Jade’s light at the end of the tunnel

Almost four years after the car accident that left Jade in a coma for four months, her world has now become a much brighter place and will only go on getting brighter.

Jade’s positive attitude, relentless commitment to her rehabilitation, and amazing support from her family, carers and friends, (including the team at Magic Mobility in Melbourne), have recently enabled positive life experiences that were otherwise unimaginable in the immediate aftermath of her accident.

Jade’s story is both inspirational and highly instructive for anyone facing the hugely confronting reality of a life-changing brain or spinal injury. And the moral of the story is that, whilst the life they were living may be gone forever, a positive future is always possible with the right support, including access to the right mobility equipment.

“I look back now, and there’s no way, when Jade had her accident, that I could’ve imagined that Jade would be driving a wheelchair, that we’d be going to Bali, or driving down on the beach” says Jade’s mum, Karen.

“I couldn’t see how we were going to get there. I couldn’t see the future. I couldn’t see anything”.

One of the biggest challenges that Karen and her family faced back then was the lack of anyone to turn to for experienced advice, or for reassurance and guidance – which might have helped them more quickly realise just how much improvement is possible, even after an injury as devastating as Jade’s. It is with this in mind that we hope this article may assist others facing the same challenges, so they can find their own positive way forward towards the light at the end of the (often dark and distressing) acquired injury rehabilitation tunnel.

Funded by the transport accident insurance scheme operating in her home state of Victoria, Australia, Jade now has access to two life-changing Magic Mobility powerchairs – a Magic 360 fitted with Urban tyres, ideal for tight indoor places and everyday outdoor environments, plus a four-wheel-drive XT4 off-road powerchair, which has allowed her to regain access to the beaches where Jade and her sister grew up, and where they remain active surf lifesaving club members.

As Jade explained: “Its fricking wonderful. I get to watch the training competitions from the beach. Beforehand I’d watch it from up on the cliff. I’m just able to be more involved now”.

“Jade comes wherever we go, whatever we do.” says Karen. “I didn’t realise how much of an outdoor family we were until we got the four-wheel drive chair. Or, before we got the four-wheel drive chair, I didn’t realise how disabled we were by not being able to do things – it’s just made a huge difference…. We can’t function without those two wheelchairs. They have become such important factors in our life now.”

Jade and Karen’s lives’ have also recently been brightened by some international travel. “We’ve gone as a family to Bali a couple of times, we’ve taken the four-wheel drive chair with us. We can guarantee all terrains then.” says Karen, and Jade added, “a lot of the paving isn’t really concreted right. A bit wobbly. … but it changed my life. It made it really easy. It’s a life saver, really good!”

Support from the Magic Mobility team has been a big part of Jade’s relentless journey to recover her independent mobility.

As Karen explains, “The thing with the chair too is, as Jade’s improving, the chair is constantly updated as well. So, Jade used to have supportive lats [lateral padding] on the sides and then Scott (from the sales team at Magic Mobility) saw that they needed to be adjusted. So that’s actually helped Jade’s core and now that Jade’s core’s strong, we don’t need those [supports] anymore, so Scott’s put a new backrest on it. As Jade’s improved, it’s constantly needed changes and it’s improving with Jade’s improvement.”

A big benefit of Magic Mobility’s range of seating solutions is this ability to easily add, remove or swap elements out, meaning the chair can keep up with the improving capabilities of acquired injury-users, like Jade. Through trial and error, and by listening to what is or isn’t working, skilled rehab engineers like Scott can quickly and easily make the adjustments needed to optimise the users’ comfort, stability and functional capabilities as these change over time. When asked about her experience dealing with Scott and the team at Magic, Karen tells us, “He’s been so lovely. So valuable. So approachable. And it’s just been an amazing support for us…. We’d be lost without him,” said Karen.

Looking ahead Jade sees more travel as a big part of her life plans. But ultimately, her aim is to become able to walk again. And, as much as Jade thinks “this (Magic) 360’s fricking wonderful”, in the longer term she also says, “I would love to get out of this fricking chair!”. Jade has promised her dad that she won’t have an alcoholic drink until she can walk to the bar and get it herself. But when she can, she says “I’ve got a lot of friends I’m going to grab a drink with.”

Whatever motivates that commitment to go as far as you can with rehabilitation, it’s that motivation which is the vital key to making it happen. As Karen proudly explained, “it’s a credit to Jade. She never, ever stops. And that’s what keeps us driving forward. It’s that she is determined to walk. She will walk. It might be a bit wobbly, might be a bit wonky, but she will walk. And it keeps giving us hope. … Jade’s now able to hang onto a pole, stand up and balance. And yet we were initially told she would never get out of bed.”

The journey may take a long time. And Jade may always need to rely on her Magic Mobility powerchairs to a certain degree to get everywhere she wants to go, and to do all she wants to do. But her determination to do all that she can, and the support she receives from everyone that is committed to enable her to go further and do more, every day, should inspire confidence and hope for anyone facing the life challenges similar to what Jade has overcome.

We wish Jade, her wonderful family and her support network all the very best in the future and we look forward to continuing to work with Jade and her family as her situation improves.

If you would like to learn more about our range of life-enabling powerchairs, and how they may support your needs and rehabilitation, click here to locate your nearest Magic Mobility dealer.