My Story

22nd August 2019 I had just come off the 15:00 Ferry from Malta and was going home. On the main road in Ghajnsielem a car coming in the opposite direction drifted on to my side of the road and hit me head on. The helmet strap was suffocating me and the helmet was carefully removed by the Rapid Response Team, enabling me to breathe again.

I believe that it was at this time my late wife appeared to me, she was with our late son and she said “It’s not my time yet, I’m not ready our daughters and my partner still need me”. I always carry the cross from the Rosary Beads which were buried with my wife, in a casket which I got on motorbike tour in Nepal as a lucky charm, I think I needed it that day.

My partners’ friend, who was a policeman, phoned her and told her that he thought that I was involved in a serious motorbike accident, he later confirmed the number plate of the bike when she was on her way to Gozo General Hospital (GGH).

Within 5 minutes the ambulance arrived at the scene of the accident and took me to an already waiting team in Casualty.

I think that I then regained consciousness in Casualty, but was very confused and disorientated and I was induced into a coma.

The initial events following the accident all came miraculously together and I was in GGH within 15 minutes of the accident. My partner and biker friend arrived at the hospital 5 minutes after me. They confirmed it was me and then phoned my daughters and my parents to inform them.

One daughter arrived in minutes, she was stopped by hospital staff and was told to prepare for the worst and that it was very serious. She saw my lifeless body on the resus table with doctors working on me…. I looked like I was sleeping. I was in a coma, I was given my last rites.

Both my daughters, my parents and my partner were with me every day. ITU had very strict visiting hours so families were only allowed there a short time.

One day during my coma my daughters and my partner were stopped by a doctor and he said “You know he isn’t waking up its best you see for ourselves”. I was taken off sedation in front of them and it was true I wasn’t waking up no matter how often they called me to wake up I just didn’t. Several attempts were made to wake me up by stopping my sedation and everyone kept telling me to wake up and that the doctors were going to perform a tracheostomy if I didn’t wake up, because I had developed pneumonia. I came out of the coma probably at the thought of the tracheostomy. I was in the coma for 12 days and came out of it just in time for my eldest grandson’s birthday.

I was out of the coma, but still very confused…. one night I asked my daughter where mum was and she had to tell me she died 15 years ago…. I was shocked.

I don’t remember being in any pain, but I was like a new born and had to learn everything from scratch. I had to learn to talk, to eat, to swallow, to stand, to walk and to use the toilet etc. every day I learnt something new.
Many people and work colleagues came to visit me. I specifically recall opening my mouth showing a mouth full of curled up pipe to a work colleague. The pipe was went directly into my stomach to feed me, but I had brought it up. I was then rushed back into surgery to get the pipe replaced.

The support I had from my family, all my friends, my employers, my work colleagues, my students and most of all my partner was incredible.

The protective clothing and the helmet not only saved my life, but minimised my injuries. My injuries were limited to :-

1) a trapped nerve in my elbow, causing numbness in my little finger
2) loss of memory and dizziness following 3 intracerebral haemorrhages, (1x 8mm by 15mm & 2x 7mm).

Not bad for a head impact with a car !

If I could go back and change anything, would I ?

I can definitely say “NO” I would not change anything at all.

To have experienced the events and to know, without a shadow of doubt, that there is life after death and that death is so peaceful it’s something that I’m looking forward to again.

This whole episode has brought me much closer to God, my family, friends and partner, my priorities in life have been completely overturned and I’m no longer focused on achievements in life and achievements at work, but more focused on the quality of life and living. Life is too short to get bogged down.

The trauma, emotional process has been a very long journey not only for me, but especially for the people in my life. It’s important to know that the families of people involved in accidents struggle too sometimes more so than the accident victim themselves.

Now some 20 months on I’m still attending physiotherapy and counselling. Some numbness and some minor dizziness still persists today. I no longer work, but recently I’ve begun to ride again, albeit very tranquilly and hopefully I’ll be back to teaching with my motorbike riding school shortly.

I hope my story will touch someone out there and help them see light at the end of a long dark tunnel.

Ray Gibson