Hi there. My name is Evi and Iâm 36 years old. Almost two years ago, on the 13 August 2015, I was involved in a serious road traffic accident.
I donât remember how it happened and I am grateful for that. The police told me that there was a pot hole on the side of the road which caught my front side wheel of my car and span me into opposite direction, where my car sadly hit another car at a combined speed of 100 mph.
All I remember was waking up in the car and everything was in a very slow motion, in absolute quiet. No sense of smell or touch, just nothingness. Then the adrenaline kicked in and I had to drag myself out of the car because I could smell smoke. Still not knowing what had happened and where I was. The only thing I knew was that my legs werenât working and that I did not want to burn.
I was taken to St Georgeâs Hospital, Major Trauma Centre. I remember being scared as I was in so much pain and dazed from all the painkiller drugs. There were lots of doctors, nurses, beeping noises, tubes, many questions thrown all in my direction, thousands of voices that didn't make sense to me. I had no idea why I couldnât feel my legs and what was wrong with me.
I spent two months in St Georgeâs. Every day was a battle for me, especially as I donât come from this country, I am from the Czech Republic, so I didnât have my family around.
It was a hard two months. All my dignity was gone. I became totally dependent on everyone around me. I had to learn to trust strangers very quickly. Their judgements, statements, advice and believe me it wasnât always easy.
But, on the other hand, I also had an amazing support from the wonderful therapy team, who helped with my rehab. The clinical nurse specialist, who was the right hand of my surgeon, always put a smile on my face. There was also the porter, the dinner lady and cleaning lady with her enormous enthusiasm for life. Meeting other patients and hearing their stories also helped and made me appreciate how lucky I was and that it could be worse, which became my daily mantra. All these people and their joined effort made me work twice as hard so their hard work wouldnât be wasted.