My life after a traumatic head injury

Five years ago, Danielle Fourie suffered a traumatic brain injury (TBI), but now, at 36, she has made an incredible recovery. She credits the multidisciplinary team at Rehab@Muelmed at Mediclinic Muelmed for supporting her every step of the way. 

Ten-week coma

“I can’t remember anything about that day – or most of my time in the hospital’s intensive-care unit. My husband, Louis, tells me the accident happened during a motorcycle ride in October 2020. After church, we were enjoying a relaxing Sunday brunch outing with my brother-in-law and his girlfriend when a car crashed into our 650cc touring motorcycle.

An ambulance took us to Mediclinic Tzaneen, and I was later transported by helicopter to a bigger hospital in Johannesburg. There I spent three months in the intensive care unit – and doctors kept me in a medically-induced coma for 10 weeks because of my head injury. They did this to prevent my brain from swelling and to give my body time to heal. I had a basilar skull fracture, which is the most serious kind of skull fracture.

Healing with rehabilitation

At the beginning of January 2021, I was moved to Rehab@Muelmed at Mediclinic Muelmed to recover. When I arrived, I was still very weak; I couldn’t sit up or help myself move up on the bed. I couldn’t talk or swallow as my trachea had been injured during the accident, and I had a tracheotomy while I was in ICU. The doctors repaired my trachea and oesophagus during a six-hour procedure. I still had a catheter in and had to be bathed in bed. I didn’t have much balance, and couldn’t stand without holding onto something, so it was impossible to shower.

I also broke my left collarbone in the accident. During the long time I spent in a coma, the fracture healed very well so I don’t have any pain there now. I was fed through a stomach tube for six weeks. I could only swallow properly once the swelling in my throat went down. After this, I started with a soft diet and moved on to a normal diet eight days later. Today, my voice has almost returned to normal, and I am working on my breathing exercises.

Support and encouragement

What I’ll remember most about my time in rehab is the incredibly supportive therapists and nurses. They helped me believe in myself and gave me constant encouragement that I could overcome all hurdles – that I could improve and recover. The communication between my husband and the rehabilitation team was excellent – they gave him regular, detailed updates on my progress.

When I first started rehabilitation, the left side of my face was very weak, and I only smiled with the right side. By regularly doing my face exercises, I have improved so much that my smile is about 90% back to how it used to be. I started walking with a walking frame and with the help of the therapists, I can now walk without it.

I can shower myself and do nearly all dressing activities on my own. My worst injuries were to my hip where the car hit me, so I cannot bend my left leg in the hip area. I am still recovering, but I hope to return to my everyday activities.

New lease on life

While I was in rehab, I realised that my outlook on life was changing. My husband and I now have a new mindset and are fully committed to valuing and enjoying the time we have together. Although he also sustained scrapes and bruises in the accident, he didn’t have fractures or brain injuries like I had. He was and still is a constant source of strength in my recovery, during my time in ICU and in rehab.

Every day at home, I am a step closer to what my life used to be. I’ve made a 90% recovery and have been able to return to work as a high school teacher. However, I do sometimes have slurred speech, especially when I’m in a hurry and want to talk too fast. This makes it difficult for people to understand what I’m saying.

I sometimes struggle with short-term memory and often find myself telling the same story again a few days later. I’ve also lost hearing in my right ear and now wear a hearing aid. To keep my hip mobile, I go to a water aerobics class every week, which helps me move more comfortably.

But the most amazing part of surviving this terrible crash and brain injury is that Louis and I welcomed our first child, our son LJ, in January 2025. We are overjoyed and so excited for the future ahead!”

Rehabilitation team

As Helandri Zeeman, the Neuro Unit Therapy Manager at Rehab@Muelmed explains, “a traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a disruption in normal brain function caused by an external force, such as a blow, jolt, or penetrating wound to the head.” TBIs can range from mild (concussion) to severe, leading to long-term complications or even death.

Danielle’s rehabilitation involved a full multidisciplinary team, including medical doctors, psychologists, social workers, a nursing team, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, and speech therapists. Rehab@Muelmed is also equipped to help patients who need dieticians, medical specialists, neuro optometrists, and audiologists.