Dylan Martin has made a 'miraculous' comeback after a serious car crash left him in a coma for weeks, writes Mamela Gowa.
I was involved in a very serious car accident at the end of 2010.1 almost lost my life in the process, but thanks to the Most High, I guess that I was meant to live for so much more." These are the words of a , young East London man, Dylan Martin, who has written a book about his miraculous survival after sustaining severe brain trauma in a tragic car accident just when he thought he was ready to take on the world.
During the accident that crashed his smart blue Mini Cooper the 24-year-old university dropout survived a type of brain trauma called diffuse axonal injury. The accident happened on December 28 2010, a day when Dylan and his friends had planned a get-together in Port Alfred. However, the day ended in tragedy when his car was swept off the road by a stream of water in heavy rain and landed at the bottom of an embankment.
He was trying to overtake the vehicle in front of him when his small car spun twice before crashing into two trees. Immediately after the impact Dylan bled from his ears and nose, a clear indication that severe damage had been caused to his brain. He battled for his life in hospital in a coma for 14 days. "The accident was so bad that I can only remember the day before the accident and nothing after that, until my later days in the rehabilitation centre in Port Elizabeth," Dylan told the Saturday Dispatch this week.
"The way the doctors explained diffuse axonal injury, they said I should imagine a computer having all the communication wires for network, printers and other devices and then all of a sudden those wires being detached from the CPU completely. "When that happens to a person, one cannot do anything for himself after the brain injury. There is no communication between the brain and the body; it's total shutdown."
Although before the accident Dylan had said he would see his parents on the New Year's Eve of 2010, his parents, Colleen and Colin Martin, waited for their last-born to awake, but to no avail. After finally coming out of his coma after 14 days, Dylan stayed in the intensive care unit for five weeks before being transferred to a rehabilitation centre in Port Elizabeth where he stayed for 11 weeks.
"As soon as we heard the seriousness of the injury my husband and I started researching it. And as we read that more than 90% of such patients never make it out of coma." Only one in 10 sufferers wake up from the coma, and are generally significantly mentally impaired. "We just stopped reading further and knelt down and prayed. His recovery was really God's miracle," Colleen said.
While in Port Elizabeth the family was told that Dylan would never be able to be on his own, he would not be able walk again, bathe, feed, or clothe himself. Before this life-changing experience Dylan had just finished his commercial pilot's exam and was ready to fly high, being the adrenalin junkie that he is. But all of this had changed, because he was told a pilot only stood a chance of flying again if they had been in a coma for seven days at the most; anything more than that destroyed any chances of being able to fly again.
"It was a very painful time in my life. I had pipes supporting my life basically. While in hospital I was diagnosed with a double lung infection and that complicated everything, but against all odds and medical predictions I have managed do everything that I was told I would not be able to do again. "I guess what pushed me most was that I didn't want to stay in a wheelchair after the accident and later find out that I could have been able to walk again," he said.
From being a rebellious Rhodes University student and "arrogant and selfish" human being, Dylan now says the accident forced him to rethink and change his old ways of doing things. "The 'old me' had become so arrogant and selfish that I probably needed something as drastic as a 'mental decapitation' to change my mindset," he writes in his book. Although it was a dark time for Dylan and his mother, that is when the idea to write Highway to Hades and combine it with Colleen's story, It's All about Eternity, came about.
"The doctors kept on telling me that my case was exceptional, a miracle even, and that I needed to share it and so I started writing," Dylan said. The book promises readers the inside experience of being faced with death, and also gives hope to parents who might find themselves in a similar situation. "It was his fighting spirit that kept me as a mother going. He has worked so hard, he was determined and cooperative. God has been good and saved him when the situation seemed so bad," Colleen said.
While many of us still take the gift of life for granted, Dylan's progress in simple things such as being able to walk, drive and swim, brings joy to the Martin family. Above all, they are grateful for the gift of life. Now close to three years after the accident, Dylan and Colleen will celebrate life in style today at the launch of their double book. The launch will be held at the Lord Selborne Guesthouse and Conference Centre. The book will be available at Vincent Spar and from the authors themselves on 083-656-7828. — mamelag@dispatch.co.za
Caption: NEW LIFE: Dylan Martin is recovering well from his diffuse axonal injury, and has found a new hobby in making coffee. He plans to open a coffee shop Picture: SINO MAJANGAZA SURVIVOR: Dylan and his mother Colleen showing off their book, which they co-authored Picture: SINO MAJANGAZA
By: Mamela Gowa
Article Source: SATURDAY DISPATCH