Friday, 12 February 2010
PLUCKY Whakatane teen Tessa Whitaker, severely brain-damaged in a car smash in the South Island last year, has notched up another milestone in her miraculous recovery by resuming studies at Balclutha’s Telford Rural Polytechnic.
The horse-mad 18-year-old was just a couple of months into an equine studies course when she was critically injured in the crash, which left a fellow passenger and the driver of another car dead.
Left hanging on to life by a thread, her brain connected to her body by a few tiny blood vessels, Tessa confounded doctors by making a recovery to an almost normal life after months in Dunedin Hospital and at a rehabilitation centre in the Waikato.
Her father Philip set up a second-hand car sales business in Whakatane especially so he could spend more time with his daughter after she returned home late last year.
Tessa went back to Telford at anniversary weekend - but first had to surmount a couple of major obstacles, Mr Whitaker said.
“The day after Boxing Day she was kicked by her horse and broke an arm.
“Then, at the eleventh hour, the people at Telford decided it would be better if she didn’t bring her own horse with her because they were concerned it would hold back her studies.
“It’s a high velocity sort of horse that needed more training, and the course is all about training the rider, not the horse.
“So we had to let it go, which caused a few problems, But Tessa was offered the choice of four more suitable horses at Telford, so she’s happy now.
“In fact, she couldn’t wait to get back.
“I was worried about her returning with a broken arm but when I dropped her off, it looked like half the kids at the polytech had broken arms, too.”
Stepmother Barbara said that while she was missing Tessa’s company, she was excited for her.
“It’s what she really wanted and it was time to let her go.
“Her memory is coming back and she wanted to socialise all the time - just like any teenager.
“It was quite strange for us because before the accident, Tessa was pretty quiet, though, of course, she loved the outdoors.”
Mrs Whitaker said she had been “blown away” at people’s reactions to stories about Tessa’s recovery in the Beacon and NZ Women’s Weekly magazine.
“Everywhere we went, people seemed to know her face and people we’d never met wanted to talk to us. One lovely woman we met at Bayfair even offered to take on Tessa’s horse.”
The Telford equine course, which Mrs Whitaker described as “very physical”, covers all aspects of owning and riding horses, with students even learning to construct fences.