OPTIMUS PRIME
M1 bash victim’s public pledge to help loved ones
M1 bash victim Brock Prime has reached out to the Gold Coast Bulletin from his hospital bed in a series of messages, asking for the city not to forget his family.
The 29-year-old concreter started the Facebook exchange less than a day after he woke from a three-week coma.
“If I don’t make it, could you do one thing for my family and share this,” he wrote about getting financial support.
A fundraising page was set up by a friend after Mr Prime was allegedly beaten with a metal bar and left for dead on the side of the M1 at Yatala about 9.30pm on February 24. He is still on life support.
M1 bash victim Brock Prime reached out to the Gold Coast Bulletin from his hospital bed in a series of messages at the weekend, asking for the city not to forget his family.
The 29-year-old concreter started the Facebook exchange on Friday morning, less than a day after he woke from a three-week coma.
“If I don’t make it, could you do one thing for my family and share this,” he wrote, still hooked up to life support in intensive care at Gold Coast University Hospital.
Mr Prime had been the “family rock” in the weeks leading up to the incident, working 10-hour days, six days a week to support his mum Donna and siblings Jonty and Daisy so they wouldn’t lose their home after the sudden death of his father in January.
A fundraising page was set up by a friend of the family in the days after Mr Prime was allegedly beaten with a metal bar and left for dead on the side of the M1 at Yatala on the night of Saturday, February 24.
A day after waking from his coma last Thursday, Mr Prime told the Bulletin he was “not so good, still on life support”.
At one point a court was told he “may die” from life-threatening brain injuries that included an infection to his brain caused by dirt from the crowbar he was allegedly struck with.
Mr Prime pledged “I won’t give up without a fight”, but he could not yet talk, eat or drink and was using a “communication board” to converse. “It will be the hardest thing I’ve ever done just to take a step.”
Mudgeeraba Redbacks Rugby League Club senior liaison officer Neil Williams was not surprised Mr Prime, who had been involved with the club for years, was more concerned about his family’s financial security than his own personal challenges.
“He has taken on the breadwinning role since his father passed away. That’s the kind of person he is,” said Mr Williams. “They are battlers, it has occurred one after the other. They were only just recovering from the loss of their father and then this happens. It’s a lot.”
The club has rallied around the Prime family, holding fundraisers and raffles.
Mr Prime still has a long road to recovery but plans to tell his side of the story “when I can breathe on my own, talk, eat and drink”. He remains in a serious but stable condition.
Three men, Ryan Hallifax, 28, Jonathan Lawrence, 26, and Jordan Baklas, 27, have been charged with grievous bodily harm.
Donate to the Prime family at www.gofundme.com/primefamily-support