"My body served a purpose and I ate to fuel it. Then, aged 20, he woke up in hospital unable to move or talk. I had to mime to the nurse, What happened?' And it was during Covid I didn't have any family there, which made it 10 times worse. He later learned that 10 days earlier he had crashed his car into a tree. If his body hadn't been so used to the impact of contact sports, he would probably be dead."
"A tracheostomy was fitted because he couldn't breathe on his own. He had been paralysed from the chest down. They said, You're not going to walk again. You're going to be in a wheelchair, but you will be completely independent.' I just had to learn how to do that. The adjustment was life-changing. As well as losing function, I lost my identity, because I thought I was a rugby player and that's all I was. I used to live, eat, breathe, sleep rugby."
Taylor Gough trained as a professional rugby player from age 16, focusing on heavy weights, tactical drills, contact sessions and cardio and eating to fuel performance. At 20 he woke in hospital unable to move or speak after a car crash ten days earlier; a tracheostomy was fitted because he could not breathe independently. He was paralysed from the chest down and told he would not walk again, facing life in a wheelchair. Rehabilitation at the spinal unit involved relearning toileting, transferring, and wheelchair skills, while coping with weight gain and loss of athletic identity and independence.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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