“I eat Ford Rangers for breakfast”

Matthew James’ life is divided in ”before”, ”after” and ”when I had my accident”.

However, the 24-year-old talks openly about the motorbike crash three years ago that almost took his life.

“I was on a test ride that day. I had changed the oil-cooler of my Triumph Sprint 955i the day before and wanted to make sure everything was OK.

“I was riding outside Te Aroha and wanted to overtake a Ford Ranger ute – I thought he was going towards Paeroa. I had nowhere to go, except into him.’’

A rescue helicopter took James to the hospital. Jake Browne, a close friend and former flatmate remembers: ‘’One of the doctors told me, that Matt died on the flight. But they got him back.’’

For the following three weeks, Matt fell into a natural coma.

”The doctors said I wasn’t gonna make it.”

Apart
from multiple broken bones on the left side of his body, he had a fractured
spine and neck.

 ‘’My insides were kind of a mess too: My brain was bleeding, and they had to drain fluids out of my lungs.

‘’They
said to mum ‘say your goodbyes, he’s not gonna make it’. ’’

James spent five weeks in ICU, one week in HDU and five days in a general ward before he was discharged to the Acquired Brain Injury (ABI) Rehabilitation in Auckland. Until then, no one knew whether he would walk again.

After three weeks in rehabilitation he “could kinda walk”. Nevertheless, he needed physiotherapy for over a year after leaving ABI. James also had a psychologist and later an occupational therapist.

He wasn’t allowed to work for two years and on top of that, had his driver’s licence taken off him due to epilepsy caused by the accident.

Three and a half years later James still suffers from fatigue, insomnia, and a bad memory. However, he is not only back in a job as a mechanical engineer, but also back on his own bike: A Triumph Sprint 1050.

‘’I
always knew that I was going to be back on a bike – I eat Ford Rangers for
breakfast.’’

Looking
back makes him pensive. ‘’I was given a second chance, but it was a hard lesson
learning how to be happy with my life again.’’