Holly before the accident
Holly Mason was born in the Blue Mountains in NSW (Australia) on December 26th of 1984. She grew up in the mountains with her loving parents (Anne and Paul) and her elder sister (Catherine), elder brother (David and younger brother (Gareth). She attended Korowal school and Springwood High School.
At the end of 1998 Holly moved with her family to the Samford area Northwest of Brisbane (Catherine was to remain in NSW a few years before moving up to Brisbane) and attended Ferny Grove SHS for two years before beginning her chef's apprenticeship.
Holly is now a qualified chef and pastry chef, but has chosen to put this aside for the moment to pursue her love of horses. During her time in Queensland Holly learned to ride and has attended numerous competitions, often taking home handfulls of ribbons. She has been an active member of Samford Equestrian Group for several years.
On December 8th 2008 Holly flew to Germany, initially to see the sights but intending to find work at a horse clinic in Babenhausen.
The accident (December 28th, 2008)
On December 28th 2008, 2 days after her birthday, Holly was in a friend's stable in Babenhausen leading a young horse. The horse was startled by something and kicked her in the head in its confusion. She sustained skull fractures and associated traumatic brain injury and was quickly airlifted to Ulm Military Hospital for emergency treatment.
Holly's treatment and recovery (28/12/08-present)
Ulm Military Hospital (28/12/08-13/1/09)
Holly had emergency surgery immediately after the accident to remove bone fragments and get her into a more stable condition. There was a high chance that Holly would not survive the surgery, but she pulled through.
Holly's mother Anne organised a passport and was at her side as soon as humanly possible, arriving on January 1st (about 84 hours after hearing about the accident).
Therapiezentrum Burgau (13/1/09-16/2/09)
On January 13th Holly was transferred to Therapiezentrum Burgau, a rehabilitation facility which provides world class early intervention therapy to achieve the best possible outcome for their patients. They encouraged as much family involvement as possible, recognising how important this is. Holly's father (Paul) flew over to support Holly and Anne as soon relevant organisation in Australia was dealt with, and was by their side on January 25th.
Holly made excellent progress in response to her treatment which included music therapy, lots of moving around (physiotherapy as well as being taken for walks in a wheelchair), taste stimulation, communications therapy and more. The clinic filmed Holly's progress for a presentation for their 20th anniversary.
In early February we were informed by the insurance company that they would not continue to pay Holly's medical expenses in Germany, and that they would only cover the cost of repatriation if it went ahead within a few days. After much negotiation the decision was reached to fly Holly back to Australia on February 16th.
Before the flight Holly was breathing through her own airway, with just a plug in her tracheotomy in case of emergency during transport, to be removed when stable in Australia. During the week before transport Holly had begun to communicate by pressing a button with her elbow and by winking her left eye to answer questions.
Flight to Australia
The flight back was not quite as expected from communication with the person employed by the insurance company to organise it. We had been led to expect a bed on the flight and provision for Holly's parents to travel with her, but after signing the release for transport found that Holly was to be strapped to a stretcher for the 28 hours of transport, and that my parents had to purchase fares separately.
The flight went fairly well except for about 5 hours during the first leg when Holly was experiencing muscle spasms and there were no appropriate drugs on the plane - these were picked up during the stopover. Upon arriving in Australia Holly was transported by ambulance directly to Princess Alexandra hospital
Princess Alexandra Hospital 17/2/09-26/5/09
Soon after arrival in Australia Holly had the tracheotomy plug removed and a tracheotomy tube replaced. Holly was placed in the high dependency unit of PA's neurological ward, but was moved to the intensive care unit when she developed pneumonia. The possible causes of the pneumonia will not be discussed at this point for legal reasons.
This incident pushed Holly's recovery back a long way. She remained in ICU for six days until her lungs had recovered and a bed was again available in the high dependency unit of the neurological ward.
Holly's progress in Australia was much slower than in Germany, but she still surprised Australian medical staff with her rate of progress.
Holly had an operation to place an artificial piece of skull on April 4th, 2009. The operation went well.
Holly was not accepted for rehabilitation in Australia, but thanks to the support of locals as well as people from around Australia and the world we were able to raise enough money to get her back to Germany to continue the excellent rehabilitation program there.
Return to Therapiezentrum Burgau (27/5/09-present)
On May 26th Holly flew under medical supervision back to Germany and returned to Therapiezentrum, where staff were eager to resume her therapy and get her recovery back on track. There was a bit of a lull while Holly learned to trust her therapists and nursing staff again, but then the rehabilitation was back up to speed with a very full and exhausting schedule of therapy.
Since arriving in Germany Holly has made excellent progress, and can now communicate very well using communications software, an alphabet board that she can spell with by pointing to letters (with her toe at the moment), and with gestures. Talking will take a lot longer than originally expected because of the break in appropriate treatment of her head and neck muscles when she was away from Germany.
Holly has come a long way towards walking, and is aiming to be able to get around by walking before her boyfriend returns in early 2010.
Latest News
Please check the "Latest News" section for the most up-to-date news on Holly's condition.