Susan Wood's journey to recovery

Wood went through a recovery process to learn to walk, talk, read and eat again. Photo / Supplied

Broadcaster Susan Wood says the serious brain injury she suffered in a fall in her home in January this year has given her the gift of remembering her father again.

Wood fell down stairs in her home on January 10 and was discovered by her niece unconscious on the floor and bleeding from her head.

She has lost around six weeks of memory from that period of time, but told Newstalk ZB that the recovery also brought back memories of her father, who died when she was 24 years old.

"It's a really lovely thing," she said.

"I was very close to my father and I was young... when he died. Now I have dreams about him, I think about him every day and just to have him back in my mind... it's lovely for me, to hear from him again.

"That was one of the very good things that happened this year."

When she was taken to hospital part of her skull was removed to release pressure on her brain.

Wood went through a recovery process to learn to walk, talk, read and eat again.

"I learnt it all very quickly, thank goodness... I got that stuff back, which is just a real relief for me."

She said she has spoken to her two sons, Alexander and Matthew, about what she was like in the immediate aftermath of the accident.

"It was an absolutely horrible thing for them for several weeks, when I couldn't speak.

"They were fantastic... I know for that first three weeks it was really harsh on them."

Wood said she had never felt bad about the accident and said it was "just one of those things to work through".

"I was determined to talk again, to read again and do what I needed to do to get my life back."

Her head was shave on the left side for the operation and has now grown back.
"That's my last big thing I needed to do," she said.

She said the support from her sons, her ex-husband and friends was "incredible" and strangers had sent cards and letters, which she read a while after the accident.

"Everywhere I have been people have been absolutely lovely to me."