‘Blue’ but breathing – the long arm of a serious crash
Fiona Paynter can still remember the moment she found her boy’s almost lifeless body in a ditch.
The 23-year-old hadn’t returned home for his routine shift at work and Paynter knew “something wasn’t right”.
“I remember I kept saying to his brothers, I bet he’s in a ditch somewhere,” Paynter told the Waikato Times.
After a series of calls to police, friends and his workplace and combing through every possible theory, Paynter opted to retrace the trip Heath had taken.
Her decision was crucial.
Jamie Heath, 23, had been driving home from a friend’s place when he fell asleep at the wheel. His maroon Mazda Axela had veered off the road between Huntly and Hamilton and smashed into a bank.
The crumpled-up wreck, however, remained hidden from passing motorists.
When Paynter finally spotted the wreck, “I said to the boys just stay in the car ... it was all squished and I thought, he’s dead.”
Heath was “blue” but breathing. He had been out in the blustery conditions for more than a day. A fireman would later told Paynter he wouldn’t have lasted another night.
Like many serious injury crashes, Heath’s health issues would be ongoing.
A year on from the crash, Heath is now dealing with the aftermath of a serious brain injury. He feels like the walking wounded - to the outside world he looks perfectly fine.
From the inside he suffers from fatigue, stress, memory loss and repetitive speech issues.
He has no memory of the actual accident and a later fall from an e-scooter impacted his recovery. Paynter says the financial situation has been tough, too.
There are no hospital bills but the regular trips to his rehabilitation sessions and overnight stays in Auckland ”stack up“.
Paynter says despite having to take time off work to support her son she was not eligible for ACC support due to not being his primary carer while Heath was able to get compensation for not being able to work.
“There was a period when I wasn’t getting any pay ... any savings I had would just be gone and I ended up needing to take my Kiwisaver out.”
“It has been really hard, to start with I went back part time ... it takes a long time to recover during the first 6-8 months,” Paynter says.
Between rehabilitation appointments in Auckland and long stays at home, to be young and independent again is what Heath bow yearns for most.
“I just feel like everyone’s looking at me thinking you’re perfectly fine. I am being told by my support worker, my doctor and everyone that I can’t go back to work ... but I’m so desperate to go back.”
If he could go back in time, Heath says he wouldn’t have driven that evening. With March being Brain Injury Awareness Month, he wants to share awareness about the slow and silent battle people with a brain injuries face.
“God saved me for a reason,” Heath says. While “life changes everyday” due to his condition, the accident has inspired a new-found ambition to become a social worker so he can “better people’s lives” and support those recovering from a serious brain injury.