LUMEN Summer 2020 - Flipbook - Page 35
Accidental
teacher
A car crash and brain
injury led Sarah to discover
a passion for teaching.
STORY BY RENEE CAPPS
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,
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. When she finally
woke she had no memory of those dearest to her, not
even 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 of
those facts from her studies 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
from the other students.
“I was still learning to cross the road, to tie my
shoelaces, and catch buses by myself, that was how
small my world was. And here were these other
honours students talking about going out on the
weekend, or going on holidays. I didn't understand
any of that. So I didn't get along with them.”
After finishing her honours, Sarah moved
to Adelaide and commenced a PhD at
Flinders University.
“I was lonely the whole time, and while I loved the
research and the brain, I missed the connection
to people.”
When Sarah was working towards her PhD, she
started tutoring to supplement her income.
“I reached the end of the PhD and I thought,
‘Science isn't where I want to be. What's made me
happy is teaching.’
“I came over to the University of Adelaide to study
teaching and had the most magic time.”
Sarah is now a high school relief teacher and recently
published author, living with her husband Alan on a
farm opposite Kuipto forest.
“I absolutely love teaching. And I'm so glad the
accident happened because had it not, I wouldn't be
a teacher. And I wouldn't have so much fun every
day going to school and working with kids,”
said Sarah.
Sarah tells her incredible story in her new book
My Lucky Stroke, available now in book stores
and online.
PICTURED
Sarah Brooker
ALUMNI MAGAZINE - SUMMER 2020
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