\u201cAll these weird things that make you look quite stupid or lazy, but you\u2019re actually just trying to function properly.\u201d<\/p>\n
Matthews suffered a traumatic brain injury after a crash on an electric scooter in 2023. The Christchurch musician says that, in the aftermath, it often felt like she was drunk, but to others, she looked a picture of perfect health.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs you physically start to look like you\u2019re being a person again, there\u2019s so much going on that people can\u2019t see.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bryony Matthews suffered a brain injury after a Lime scooter accident. She has turned her experience into a musical project. Photo \/ Anna Heath<\/p>\n
A night out turned to tragedy<\/p>\n
Matthews, 39, doesn\u2019t remember the split second in which her life changed. Husband Alex told her she was talking afterwards, but \u201cI guess your brain protects you from remembering those sorts of things\u201d.<\/p>\n
She knows it started as a regular night out in July 2023.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were heading home after a really lovely night. We were only about a minute around the corner from our house … we needed to get back to relieve my mum, who was babysitting.\u201d<\/p>\n
So, they grabbed e-scooters that didn\u2019t have helmets attached.<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember feeling very, very happy … and then I don\u2019t remember anything.\u201d<\/p>\n
As she was travelling at the \u201ctop speed a scooter would go\u201d, a pedestrian walked into the bike lane. The pedestrian was uninjured, but Matthews was knocked off, \u201cflying\u201d over the handlebars. <\/p>\n
Her face was covered in blood, and there were injuries to her body and ears. After arriving at Christchurch hospital by ambulance, she needed surgery to stop a major brain bleed and was in an induced coma for four days. She had a traumatic brain injury.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe next thing I remember is waking up in ICU … I woke up totally terrified. I didn\u2019t know what had happened, and I didn\u2019t know I\u2019d had brain surgery. I was in a hospital gown, surrounded by people, and I just kept thinking, \u2018What the hell is going on?\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I was in the hospital, I had some weird things with feeling like death was standing in the room.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bryony Matthews in hospital was placed in an induced coma after falling off a lime scooter.<\/p>\n
After two weeks in hospital and with staples in her head, Matthews thought things would start returning to normal.<\/p>\n
It took her a long time to understand what had happened to her, and even longer to realise that you don\u2019t recover from a brain injury in just a couple of months.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe got home, and I was an absolute wreck. I was sleeping all the time and couldn\u2019t even get up to make a cup of tea. I couldn\u2019t do anything … it started to feel quite scary because it was like, \u2018Okay, so now what do we do?\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n
Walking took longer and could only be done in short bursts. Damage to the bones in her ears led to tinnitus and hearing loss.<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t until a week after leaving hospital that Matthews learned she had been referred to Christchurch\u2019s Laura Fergusson Brain Injury Trust. After her first appointment, she burst into tears as she sat in her car with Alex, knowing she and her family didn\u2019t have to go through the journey alone.<\/p>\n
Hidden costs, unseen struggles<\/p>\n
Since 2021, the Laura Fergusson Brain Injury Trust has seen 69 people with varying forms of traumatic brain injury from scooter accidents. This year, its data shows it has assisted one new person with a traumatic brain injury from an e-scooter accident roughly every two weeks.<\/p>\n
Matthews\u2019 therapist, Pip Cape, says she was most struck by her resilience during the year they spent together. At the start of her treatment, Matthews could barely walk or stand straight.<\/p>\n
\u201c[She] never complained about anything,\u201d Cape says. \u201cShe acknowledged the incredible challenges that she was facing, but she was more focused on, \u2018Okay, well let\u2019s move forward. How can I do that one step at a time?\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes it\u2019s important to acknowledge that we get taught things as well from our clients, and Bryony was incredibly inspiring.\u201c<\/p>\n
Bryony and husband Alex as she recovered.<\/p>\n
