Stories & Achievements: Amy’s Story

Amy’s story: the miracle girl

“I’ve always lived in Merewether and I do like the beach,” says Amy. “I’ve got one of those giant doughnuts to take into the small waves. But tennis has always been my favourite. My brother Dean, my sister Katie and I took tennis lessons from a young age”.

“Tennis is great cardio and my coach Richard Nicholls is awesome! I go on Thursdays for an hour,” says Amy. “We play a game of two against one – support worker Stella and I versus Richard.  Stella’s pretty good! Sometimes he has to give a new support worker a quick lesson and some practice shots before we play against him. One Christmas mum and dad gave me tickets to the Sydney International and I got to see Sam Stosur play. My favourite player - who I never got to see play - is Ash Barty. She retired and had a baby.  I also like Serena Williams and Dylan Alcott who is very inspiring”.

“Amy has probably had tennis coaching for 15 years now,” says Amy’s father Jim. “I actually think Amy’s coach enjoys it more than than she does! Richard has been great and even came along to Amy’s 30th birthday.  We don’t expect a Serena Williams, we just want her to have fun.”

Jim continues, “Amy was six months old and sitting in a car seat when the accident happened. She was with her sister Katie in the back and I was just driving my wife Kathy to work one day. We were rear ended by a truck in front of the Tighes Hill TAFE.  Life just turned around and was never the same again. They say most accidents happen within five kilometres from home and I think we were only a kilometre from home.”

“Kathy had a shoulder injury and we were shook up but it didn’t seem like anyone suffered anything major. We went straight to the Mater and they said we should just go home to wait rather than hang around the hospital.  In the end Amy was in hospital for about 11 days and we thought she’d come good once she was back home.”

“This happened over 30 years ago and medicine in trauma care has improved so much over that time. We didn’t see a neurologist for months. We’ve done a hell of a lot of research ourselves over the years. Especially Kathy who is a legal secretary of nearly 40 years.  She’s really good at this stuff and has built up a huge volume of notes,” says Jim. “The insurance company paid for a support teacher through school, so Amy went right through mainstream school with about five hours of daily support from kinder right through high school.”

Amy says, “I was very young at the time of the accident so I obviously can’t remember anything. I’m the middle child and the only one living at home now. I have an elder sister and younger brother.”

“My schooling was at Hamilton South Public School and Newcastle High which was good, and I’m still friends with some of my old schoolmates.”

“Amy went through a period where she had really bad epilepsy,” shares Jim. “She was four or five and she went on a Phenobarbital medication and the seizures stopped dead overnight. So she had quite a few years of relief but then she went through puberty and the epilepsy came back and got much worse.”

“He picked up the problem straight away and Amy had brain surgery within a matter of weeks of seeing him. He’s our guru and calls Amy his ‘miracle girl.’
We love Dr Rowe!  He is working on a cure for motor neurone disease and I believe they’re about to start trials soon.

“This may sound crude, but in simple terms they cleaned up part of her skull where the brain was growing through the ‘cracks’ and inserted a titanium plate. Then she went back to Macquarie Private in Sydney a few months later to have a shunt put in. Two more weeks in hospital and it was a slow recovery as Amy was pretty sick from those two surgeries, but she’s come good. Amy’s been almost seizure free and going well the last 18 months.

“My gall bladder has been removed so I have to be very careful what I eat, and I have had a lot of tummy issues to deal with,” explains Amy.

“In 2009 I joined Headstart”, says Amy. “In that time I’ve had many different support workers. CoWorker Joel is great and puts my monthly timetable together so I know what I’ve got on and who is supporting me.  I couldn’t have just one person every day. - they’re all unique and have different personalities, but they all do a good job. We do tennis, gym, shopping, different things like bowling. On Monday we went to Holey Moley mini golf at Charlestown Square. I won that one! I haven’t been down to the Royal Easter show in Sydney since 2019 so hope to go again soon. Without Headstart I wouldn’t get out in the community or do very much, so it’s important for me. Knowing the girls over so many years you form a close friendship because you see them often.”

“I’ve previously been to the Capitol Theatre in Sydney to see Mary Poppins and Matilda with support workers. I like the theatre and movies.  I’m going to see Barbie soon! I like animated movies like the Little Mermaid and also Rom Coms.”

“I enjoy puzzles and just finished a thousand piece one over 12 days. The latest was a Barbie puzzle that I had to finish before the movie! I love Barbie and played with the dolls when I was a kid. I enjoy Bananagrams which is like scrabble but without the board.  So I’ve got quite a lot of patience. We play Jenga and board games like Monopoly.”

“As parents we like to keep Amy motivated,” says Jim. “While she’s got paralysis down the right side we like to keep her active and not sit around watching telly all the time.

Amy continues: “I’ve been going to the gym twice a week since the lockdowns. Scott is my Exercise Physiologist and he helps me with the gym program. We might do upper body on Tuesday, then we’ll do something else on Friday.  Even though I’m quite a motivated person my gym CSW’s Jasmine and Lauren give me that extra bit of motivation. My fitness goals are: more muscular tone throughout my body, more core strength and improved posture.  It’s good for my tennis too!”

A report from Any’s Exercise Physiologist

In Amy’s treatment sessions I am looking to reduce the decline of muscular strength, mobility and function on her affected right side – with Amy’s efforts she has been able to extend the active range of motion of her right elbow and increase her gripping strength on her right hand. Amy has been making good progress in building strength and functional capacity in movements that match the needs of her daily life. Aerobic exercise in the form of skiing, rowing and stationary bike riding is a major part of Amy’s training, keeping her cardiovascular health in check.

In particular, Amy has been able to demonstrate progress in her strength and muscular control in exercises such as:

• The barbell hip thrust

• Pulling movements such as seated rows, overhead pulldowns and hanging onto a bar

• Squatting and lunging with up to an additional 5kg weight added.

Overall, I am pleased with Amy’s progress, particularly with her willingness to take on more intense strength training – which I believe holds huge musculoskeletal benefits for people with brain injuries. A vital and irreplaceable part of Amy’s adherence is her support workers, Jasmine and Lauren, who always get involved in Amy’s sessions and encourage Amy to keep going.

- Scott Witchard, Accredited Exercise Physiologist and Exercise Scientist