LUMEN Summer 2020 - Flipbook - Page 24
AGRICULTURE
Against
the odds
S
arah Brooker was on her way to
achieving her dream of being a
neuroscientist when, on New Year’s
Eve 2002, she was forever changed
by an accident that left her with a golf ball sized
hole in her brain and no memory of her former
life.
But the almost unbelievable series of events
that unfolded that evening, in split second
timing, are what Sarah describes as the luckiest
thing that could have happened to her.
Sarah and her sisters had just finished
celebrating their father’s birthday and were
driving home. The first rain in months had
made the roads slippery. Suddenly, the
car skidded out of control and at that very
moment, an aneurysm burst in Sarah’s brain,
22
THE UNIVERSITY OF ADELAIDE
which meant she lost consciousness and didn’t
steer out of the skid. The car smashed into a
pole. It was her dad, a police officer, who took
the call on the police radio “Car accident, three
girls, one possible fatality”.
Sarah was in a coma for weeks and when she
finally woke, she had no memory of those
dearest to her, not even her her identical twin
sister Abi.
“I had no idea where I was or who I was. I'd
broken almost every bone in my body. I looked
at Abi and didn't know who she was or who
anybody was,”
she said.
Sarah had been studying neuroscience at
Monash University before her accident.
Amazingly, all those
facts remained in her brain, but she couldn’t
remember being in class learning them.
After eight long months of rehabilitation, Sarah
went back to neuroscience and studied
honours.
“I didn't know what else there was to do. I
understood the brain and it was comforting.”
Although Sarah loved science and questioning
things, she found it lonely. She felt a disconnect