When they first met, Cape saw the overwhelming relief in Matthews\u2019 eyes, the realisation that she didn\u2019t have to recover alone. She says a major part of the journey for any patient is realising the hidden challenges of a brain injury and learning to slow down.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not like having a broken leg where it\u2019s visible. So much of brain injury is invisible. And recovery isn\u2019t linear. We can\u2019t tell someone they\u2019ll be better in three months.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018It affects the whole family\u2019<\/p>\n
From the days she could hardly walk to the waves of overwhelming fatigue, Matthews\u2019 family have been \u201cher rock\u201d.<\/p>\n
But she\u2019s learned the trauma affects them too.<\/p>\n
While his wife was recovering, Alex was running a restaurant and looking after their daughter Hazel, now 8.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd then I was home, and he had to look after what was pretty much an old invalid woman … I\u2019m very, very grateful for him and all our network,\u201d Matthews says.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe did an amazing job with Hazel while I was in hospital … it was really important to him just to keep life going and not make it seem scarier than it already was.\u201d<\/p>\n
Matthews is still coming to terms with the impact her injury has had on Hazel. <\/p>\n
\u201cMy daughter was amazing. She was so happy to have me home, and she looked after me in her own little ways. <\/p>\n
\u201cBut months later, whenever I tried to go out, she\u2019d have a meltdown because she was terrified that I wasn\u2019t coming back … That was heartbreaking.\u201d<\/p>\n
Matthews’ album Brain Storm follows her recovery journey through song. Photo \/ Anna Heath<\/p>\n
Trauma to triumph<\/p>\n
Immediately after the accident, Matthews was in no state to sing or play guitar. Damage to her ear left her partially deaf (something she still struggles with today), and writing was one of the only things she could do.<\/p>\n
\u201cI started writing things down maybe three or four weeks after the accident … a whole bunch of poems. I wasn\u2019t singing \u2013 I couldn\u2019t sing \u2013 but I knew eventually I\u2019d turn them into songs.\u201d <\/p>\n
One of those songs, on an album called Brain Storm, is dedicated to Hazel.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s about her trauma, because this didn\u2019t just happen to me, it happened to our whole family.\u201d <\/p>\n
While her health has improved over the past three years thanks to rehab and neuropsychology, stress brings back fatigue and brain fog. She also says she\u2019s \u201cway more forgetful\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have to make sure I don\u2019t push myself, otherwise I crash with fatigue. It\u2019s forced me to stop and do less.\u201d<\/p>\n
Matthews wants people to understand the hidden cost paid by those with brain injuries, and she\u2019s ready to tour her songs after a grant from Creative New Zealand. <\/p>\n
It will be a challenge, both mentally and physically, but it\u2019s one she\u2019s up for.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt felt like a really important story to share \u2013 not just because of my experience, but because of so many other people who go through similar experiences.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not saying I\u2019m glad it happened, but things happen, and we evolve as humans, and so much happens because of hardships.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bryony Matthews Brain Storm Tour<\/p>\n
Christchurch Aug 13-14Wellington Sep 2Whanganui Sep 3Auckland Oct 14Hamilton Oct 15<\/p>\n
Tickets at littleandromeda.co.nz.<\/p>\n
Mitchell Hageman joined the Herald\u2019s entertainment and lifestyle team in 2024. He previously worked as a multimedia journalist for Hawke\u2019s Bay Today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cAll these weird things that make you look quite stupid or lazy, but you\u2019re actually just trying to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":562365,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[74,1596,276579,6186,4487,3549,156,115286,49157,71,1345,15258,88845,5511,424,102890,19475,65041,111,139,69,21529,180,7235,14484],"class_list":["post-562364","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-after","tag-brain","tag-bryony","tag-changed","tag-christchurch","tag-crash","tag-entertainment","tag-escooter","tag-forever","tag-from","tag-home","tag-injury","tag-invisible","tag-just","tag-life","tag-matthews","tag-minutes","tag-musician","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-ride","tag-shares","tag-struggle","tag-survivor"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562364","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=562364"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562364\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/562365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=562364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=562364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=562364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}