The family hired Dave who works with George four days a week. George’s friends don’t
bother to come around much anymore, without Dave he’d be isolated.
When I first met George at Laura Ferguson Rehab Centre I did not think he was one of
the clients or patients or whatever because he didn’t look like the rest of them, he
looked like a normal guy, in fact when I first met him he was walking around the rehab centre
offering people tea bags and playing practical jokes on people and I thought this guy’s
being a little bit mean and then I was introduced to him as George and he was the guy I was
supposed to be looking after and I thought oh wow because he presents so well.
Come on George Clooney
Swish
My responsibilities are basically looking after George, caring for George, reinforcing
things that he’s learning like he’s learning things in theory with the therapy sessions
he’s doing, I’m just there to basically help him with the different social cues and
social filters and the debriefs, take him out and about where he needs to be going and
basically working as a life coach in many ways.
George’s rehabilitation involves retraining him in a wide range of things he once knew
instinctively. Teaching him about the supermarket and about money. Several months ago it was
all pretty confusing but George has made incredible progress.
When you were looking at all these other things trying to find them what were you seeing?
Well from far away I can see the colour and shape of the meat but not that clearly because
that eye is almost 100% blind and that eye is very bad as well. All my senses are fairly
disturbed.
To me it looked like you were doing a pretty good job, you were scanning really quickly
and then you went boom there’s the mince. How did you do that?
Well I can see that here there’s lots of little pieces of meat and here there’s one
big piece of meat whereas mince is obviously thousands of little pieces because it’s
mashed up so I knew it would be around this area.
So you’ve committed everything to memory.
Yeah memory is one of the most important parts of your brain because you can develop, you
can develop your person, your skills and who you are.
So Dave this is not just about shopping is it? This is about life skills.
It is absolutely yeah. That’s why I like to hang back in situations like this and let
George drive it because it’s important that he learns these things for himself and not
just always relying on aid and other people helping him so it’s a big part of him growing
towards that independent place where he wants to be, you know he’s got big goals and it’s
all part of it.
I’m just constantly finding myself saying to him “Oh this smells really great” or
“look over there” or whatever and he then has to remind me that he can’t see that
or he can’t hear that, I forget because when you’re with him half the time he just
doesn’t come across that way so yeah I’m constantly blown away by how well he has adapted
and does with what he’s got.
As George progresses Dave comes up with new exercises and challenges - right now he’s
learning lawn bowls. George’s sight was so damaged in the accident that he sees very
little.
George, how do you know where the Jack is? I mean can you see it?
No.
You can’t see it?
No.
How do you know…..
I know it’s centered and I know it’s just beside the end pretty much so I can tell just
where about it is and I can tell that that one was too far and I know how much weight
to put on it next time.
George decides to challenge the older gents to a friendly game.
Would you guys be interested in a game of bowls with us?
Yeah yeah.
The old boys want to get to know their competition first over a cup of tea.
I’ve got a $2 coin, is that OK?
You don’t listen you young guys….
They have no idea George has a major brain injury and is partially blind
What you can do is that’s hot water and that will come free and there’s heaps of
sachets of coffee and there’s tea bags and it comes free.
I’m a bit scared guys that I’m going to push the button and it’s going to come out
of a different place.
I’m blind in my left eye. Thanks very much. My right eye is not good either. Yeah it was
a nice car crash that my friend did with me in the car, it wasn’t good.
He’s always been comfortable telling people. In fact that seems to be his icebreaker with
most people, he will… if he doesn’t know somebody he’ll shake their hand and boom
he’ll go into his story about his accident, he’s very comfortable talking about himself
because it’s a subject that he knows quite well.
It’s out of character – George seems nervous but within a short time George has charmed
is bowling buddies. Life’s carried on much the same for the other teenagers who were
in the car with George the night of the accident. George has been stripped of virtually everything
that made up his teenage world including most of his friends and his girlfriend.
I had a girl who I was pretty much with at the time of the accident but the split second
the accident happened you know what happened? This is me…..chucked me away. Is it because
I don’t look as good? Oh well I can find more understanding people.
So what are you doing? Are you getting counseling?
Yes, I’m getting therapeutic counseling and I’m going to occupation therapy and
such, yeah.
It’s helping?
It’s helping a lot, it’s helping a whole lot and it makes me think in a better way.
I’m almost sure that if I wasn’t going to counseling then I would be in a lot worse
state, not just in my mind I’d be in a worse state physically as well.
George doesn’t remember the accident or much at all about his 17th year, he doesn’t
like to talk about the past much swinging the conversation back to his plans for the
future but he knows he’s paid the price for getting in a car with a drunk driver.
It was fun being drunk with them instead of them dissing you because you are like a softie
or some stupid thing like that but then again what’s the point of getting drunk if it’s
dangerous and you can’t even remember it the next day.
In the moments when he thinks of the massive impact that alcohol has had George feels compelled
to tell others about the consequences of drink driving.
I have scars everywhere there, there, there…….. well it hasn’t made life good so I plead
you to take care in every single way on the road, it is unbelievably important not just
for your life but for others and the way they live.