It is every parent's worst nightmare... an early morning phone call telling them to hurry to the hospital because their child has been involved in a serious accident.

The call to the Greenslade home in Smith's Parish came at about 5.30 a.m. on Labour Day while the parents of 20-year-old Matthew Greenslade slept. Stanley and Terri are still dealing with how the cycle accident on Harbour Road has impacted their lives.

Matthew and his best friend Alex Styche were on Matthew's Suzuki RC 100 bike and heading west to Alex's home when they were in collision with a wall and telephone pole just past Darrell's Wharf. The accident was two days after the crash that killed sportsman Corey Smith in Smith's Parish.

Both Matthew and Alex suffered serious injuries, but while Alex, the passenger, was released from the hospital three days later, Matthew's rehabilitation is ongoing, expensive and an emotional roller coaster ride for those close to the young man whom his mother described as “outgoing, active and extremely well known”.

“Alex is trying to deal with it and it was very upsetting when he saw him for the first time in hospital,” said Mrs. Greenslade.

“He flew up to Boston to see Matthew. His (Alex's) girlfriend, Sophie Dier, goes to school up there and she was a huge help.”

Matthew took a year off from college and was working two jobs, days at Blue Water Divers as a jet ski instructor and nights at Escape Nightclub as a bar manager. He was saving his money and had just purchased a ticket for a trip throughout Europe on November 5 that was to take several months.

His British passport, which would enable him to take employment along the way, arrived a few days after the accident while he was fighting for his life in the Intensive Care Unit of the hospital.

That dream is now on hold as Matthew battles to recover from the near fatal accident. His prognosis was not good initially but, with constant care from hospital staff and his parents, who are at the hospital for about 12 hours a day, he is making a miraculous recovery.

The couple also have a 19-year-old son, Thomas, who is in school in Canada who came home for a weekend to visit his brother while he was in ICU.

It is still too early to determine the extent of his brain injury - medically classified as traumatic brain injury - but there are encouraging signs.

“We just take everything day by day,” said his mother who works as a Production Coordinator at the Department of Tourism. Both she and her husband Stanley, who works at Butterfield and Vallis but has taken a leave of absence, have had to make adjustments to their schedules in order to be with their son at the hospital every day to assist him with his rehabilitation, including speech therapy.

“Whatever we have to do that day we just do it, we don't think about it as a burden,” said Mrs. Greenslade.

“It has changed our lives tremendously. This is reality, it's what we have to deal with and this is what it has done to our family, but we can't let it stop us from being a family.”

Like many families in Bermuda before them, the Greenslades were rocked by the horrible news that their son was in serious condition in hospital following a cycle crash.

“It started with the parents' dreaded phone call on September 2,” recalled Mr. Greenslade. The call came between 5.30 and 5.45 a.m. “You have a policeman at the other end telling you your son has been in an accident. You ask him is he alright and they don't give you any answers.”

Interjected his wife: “It was a ‘you have to get here right away' type of response. We were greeted by a policeman so we knew things were really bad.”

The couple was told by the policeman that their son was in very, very serious condition. “At that point we were told it was two boys, but we didn't know it was two boys because they wouldn't give us any details over the phone,” said Mrs. Greenslade. “Of course our hearts dropped again and they told us his name.”

The Greenslades were told Matthew was bleeding internally. “They told us to call the family and when they tell you that you know it's a life or death situation,” said the young man's father.

“It seemed like hours they were in surgery and finally the doctor came in and told us they found out where the bleeding was, it was in his liver.

“The thing that made me realise he was going to live was when they said Dr. (Joseph) Froncioni went in and his leg was all busted and he fixed his leg.

“So we knew if someone was on their deathbed they are not going to fix their leg. Then our emotions went to another level where he was going to live and we got to see him soon afterwards in intensive care. They told us he had a bolt in his head to measure the pressure and said he had a very, very bad head injury and the first 24 hours was the first critical point.”

Matthew had a number of fractures behind his right eye and fought constantly for his life during the four weeks he was in intensive care at the hospital, during which time his parents considered flying him out to a hospital overseas.

“Over time he had CAT scans and we thought ‘should we fly him out of here',” said Mr. Greenslade. “We had Johns Hopkins on the phone and had a conference call with a neurosurgeon and he was faxed all the information to see if there was anything else they would be doing different and he said this hospital is doing everything they would be doing.”

