Joshua

My name is Josh Coo, a super fit guy who worked as an arborist before I had an off road motorbike accident early January 2021. The accident caused multiple injuries including fractured femur, fractured ribs, fractured shoulder, fractured eye socket, punctured lung and according to the ICUDrs – a catastrophic head injury with severe brain damage. I had a front lobe injury and a diffuse axonal injury(DAI) and they said there was a possibility I may never wake upagain.

I spent 2 weeks in ICU fighting for my life on a ventilator. It took me 8 days before I opened my eyes. I then spent 3 weeks on the Neuro ward with physio, speech & occupational therapist (OT) for rehabilitation.

I was then transferred to Fiona Stanley Hospital (FSH) for a more intense, individualised rehabilitation program. I spent 3 months at FSH in there rehabilitation ward. I was wheel chair bound for a few months but slowly redeveloped my motor skills and built my strength up to walk again. It took me 7 weeks before I could speak again but once I did – I did, and didn’t have to learn to talk again. I just needed speech therapy for my speech clarity.

After my discharge I had physio, speech & OT come to my house to continue my therapies at home for 6 weeks. Then I was referred to FSH as an outpatient for continuing physio, speech & OT therapies.

I am now 12 months post-accident and have done remarkably well and I am fully functioning in all aspects of my daily care. I’m not 100% yet and not currently back at work, but in August 2021 I got married and shortly after had our third son. I passed my OT driving assessment in November 2021, so now have some independence back in my life.

I was fully discharged from FSH outpatients at the end of November 2021. Over the next 12 months I will get back in the gym and build my strength up more and hope to be back doing some sort of work and hopefully restarting my tree looping business again.