Brian Brough pictured at his home Picture by Ronan McGrade
LEFT on a life-support machine for six weeks and paralysed from the chest down, Brian Brough’s life utterly changed after he was involved in a devastating car crash.
In September 2010, the Enniskillen man had been drinking with friends during the hours leading up to the horrific car accident.
He was just 25-years-old when the impact severed his spinal cord leaving him paralysed from the chest down.
Now 30, Brian has been left in a motorised wheelchair for the rest of his life and is constantly battling life-threatening infections.
A court heard how the accident happened when the driver, Brian Corrigan, his work colleague, tried to overtake another car on a steep bend while travelling from Belleek to Enniskillen on the Lough Shore Road.
Corrgian lost control of the car which carreered off the road, literally leaving the ground such was the speed it was travelling at.
The accident was described as catastrophic and life-changing.
In the aftermath of the crash, Brian spent three years at home, refusing to leave the privacy of home as he tried to come to terms with what happened.
Speaking to the Fermanagh Herald, he explained how his life had dramatically changed but now, thanks to the constant care of his family and health care staff, he can now live independently.
“I sat in the house for three years and did nothing,” he said.
“I was badly depressed for years after the accident and as soon as I went in to the hospital I was on anti-depressants so I have been on them since the day the accident happened. If I didn’t have them I don’t know what I would be like.
“I was living as a recluse. I didn’t get out of my bed most of the time thinking what’s the point and why did this happen to me. But I suppose they are normal thoughts. You just have to get on with it, there’s no two ways about it.
“I spent three months in hospital, six weeks on a life-support machine and three months with a halo brace bolted to my head.
“I should really be speaking to someone about the depression but that hasn’t happened yet. I need to speak to somone who deals speciafically with spinal injury cases, someone that would understand it.
“When you are in a situation like this you can’t just lie in your bed all the time taking it out on people.”
In the hours leading up to the accident he had been socialising with two work friends, Corrigan and Ciaran Kelly.
“I was drunk up until the accident and as soon as the car rested I knew, I was totally concious and I knew I did serious damage. I was telling myself to open the car door but couldn’t move a part of my body. I remember screaming with the pain.”
Before the accident, he described himself as a typical young man who loved playing football and spending time with his girlfriend who he had been living with.
“We stayed together for a year after the accident but it broke down. I loved socialising and drinking with friends but I can’t now. I’m catherterised and it causes infections all the time. I had plenty of friends back then but that dramactically reduced. You soon know who your friends are.”
Brian has, however, fought back and went on to pass his GCSE English and Maths exams as well as enrolling on a computer course despite having no feeling below his elbows.
He uses an iPad with his knuckles and has plans to pursue a career in app development.
He also attends a day care centre once a week as a chance to get out and meet other people.
Two weeks ago, Corrigan was given a ten month prison sentence for causing grevious bodily harm.
But what hurts Mr Brough is that he says Corrigan has never apologised to him in person.
He added: “The ten months sentencing is more than what I expected him to get. I thought he would have got a suspended sentence. But I don’t think he will ever learn. I don’t think he’s sorry, he never apologised to my face.”
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