Southern View: October 24, 2017
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SOUTHERN VIEW Latest Christchurch news at www.star.kiwi<br />
Tuesday <strong>October</strong> <strong>24</strong> <strong>2017</strong> 5<br />
Local<br />
News<br />
Now<br />
Fire rages, homes at risk<br />
sobering story with students<br />
I should’ve said: ‘Stop. Please<br />
pull over, I’m not comfortable,<br />
will you please let me out.’ It’s<br />
simple.<br />
That was the moment that<br />
changed my life forever.<br />
He was rounding a corner too<br />
fast on Remuera Rd in a 50km/h<br />
zone, going twice the speed<br />
limit-plus.<br />
He hit a power pole exactly<br />
where I was seated.<br />
We went through a garage<br />
door and halfway through a<br />
brick wall.<br />
I was in a coma for a month.<br />
When I woke up, I didn’t<br />
know I was there, I didn’t know<br />
what had happened because I<br />
don’t remember this night. I<br />
don’t remember a year and a<br />
half before this night or a year<br />
and a half after this night.<br />
Three years of my life is gone<br />
and I feel like I’m telling stories<br />
about another person.<br />
But these were my mistakes. It<br />
has affected my life hugely.<br />
I have diabetes, epilepsy,<br />
splenectomy – it took my spleen.<br />
These are the scars from<br />
one, two, three, four, five bad<br />
mistakes in one evening.<br />
I even had to have part of my<br />
skull replaced with titanium<br />
plating.<br />
My left leg was partially<br />
replaced with a titanium rod<br />
and behind this metal front is<br />
the part of my brain that was<br />
most damaged.<br />
Sure, I damaged the left<br />
and right lobe but the frontal<br />
lobe is what makes it hard to<br />
behave correctly, behave socially<br />
correctly and manage my own<br />
life.<br />
I can’t plan. I work with six<br />
carers part time, <strong>24</strong>/7.<br />
Every single day of my life is<br />
planned by someone else. That<br />
was not my plan when I was<br />
back at high school, this was not<br />
my plan when I was 17 years of<br />
age.<br />
But I made those mistakes.<br />
Partial loss of sight, partial<br />
loss of hearing, partial loss of<br />
smell.<br />
My left eye I can only see<br />
when I look in one direction.<br />
My right eye, I can’t see my<br />
hand when it’s right there.<br />
My left ear is deaf, which is a<br />
big bummer. I only have eight<br />
per cent taste left, which is a<br />
real bummer – I was a big food<br />
person.<br />
Not so much anymore.<br />
All of these things, all of these<br />
injuries, all of this crap in my<br />
life could’ve been prevented by<br />
just thinking before I did those<br />
things.<br />
Before I finish this speech,<br />
I just have a few questions for<br />
you.<br />
How would you think, how<br />
would you feel if you were in my<br />
position?<br />
How would you feel having all<br />
of this happen to you and you<br />
were in the middle of it?<br />
What would you do to stop it<br />
again? And how would you live?<br />
Because every day I get up, I<br />
feel like I have less motivation.<br />
Every day I get up, it’s hard.<br />
There are three things you<br />
have to remember.<br />
Don’t drink and drive. Come<br />
on, it’s not that hard, is it?<br />
Second thing, (when you) hop<br />
into a car, put your seat belt on.<br />
It’s three seconds of your life.<br />
Put your seat belt on, even<br />
if you’re in the back seat. They<br />
save lives. Millions of lives.<br />
And next, if your friend is<br />
driving dangerously, if he’s<br />
driving fast, if he’s driving<br />
drunk – tell him to pull over, tell<br />
him to stop the car.<br />
You shouldn’t be embarrassed<br />
to ask because they should<br />
be the ones embarrassed for<br />
putting your life in danger.<br />
Thank you.<br />
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