'I woke up from three-month coma after horrific accident and uttered two words'

Giles Hudson was just 19-years-old when his life changed forever.

The year was 1985 and the teenager had just completed an apprenticeship, with an offer to study applied physics and electronics at Durham university, sponsored by British Aerospace, awaiting him.

Giles had a busy social life too and in the lead up to Christmas, he took a friend out in his car for a drive.

Shortly before midnight on December 18, as Giles was driving the pal home, a car appeared on the wrong side of a road - it was heading straight towards them. With little time to react, the young driver quickly swerved to avoid a collision and his vehicle hit a tree - the result was catastrophic injury.

READ MORE: 'I was in a coma for 2 weeks - I was screaming in my head but couldn't wake up'

"It was a wet, leafy road," said Giles, now 59 and living in Eaglescliffe near Stockton on Tees. "The only thing I can remember afterwards is confusion and flashing lights."

Giles was cut free from the wreckage by fire fighters and rushed to Middlesbrough General Hospital, which has since been replaced by James Cook University Hospital. "I received a terrible head injury, medical professionals reported that all of my brain suffered damage," he said. "My skull was fractured, my pelvis was broken back and front."

Giles had suffered a fractured spine too and with his body lacking oxygen and severe bruising on the brain, he was given a 25 per cent chance of surviving that night. In the forthcoming days, the teenager underwent several operations on his brain and was left in a deep coma.

"I was rigid and unresponsive," he said. "I had a Glasgow Coma Scale rating of three, which means deeply unconscious or dead."

Calculated within 24 hours, a patient's score on this scale is seen as an indication of the chances of recovery - below 4 carries a high risk of death or being left in a vegetative state, while scores of 8-15 offer a much higher probability of a good recovery. Comas typically last for a few weeks but some people can remain in a chronic, vegetative state for years.

Known as the Saudi Sleeping Prince, Al-Waleed bin Khalid Al-Saud died on July 19 after 20 years in a coma. The 36-year-old had suffered a severe brain injury in a car crash while a military cadet in London.

Giles spent three months in his coma, with no memories at all of the time he spent in a deep sleep. "My parents used to come and see me day and night, in shift patterns," he said. "My mum would be always talking to me, whispering in my ear as if I was talking back.

"They played music to me, if I was in an agitated state they'd play calming music and if I was in a very low state, very unwell, they'd play upbeat music and the hospital saw my levels start to rise to a stable level. I had other visitors too, one friend came in with their dog."

After three months, all the hard work paid off - Giles' mum Gwen walked in his hospital room and he can remember lifting his hand and saying: 'Hi Mum'. "Mum saw I'd recognised her and she broke down and cried," he said.

Now awake, Giles suffered from post-traumatic amnesia, a temporary state of confusion and memory loss following a brain injury, for a further six months. He had to relearn how to walk, talk and do everything else in his life.

"I had severe dysphasia (a speech impairment caused by brain injury) and would go off on long tangents with no coherence," he said. "My balance was terrible. My memory and concentration span lasted seconds."

Today, Giles' short-term memory is impaired but he is able to drive, met his wife Helen at a social club and overall, is able to lead a relatively normal life.

"Helen brought back my ability to laugh," he said of the wife he married in 2007, a day he never thought would come. "I was unable to laugh normally, then Helen did something very funny and a belly laugh flowed from me for the first time since December 1985. It was a truly amazing feeling. Mum cried – another milestone in my recovery."

Giles has been told his brain injury means he is more susceptible to brain conditions like Parkinson's Disease and Alzheimer's. Unable to complete his university course, he sought employment as a tutor after undertaking teacher training and following redundancy, now volunteers for Headway the brain injury association.

"I've tried to turn any negative thoughts into something positive and think about what I can do to make a difference," he said. "I've become aware how fragile we are. I don't want anyone to face what I've been through alone."

"I feel lucky," added the brain injury survivor. "I'm so happy to be married to Helen and so grateful to my parents for everything they've done for me."

The driver who erred onto the wrong side of the road that day was never found. And while Giles may not remember the circumstances of his accident and the three months he spent in a coma, a certain song still brings him to tears.

The track is Go West's Goodbye Girl, which was playing on a cassette tape in his car at the time of the crash. "When I was in hospital recovering, my mum was taking me home for the weekend and the song started playing," he said. "I started shaking, it just triggered something in me. It still causes me to cry sometimes."

Colin Morris, Director of Communications at Headway, said: "We're incredibly grateful to Giles for bravely sharing his story, including his experience of being in a coma, and raising awareness of brain injury.

“We know how overwhelming it can be when a loved one is in a coma. That’s why our publication Coma after brain injury offers guidance on treatment options, potential outcomes, and the support available through Headway."

You can download the Headway booklet here. If you have questions or need emotional support, the Headway nurse-led helpline is on 0808 800 2244 or email helpline@headway.org.uk. For more details about Headway's services, visit here.