Today we profile a young man whose life was turned upside down in a tragic moment.
We all seem to know someone affected by drink driving yet thousands of people continue to
think they?re invincible.
Later in the programme Tanya talks to New York policemen about the lingering impact
of the collapse of the Twin Towers.
These two men very rarely come to the site and find being here many years on extremely
difficult.
It?s the countries deep dark dirty secret.
But first the tragic story of teenagers and alcohol.
George Cairney went out for a few drinks one night and got into a car with a drunk.
The crash that happened that night left George with a severe brain injury. He?s now having
to learn everything from walking to writing.
I died for 30 whole minutes. I was in a coma for a month. They never thought that I would
ever survive.
Profound words from 19 year old George Cairney. Two years ago he was in a drink driving accident
that nearly cost him his life.
When George first had his accident none of us really knew what to expect. I mean the
first part of it was just the fact that George was alive was so amazing and we were so happy
about it and had no idea at that time about what George was going to be. We kept being
told that it was going to be a life changing experience for all of us but we had no real
understanding of what that would mean.
George was a high achiever on the brink of leaving school. Popular and good looking he
excelled at everything. George played basketball, he rowed and was admired by his friends and
siblings. Life was sweet and he figured he was invincible but every plan George had and
every dream was wiped out on the night of the accident. It was a classic cocktail of
excessive drinking and speed, four teenagers in a car on their way to yet another party,
a night that George’s life changed forever.
I’m a little bit of an alkie, I like going out and getting drunk. I said this every weekend
PAAAAARRRRRTYYYY!
It was three weeks before his final exams, he’d been studying all day and wasn’t
planning on heading out that night. When a text came through late evening he changed
his mind. He headed to a party, dropped by a couple of bars and slugged on a bottle of
vodka. Just hours later George and his drunken teenage mates were in a car and skidding towards
a brick wall.
The next thing it was 1.30 in the morning and the doorbell rang and it was the police
and the policeman said he’s category 1 and you need to get there really quickly.
He had an operation to have his spleen removed immediately and the next two days we were
told they needed to wait and see and make an assessment as to whether they would let
him live.
Penny maintained an anxious bedside vigil that went on for a month. George’s head
injury was so severe no one was sure if he would live or die.
And I went up to the hospital every day and just sat with him and read to him and just
tried to be there and hope that maybe he heard a little bit of the love that I was giving
to him to help him through.
When he finally came out of the coma he awoke dazed, confused and a very different George.
I said not a good word when I woke up, I said the “f” word and then “who are you?”
to my own mum who was hugging, kissing me saying how much she loved me and I really
regret that.
Substantial brain damage meant George was no longer the bright, capable, sporty George
everyone knew before the accident. He couldn’t walk, his speech was affected and he had no
concept of how the world worked. He’s 19 now but has a mental age of someone much younger.
He behaves, talks and moves like a child and has little concept of social niceties.
Socialising for George is really hard work, it’s going back to learning from scratch
as to a lot of the what’s socially appropriate and so he’s very childlike in many ways,
his understanding of how people communicate and I think he also finds it quite difficult
to read people because he can’t see very well so his loss of sight was a result of
that frontal lobe injury and damaged the optic nerve.
This left eye I can only see a tiny bit out of the right hand side of my eye and my right
hand eye is horrible too but just a little bit better so I can see the camera and my
left ear is 100% deaf and my right ear is bad, my nose can’t smell – normally I
say good around my brothers but this isn’t the point to say that and the left hand side
of my mouth can’t taste. I feel more than you do including temperature, if it’s a
little bit cold I feel really cold and if it’s a little bit hot I feel boiling. I
had a lot of my head missing and they took that out of my stomach and mixed it with titanium
and they put it there – plastic surgery sure but I’d rather look like that instead
of you seeing my brain pulsing but it does come with a lot of disadvantages such as mental
fatigue. I get very tired very easily, I go for a five minute walk and I go to sleep pretty
much.
George’s mates are all now at university, out flatting and still partying on the weekends.
Two years on and George’s world revolves around rehabilitation and rest.
I have a physiotherapist and she’s helping me a lot to maintain energy during the day
and I take half an hour to an hour rest every day at around about midday so I’m planning
on just going out after midday and staying out until midnight.
Brain injury often results in the change of personality, George has developed a childlike
nature and the knack for telling jokes only he can’t quite figure out whether they’re
funny or not.
I love jokes, I tell jokes every single day and I like having fun. It’s the best joke
in the world in my view but everyone else doesn’t like it…. Knock knock
Who’s there?
Ipe.
Ipe who?
You pooh, don’t tell me that.
Since the accident George has needed round the clock care. His mum Penny quit her job
and was taking care of him pretty much full time but she realized she couldn’t keep
it up alone.