A man who was pronounced dead while on holiday in Thailand after a tragic accident has explained the moment everything went wrong.
Adam Elnekaveh was on a lads' holiday in the south east Asian country in 2018 when he was involved in a horrific motorcycle accident, putting him in a coma which doctors predicted he would 'never wake up' from.
Just 27 at the time, the US fitness influencer turned motivational speaker was celebrating launching a new health app when he endured a near-fatal crash.
Brain surgeons are always vocal about the need to don a helmet, even when it comes to riding a tricycle around the garden, let alone zooming along unfamiliar roads on a high-speed motorcycle.
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And for Adam, a warning from police seemingly wasn't even enough for him to put his helmet back on, as just minutes after he paid a fine, he removed his helmet again before a crash left parts of his brain on the floor.
He said in an interview with The Sun: "After a while, my best friend stopped his motorcycle and said there was a problem with it and it didn’t feel right. As I was a seasoned motorcyclist, I told him to give me his bike as he didn’t know what he was doing.
"It felt good. I went fast to tease my friend in an egotistical way. In the end, we don’t know what happened - whether I slipped or something hit me. But the bike gave out and I fell off."
His skull cracked open and left his brain exposed, with oil from the bike also seeping into the open wound which later saw as much as 15 percent of his brain removed.
After surgery, his parents flew over from the US and were told that even if he did wake up, it would likely be in a vegetative or paralysed state, which makes it even more impressive that the 34-year-old was able to (almost) make a full recovery.
He still holds a lot of guilt about removing his helmet, which was undoubtedly the moment that everything went wrong for the fitness guru, and he has also struggled with PTSD, but is otherwise living a happy healthy life.
He said: "I went through four months of having a wheelchair, and after that, I had three months of walking with a cane," Adam explained. "Then there were another two months of being in a leg brace.
"In all, it took about a year to completely come off all assisted devices. The recovery was agonising, but I always used to say, 'I can’t go to the post office and return my body'.
"I hit the right side of my brain. The right hemisphere controls the left side of your body. So my left arm and my left leg are not functional completely. I can use my fingers, I can move my toes, but it’s tough to bend my knee, and it’s tough to completely move my left arm."
He also urged other people in a similar scenario to never give up hope, as his parents were handed over hospice paperwork such was the hospital's certainty that Adam would never be the same again.
He concluded: "I have a house, I have a car, I’m dating, and I have my own business, I’m travelling. I’m still getting things done because, in part, my parents never stopped believing in me.
"So don’t ever stop believing that your son or daughter can wake up from a coma one day. Time is the ultimate healing factor."
Topics: Health, Travel, World News
James Moorhouse