My Story...

A couple of my friends thought it would be a good idea for me to start a blog to share my story, and hopefully give hope to those who are quadriplegic or paraplegic and their families.


My name is Tennille, and this is my story of how I became a ventilator dependent quadriplegic.


On Sunday, 31 October 2010. I was driving home from my sister's house after spending the night there, looking after her four sons. I was driving home the same way I drive every time I went there and I have driven the road thousands of times before.


Unfortunately, that particular October was very wet, and that weekend. It didn't stop raining.


As I was going through a sweeping right-hand turn, I hit a large pothole – which was caused by the bad weather we were having, as I corrected, I hit oil causing me to over correct. The rear of my car swung out, making my car travel down the road sideways. I was then hit on my rear passenger side by a speeding car that was travelling in the opposite direction; the impact caused my vehicle to spin in an anticlockwise direction. I was then hit on my rear driver-side by a second vehicle, which was also speeding.


This second impact caused my car to spin in a clockwise direction. My car eventually came to a stop when it hit the side rail, trapping me, as the driver-side was hard against the rail.


Two ladies – one of which was a nurse and the other CPR trained, climbed into my car and kept me alive until the paramedics arrived. I was air lifted to the Alfred Hospital, where I was operated on and placed in a medically induced coma.


My family were told not to expect me to live, and then they were told not to expect me to wake from the coma, followed by if I did wake up from my coma. I would not remember anyone or all anything.


On November 4^th, I woke up and recognised my brother instantly. I then looked around the bed and saw and recognised my sister, Mum and Dad. I then heard a nurse say 'Tennille, if you can hear me blink twice' I did as she said and that's when I was told that I had been in a car accident.


Since that day, I have been fighting and beating all odds! Every day is a fight to try and get the ability to breathe on my own, move and feel again, but most importantly, fight to be the best mum I can possibly be to my son.


I haven't got anything back yet, but every day we live with hope. My injury level is C1 – and my neck is fused at my atlas and axis, and then fixed from my C1 to my T2, so I am unable to turn my head. Along with my ventilator, I have diaphragm pacing – which is just like a pacemaker for the heart, but obviously for the diaphragm, to assist me with my breathing.


Now that you know my story, I hope that you will continue to join me on a journey of my new life – the challenges, the triumphs, the good and the bad times and any achievements that I make that may give you some hope.