Damien O’Carroll is a miracle man

DAMIEN O’CARROLL was living the dream in Australia until the nightmare happened.

On March 10, 2008, he was driving his jeep home from work in Perth when he crashed. He has no memory of it.

Two months later, he woke from a coma and didn’t know where he was. A nurse told him that he was in the Royal Perth Hospital. He had suffered a devastating brain injury, affecting his speech, memory, cognitive processing and ability to walk. His right hip was so damaged that one leg was shorter than the other. He had broken a collar bone when his safety belt locked on impact.

The then 25-year-old, from Listowel, in Co Kerry, was facing a dramatically changed life. An applied physics graduate from the University of Limerick, he had put his career on hold to travel. He had spent three years in South Korea teaching English and was halfway through a year-long work visa in Australia. He was with his Korean girlfriend when the accident happened.

He spent six months in hospital, before returning to the National Rehabilitation Hospital in Dun Laoighre. There, he relearned how to walk and how to perform basic skills.

With the help of Acquired Brain Injury Ireland, his quality of life continues to improve. He is living independently in Listowel, supported by a community rehabilitation officer.

He attends the ABI office in Castleisland every Thursday.

“It’s good to come here and be with other people with ABIs — we are all different, but we do share that in common. And it’s good craic,” says Damien.

There are weekly swimming and physiotherapy sessions. “I’m not working, but, at the same time, I’m busy trying to get my life back to where it was,” he says.

He has epilepsy as a result of the brain injury. “I don’t have seizures very often,” he says. One of five children, his family have been central to his recovery. “They’ve had to make a lot of adjustments,” he says. Now aged 31, he remains determinedly upbeat. “Waking up each day, I say to myself, ‘I’ve another day here. I’m delighted to be alive’. Everyday is a new day and I get a chance to do the best I can with it, which is fantastic...We live life going forward.”

* Acquired Brain Injury Ireland (midwest south region) is one of nine charities that will benefit from this year’s Ring of Kerry Charity Cycle on Saturday, July 5. See: www.abiireland.ie