Reece Bedggood’s car jumped a ditch and rolled three times before he was flung from the vehicle. He’d been at trade school earlier in the day, then helped a mate in his workshop before falling asleep behind the wheel on his way to see a friend.
That’s what he’s been told. He doesn’t remember anything about the day of the crash or the weeks that followed.
He doesn’t recall being airlifted to the Alfred Hospital or the five weeks he spent recovering at the Epworth; learning how to walk, how to speak and how to think clearly again.
When he came out of an induced coma, his mum Stephanie was by his side as she had been every moment she could. Stephanie and Reece’s father, Rodney, heard the news while on holiday and parked at the hospital with their caravan still attached.
“One day, I thought I’d be brave and ask if he knew who I was,” Stephanie said.
“He looked at me, opened one eye and shook his head. Then he just rolled away from me. I remember texting my husband saying he doesn’t know who I am. It was gut-wrenching.”
A former emergency nurse herself, Stephanie was able to maintain some degree of optimism.
“There were times when I wondered if this was the new normal,” she said.
“But each day, there was a glimmer of hope. Even on the days that he didn’t remember me, I’d put my hand on his shoulder and his fingers would just creep up and hold my hand.”
It took a couple of tough months of rehab before Reece could go home. He suffered from double vision, a raft of injuries and serious chronic fatigue – some days he was barely able to stay awake for more than an hour.
Despite this, Reece remembers being impatient about wanting to get back onto his feet.
“It’s daunting,” he said.
“Even just trying to look after yourself. I just wanted to get straight back into work, get back to life. But there’s obviously a bit of a process, especially with brain injuries.
“Getting yourself back to who you are after something like that, it’s a much more difficult task than you’d think.”
Reece was about 18 months into his boilermaker apprenticeship when the accident happened. He was completing his apprenticeship through AGA (part of the IntoWork Group), working with host employer Rotafab, near Sale in East Gippsland.
AGA Apprenticeship and Employment Consultant, Craig Binotto, knew that getting Reece back to work would help give him some sense of normality. Craig worked with Reece’s therapists, the AGA team and the Rotafab managers to gradually get him back to work. It took almost exactly a year from the day of the accident for Reece to return to full-time work.
“This is a kid who never wants to sit still,” Craig said.
“He always wanted to be doing something, whether that’s going out bush, going fishing or tinkering with his welder in the shed. He hated sitting there doing nothing, so getting him back to work – back to normality – was the best thing we could do for him.”
In May this year, Reece completed his apprenticeship. He celebrated the achievement at a restaurant in Sale with his family, Craig, his occupational therapist Jo and neuro psychologist Heidi, who both travelled from Melbourne.
Craig said it was ‘pretty moving’ to celebrate the achievement.
“For Reece to come through everything he’s been through is pretty amazing,” Craig said.
“He could have gone off the rails very easily. He told us there’s no way he would have got through without everyone’s support. But I told him, ‘Mate, we can only guide you. We just pointed you in the right direction. You’re the one that’s actually done it and that’s the biggest thing.”
There was further celebration in October when Reece was named the Resilience Award winner at AGA’s Graduation and Awards Ceremony in Melbourne. Reece admitted he thought he had a “pretty good chance” of winning it.
“It was good to be recognised for the massive effort I put into getting back to work and completing my apprenticeship,” he said.
“Now I’m going to get out there and learn as much as I can. I think the accident is always going to be there in the back of my mind, but I learnt a lot about resilience and that I can bounce back pretty quickly. I also learnt we’re not all invincible – I know that one for sure.”
