Trapped in a deep coma after a car crash that killed her best mate, Tessa Whitaker’s life hung by a fragile thread – literally. The teenager’s brain was so shaken by the impact, it had been ripped away from all but a few thread-like veins.
But those tiny vessels were not enough to keep Tessa alive and doctors at Dunedin Hospital prepared her family to switch off the 18-year-old student’s life support. “They told us to get ready to say goodbye, and we discussed organ donation,” says Tessa’s dad Philip. “She also had two other brain injuries – frontal lobe damage, and lack of oxygen damage because she had died at the scene for some time. If she did survive, the doctors said, she would be in a ‘persistent vegetative state’.”
But five days after the horrific accident, something incredible happened that Tessa now believes was due to the help of an unexpected guardian angel. The last tiny blood vessels connecting Tessa’s brain to her body miraculously grew thicker, allowing oxygen-rich blood to flow into her dying brain.
And that wasn’t the only thing that had doctors baffled – Tessa’s bruised and battered brain also managed to move back into its correct position. “I remember getting a phone call from her neurosurgeon saying, ‘I think Tessa’s going to make it,'” Philip recalls. “I was sitting on the side of the road and I just went to pieces. It’s apparently a one in 10 million occurrence.”
Two months later, Tessa, who also broke both arms and her collarbone, woke from her coma and began moving around. Her remarkable progress saw her moved to a rehabilitation centre in the Waikato where, just three months after the crash, she shocked staff by suddenly getting up and walking – months ahead of expectations.
With their daughter making huge leaps in her recovery, her parents decided to confess the heartbreaking news that her best friend oiemie Cloete (17), also in the car accident, had not survived. The two young women were in the same equine studies class at Telford Rural Polytech and shared a love of horses.
They were travelling together with three other students to a party when another car, driven by Israeli tourist Eliyahu Ben- David (23) collided with their car near Balclutha. Eliyahu, who is thought to have been mistakenly driving on the wrong side of the road, died at the scene. oiemie was taken to hospital but died two days later.
But when Tessa’s parents told her about oiemie, they were shocked by their daughter’s response – she had absolutely no memory of her friend at all. She also couldn’t remember waking from the coma, and her recent past was a blank.
Tessa explains, “I thought I was still at Trident High School in Whakatane because there were pictures of my schoolmates in my room. There were also photos of some of my new friends from Telford but I didn’t know who they were.”
When she was shown a picture of herself with oiemie, a confused Tessa thought the girl with her was her sister. “But oum told me oiemie was my friend and that she had died in the crash,” she says. “I still don’t remember her at all, but apparently we were best friend and were really close.”
Tessa also has no memory of the day of the accident. “I’ve been told there were five girls in the car and I was riding in the back. I wasn’t wearing a seatbelt. I never used to wear seatbelts, not even in the front seat, but now I always do.”
It’s now eight months since the car crash that changed her life so profoundly and Tessa’s phenomenal recovery continues to amaze. Her speech has returned, her balance has improved and parts of her memory have come back. She has also been wondering if there’s a deeper meaning behind her miraculous recovery.
“I went to a clairvoyant who told me that the driver who died became my guardian angel,” she says. “He wants to do all he can to help me.” Tessa’s arms and face will always bear the scars of her ordeal, but Philip says there’s also been a marked change to her daughter’s personality. once quiet and withdrawn, Tessa has come out of her shell.
“I love both Tessas, but she’s much less guarded now,” Philip says. Next year, Tessa will return to college, deeply thankful that’s she been given another chance at life. “I don’t know what my future holds yet – but at least I have one,” she smiles.