Micilín Feeney, who has an acquired brain injury, tells his tragic story of Halloween 2004
I MADE a stupid mistake, says Micilín Feeney, from Lettermullen, Co Galway, who features on the Road Safety Authority (RSA)'s Crashed Lives campaign.
"On Halloween night in 2004 I had been drinking at the pub after going to a match and then I drove home. I was on my own when the car left the road, over a wall into a field. If I hadn't worn my seatbelt I wouldn't be here now."
Today Micilín has an acquired brain injury.
"I had a good trade as a brickie and I worked hard at it. But my brain injury means that I can't work at my trade anymore. Everything changed for me that night," says Micilín.
"After my crash I was in a coma for two months. I spent eight months in hospital, between Galway and LBeaumont Hospital in Dublin, and then three months in the National Rehabilitation Hospital in Dublin. There was a time when I didn't want to be alive. I wanted to be dead, that's the truth. I'd be lying in a hospital bed looking out the window and I wondered, why am I here?
"I never heard about brain injury until I actually had one. When I was in the hospital there was a clock and I asked them every day to get rid of it. I couldn't stand it because I was busting to understand what time it was but I couldn't make it out for the life of me.
"My right side is the worst. I used to have tidy hand writing but not any more. I could barely write my own name now. It took me about a month in the rehabilitation hospital to actually speak again."
Micilín says his balance has been affected by his injury.
"I walk like I'm drunk. It's very ironic. Drink driving did this to me and now I look like I'm drunk all the time. It does get very lonely. People don't understand. It's not their fault they don't understand brain injury."
Micilín's message to other young people is simple: "If you really want to enjoy life, live it to the moment, but don't drink and drive because you will end up hurting yourself and others.
"Even think of your parents and what you would be putting them through; all that worry and heartbreak for nothing. If you're going to drink, never drive. It's not worth it. I know what I'm talking about."