“After a poor prognosis by the hospital, and almost four weeks in ICU, the Greenslades made the decision to seek further care overseas and turned to Beth Israel in Boston.

The Greenslades were told here that the cavity behind their son's right eye was very supseptible to serious infection, which is why, even now, those visiting Matthew in his isolation room must wear protective clothing so as not to pass on infections.

Tests done here and sent overseas showed no stimulation in the brain, a “Delta level” according to his mother which is the lowest reading on the scale.

“At Beth Israel (September 28 to October 7) he had a lot of problems and was in intensive care,” said Mr. Greenslade who, along with his wife, remained at his son's side. “Finally, after doing all their assessments the whole (surgical) team had us in a meeting and said that Matthew had severe damage and eventually said he had a zero to ten percent chance of getting beyond where he was at that stage. They basically told us the same thing here.

“They said his memory would pretty well be gone because all the areas of that were damaged. They said ‘if you got your son back he would not be anywhere near what you had before'.”

Said Mrs. Greenslade: “They assessed him, did another EEG which came back showing only a slight increase in megahertz but it didn't get him out of the Delta zone.”

From there the advice was to get Matthew into rehab and the young Bermudian was then taken to Spalding Rehabilitation Hospital, also in Boston.

“He was still not out of a coma, he opened one eye, his left eye, and started to move his left leg,” said his father. “The leg would just kick and they said it was a brain response. In the second day at Spalding he opened the other eye a bit and was moving his other leg and one arm.”

Matthew was on the same floor with others with brain injuries and, according to his mother, his doctor, Dr. Chae, noticed a response to the medication from the first day.

“They formed a team of physical therapist, occupational therapist and speech therapist and they assessed Matthew at different stages of the week and then come up with a plan on how long he would need to be in rehab to get to where they would like him,” explained Mr. Greenslade.

“In Matthew's and most Bermudians' cases it is an insurance matter. Most insurances will pay all the bills in a regular hospital but only give you 31 days of rehab, so they had 31 days to get Matthew from zero to doing something.

Between October 8 and November 10 when he was there he made good progress after he started breathing on his own, dangling his feet and talking.

“It was a couple of short sentences and has grown from there,” said his mother. “Everyone who has reviewed his file said it is amazing. The word miracle is used a lot. I truly believe he has been bestowed some miracles.”

Even through insurance paid for Matthew's treatment at the Rehab facility up to November 6, the family decided to keep him there a few more days because of the progress he was making. They are absorbing the cost themselves. One thing the couple was told Matthew had in his favour was his age, that an older person would not have the same kind of response to the trauma.

“There is no doubt about it, the brain has got to have been rewiring itself these last few weeks,” said Mrs. Greenslade.

According to Matthew's parents, his long term memory is still pretty good, but his short term memory has been affected.”

Matthew flew home by air ambulance 16 days ago to continue his rehabilitation, of which the first six months is very critical. A netted bed, which can be zipped up and is to prevent him from falling out, was purchased by the family overseas, arriving at the hospital and set up just a day before Matthew was brought back to Bermuda.

“The hospital gave us the name of the supplier who rents them to hospitals in the US,” explained Mrs. Greenslade.

“They had never sold one before, let alone outside the country, and we did it all in two days... buying it and getting it flown in. Customs were great, they alerted their staff at the airport because it was coming in on a Saturday and we wanted him to sleep secure in the bed when he came in on the Sunday.

“They were able to get it out of Customs on mid-afternoon on Saturday and delivered. A couple of the EMTs guys who work on the ambulance took the initiative, brought it up to his room and started putting it together. They didn't even know who the patient was.”

The Greenslades are grateful for the support they have received from hospital staff, family and friends, including grandparents and uncles and aunts.

“So many people have helped him come to this point, everyone's been very compassionate, professional and good at what they do,” Mrs. Greenslade said of the staff of the hospitals.

“It's important for the person to have family and friends visit, whether he can recognise them or not. Everybody's done something in one way or another.

“Matthew was put on prayer chains right through the Island and a number of places in the US, Canada and UK. The spiritual side of this plays a big role and crosses all types of religions. The level of energy that has grown in him is just incredible. I think a miracle has been bestowed on him.”

Inclement weather forced the postponement of some events at last Saturday's fund raising event at St. John's Church. The event has been scheduled again for this Saturday (10-4) with the car wash, bake and plant sale. Staff at the Department of Tourism, with assistance from Butterfield and Vallis, are organising the family fun day with proceeds going to the family's medical expenses.