Wareemba Community Living

G’day! My name is Greg and this is my story about living with my Brain Injury and how I was lost, firstly on the side of the rail tracks and then lost in the system as a youth put into a nursing home for old people.

When I was young and at Hurstville Boys High School I was into baseball, rugby league and cricket and was very active in sports.

I originally came from the country as I was born in Tamworth, and then lived in Gunnedah before the family moved to Campbelltown in 1973. It was here that Mum and Dad got divorced in 1979, and I and my younger sister went and lived with our mother. Mum got remarried and took us to Canberra, and I remember I was in year six at this stage.

We moved back to Sydney in 1981 and I started at Hurstville Boys High School in 1983. In that year I went to live with my Dad at Campsie. As well as the other sports I played at school, I happened to excel at baseball and played with the Hurstville Red Socks and we made the state finals in the early 1980’s. I stayed at Campsie and continued at school to year 10. When I was 16 I left school and joined the Army Reserve, one month after my 17th birthday, with 1/15 Royal NSW Lancers. We used to be called the “cut lunch commandos”. I survived the training and had my passing out parade at Ingleburn. I learnt to drive trucks and other smaller army vehicles and was posted to Operational Support Squadron as a driver. In addition I also rode horses and learnt Light Horse Skills with the Mounted Detachment.

My first job was as a Spray Painter, then a Mailman, and then I went to work at Brunker Spare Parts who were a wrecking yard at Greenacre. It was here that I became interested in motor car racing and drove a V12 Jaguar at Amaroo and Oran Park by my boss who owned Brunker Spares. I worked here for about nine months and enjoyed motor racing and became quite good at it and qualified for the James Hardie 1000 meeting to be held at Bathurst.

Now for my bashing, where I got my head kicked in the week before the big race.

It was the 21st September 1988 and it was a Friday night. On this afternoon we had a couple of beers after work and my boss drove me to the train station at Regents Park. I caught a train about 8pm and I stood by the door. The train pulled into Belmore station and some hoodlums got on board the train and were walking through the carriages. I was in a double decker silver carriage, and from where I was standing near the doorway I could see down the stairs into the carriage and I saw a young girl with this gang swinging around her bag. She came to the top of the stairs and confronted me and said, “What are you staring at?” She had a soft ball bat in her hand and pushed this up under my chin. I smiled and shrugged my shoulders and reefed the bat out of her grasp. I then handed it back to her. She turned away and then swung the bat back at me and hit me across the head. The four guys that were with her then attacked me and started kicking into me and then threw me out of the doorway of the train. I landed on my head.

The found me lying beside the tracks a day at about 5 am the next morning (Saturday), unconscious. I was told that a Country Train driver spied my boots and stopped his train at Campsie Station to inform the Station Master. The Station Master walked up along the tracks to have a look and called an Ambulance.

They said I only had a 5% chance to live. They took me to Canterbury Hospital, where they said that they couldn’t do anything for me. I was then taken to Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. I was there for the first 3 months in a coma. They then transferred me to Lidcombe Hospital which was the Brain Injury Hospital at the time. I was stuck in there for about 18 months. While in Lidcombe I started attending a program at headway Adult Development Program. My mother had alterations done to her house and I went to live there for some months, but this did not work out because of the amount of care I required.

I returned to Lidcombe Hospital Head Injury Unit after another operation at Westmead Hospital; there were not many places for me to live as I required 24 hour care. Unfortunately the only place for me to go was a Nursing Home at Greenacre. That’s where I became lost again. Here I was, this young guy who loved heavy metal music, living a place for old people. I wanted to get out and I was helped by Lidcombe Hospital to get out. After some efforts by the Owner of the Nursing Home, Lidcombe Hospital, my solicitor and others to get me out. I moved into my own place in 1997 provided by the Department of Housing. Although I needed 24 hour care, it was my place, I was independent and free. My carers were initially another service, which had difficulty in meeting my requirements, and Wareemba Community Living took over this role and have been providing support to me since.

Although I still require 24 hour care, I have progressed remarkably and have come such a long way.

Wareemba have helped me in my individual skills and with my physical progress. They have helped me with my money management skills. They take me on outings. They take me wherever I would like to go, no questions asked. I have even done amateur stand up comedy.