Jason and Pattie Ree are thankful for the support they received during Pattie's two-year recovery from a Lime scooter accident. Photo / Supplied
Jason and Pattie Ree are thankful for the support they received during Pattie's two-year recovery from a Lime scooter accident. Photo / Supplied
WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGES
Two years after colliding with a car while riding a Lime scooter, Pattie Ree has made a miraculous recovery after she ended up in a roadside gutter suffering a serious head injury.
"I had a lot of tears and a lot of frustration... I have found my happiness."
Pattie was knocked off her scooter crossing Tuam St in Christchurch in July 2020 as she headed to Little High restaurant for dinner with her husband Jason Ree.
"I don't know what happened, I hit a car, it hit me and I ended up in the gutter."
Husband Jason was up ahead on a scooter when he heard a "thud".
He ran back and found her face down next to a car and not moving.
"I was laying down holding her... put my hands under her neck in a support position... making sure there was any life there, to be honest... and it seemed like forever before she started groaning," he says.
"She had come to life, had regained consciousness and said she didn't know what had happened."
Pattie Ree was rushed to Christchurch Hospital after colliding with a car while riding a Lime scooter. Photo / Supplied
Jason says Pattie hit the bonnet hard. The scooter took most of the impact, and she ended up underneath a car.
"She had been knocked a fair way from the vehicle."
He reckons Pattie was three-quarters of the way across the intersection, and the one-way lights were in the process of changing, and the oncoming car was probably anticipating a green light. He doesn't blame the driver and says it was no one's fault.
Pattie was rushed to Christchurch hospital in a serious condition and was found to have a fractured skull, broken wrist, two broken fingers, badly bruised ankle, concussion and whiplash.
Pattie Ree suffered a fractured skull, concussion and whiplash. Photo / Supplied
Her first memory of waking up in the hospital was in the emergency department.
"They kept asking me what day it was and what year it was... who I was and I was able to answer those," she says.
"I had just bought a brand new jersey and they were cutting it off - that was annoying," she added.
Pattie had surgery on her skull: "They cleaned it all out and stitched it all up and made a good job on my forehead."
But she couldn't stop throwing up and needed assistance to go to the bathroom.
After 10 days she was allowed to go home, but life would not return to normal.
Pattie Ree is the principal of Our Lady of the Snows School in Methven, with 33 pupils. She teaches two days a week and runs the school for the other three days. Her expectation to return to work after a couple of weeks out of the hospital was shattered, as the effects of the concussion made her too sick to teach.
"It was pretty bad... it took me a long time to realise that the injury was more serious than I thought," she says.
Pattie Ree's long road to recovery after two years still suffers headaches, has trouble sleeping, and can't drive at night. Photo / Supplied
She couldn't even hang out the washing.
"I was still very dizzy and not able to walk very far."
Home help arrived from Laura Fergusson Brain Injury Trust with cleaning and physiotherapy, and she started seeing a psychologist.
"I couldn't vacuum, I couldn't make the beds, I was absolutely buggered from making a coffee in the morning and then I worked up to walking and talking the rubbish bin out which was only 100 metres away."
"It seems ridiculous thinking back on it now how little I could do, but step by step I was able to build on everything."
"It wasn't just the physical injuries, it was working through what I was able to do and setting realistic goals for myself and then resetting them again because I couldn't make those ones."
Jason and Pattie Ree are thankful for the support they received during Pattie's two-year recovery from a Lime scooter accident. Photo / Supplied
'Found my happiness'
Pattie is forever grateful for the help from Laura Fergusson Brain Injury Trust, which initiated a return to work programme.
"They were amazing, just their support. They are there if I need them, just give them a ring."
"For me, Laura Fergusson helped me find my joy again, I had a lot of tears and a lot of frustration and the psychologist helped me find my joy and it was the simple things that I found happiness in," she says.
Pattie is back at work at school almost fulltime. The recovery has been long and slow. Her headaches still linger, making sleeping difficult.
"It has been over two years and now I am managing my fatigue and making sure I am not doing too much. I still get a few headaches now and then," she says.
Husband Jason says she can't drive at night because of the bright lights and can't do too much or she gets wiped out.
"The past week she has been waking up with headaches every day, so it is still happening, but they are gone about lunchtime. It is still hanging around," Jason says
