teenager given a 1 per cent chance of survival after a horror quad bike accident has opened up about how his family were told to “say their goodbyes” as he had just six hours to live.

Josh Ditchmen, now 19, said he and his friends decided to take out some quad bikes for a ride while celebrating the NRL grand final at a family friend’s Gatton property in 2023.

Josh said he was standing on the back while one of his friends drove but the group weren’t doing “anything stupid” and was just cruising through the property.

“Then they turned around and I wasn’t there. They found me unconscious on the ground,” he said.

A helicopter rushed to the property and flew Josh to the Princess Alexandra Hospital, where they rushed him into the high dependency ward.

“They weren’t sure what happened first – whether I hit the ground then had a stroke or the other way around. But I basically was completely paralysed on my left side,” he said.

“When my parents arrived at the PA, they were told to say their goodbyes because I would only have six hours to live.”

Josh Ditchmen in hospital.

When Josh made it past six hours, he was then given a one per cent of living and, eventually, as he recovered he was told he had a three per cent chance of ever walking again.

But he defied all odds and taught himself how to walk and talk again.

Incredibly, Josh was out of ICU in four days and discharged from the brain injury rehabilitation unit and into the outpatient program in ten weeks.

“After I got out of the rehab unit, I was still doing physio and OT sessions, speech pathologist sessions, Monday to Friday for a while. I was in the outpatient program for 10 weeks,” he explained.

“After that, I was put onto the NDIS … and now I am kind of creeping off to just polishing everything off.”

Josh still struggles with double vision after the accident, which is part of the reason he wanted to challenge himself to complete Fred’s Big Run for the Fred Hollows Foundation.

The challenge would require him to run 150km across the month of August, raising money for the charity working to eliminate avoidable blindness.

He said he also plans to a half marathon later in the year.

“I am aiming for the half marathon by December 11 of this year because that will be the two year mark since getting out of hospital,” he said.

Josh Ditchmen defied all the odds.

“My exercise physiologist and I are coming up with a running training program to build up to that 21-kilometre mark because my left side was paralysed for almost a week. I have pretty bad nerve damage on my left side.

“When my legs are obviously fatigued, my left leg starts to drag a little bit. So we’re trying to just build up the tolerance and endurance in the legs.”

Josh now using his miracle recovery to inspire others, recently sharing his journey at public speaking events.

His mother Sonja couldn’t be more proud of her son, who she said “broke every doctor’s prognosis”.

“He is an absolute miracle and definitely a determined young man. He’s always been very goal-oriented, and even with the double vision, he’s still pushing to try and get a driver’s license, because he was up to 99 hours on his learner’s before the accident,” she said. 

Originally published as One per cent survival, six hours to live: Brisbane teen’s miracle recovery