July 5, 2015 American Life Kenny noyes (Barcelona, 6/18/1979), former rider of Antonio Banderas’ team in the Moto2 World Championship and Spanish Superbike champion, changed completely in an accident suffered during the Superbike warm up on Sunday of the FIM CEV races at Motorland Aragon. It was a fall at low speed with another pilot in which they both slipped out after their mounts. But Kenny’s bike bounced off the protections and came back towards him, hitting the wheel on the upper front of the helmet and suffering a second impact on the back of the helmet with the asphalt. Result: serious head trauma and transfer by helicopter to a Zaragoza hospital with his life in serious danger.
He avoided death those first key 72 hours in the ICU and spent almost a whole month in a deep coma, a time in which his family was key in his initial progress by stimulating him, talking to him and trying to make him react. Shortly before his transfer to the Guttmann Institute in Badalona, he had passed into a state of minimal consciousness. The family were given zero hope that Kenny would return from a persistent vegetative state.. They did not know the stubbornness, tenacity and will of the pilot, nor the determination of his family.
Those six years of struggle have been captured in the Autobiography of Kenny Noyes ‘Desafíos de Superbike, Moto2 & Glasgow 3’ by the Trebolsports publishing house that the pilot himself recently presented at the Llibrería Alibri in Barcelona with former riders Carlos Checa and Randy Mamola . The theme of the book is the theme of safety and the objective of the project is to help people in a similar situation with severe head injuries and their families, who are also fundamental elements in the recovery of patients.
His life has changed, but what Kenny has not lost is his sense of humor. The functional advances are more than remarkable. He travels without a walker, can climb stairs, and has improved strength, stability, and motor control. His greatest difficulty is verbal communication. “As you can see, it is quite difficult for me to speak, but it is more a mechanical problem in my jaw than a mental problem that prevents me from speaking easily at the moment.” And it is explained by the damage that was done to the jaw in the accident. “Not being able to communicate has been the most critical thing. Above all I have learned that writing is easier than speaking. It has been a therapy, at first I did not know if I could write or not, it cost me, but when you write you realize that you can count the things that you have experienced to the whole world “. And Kenny sat in front of his Mac and with one finger of each hand he was composing his autobiography, “and also correcting”, reveals his wife Iana Noyes. “Writing helps him a lot to express himself, the book is totally his, he has corrected our chapters for us, his father, his mother, mine, he has corrected them all.”
A guide for similar cases
“The main objective of the book was to have a guide for people. When my parents looked for there were not many things written and I wanted to give an example that it is good to follow.” And he explains that the message he is trying to convey is that “you don’t have to give up, no matter how hard it may seem, you have to keep working.” And he emphasizes that “it is very important that the family is there with you when you are like this because otherwise you can’t just work, it’s cool to have them there pushing.”
“The motorcycle has always been part of my life and it will continue to be, although now a little less, but I would not change anything that I have done. The motorcycle is dangerous, but there are many dangerous things. Now I do not miss it, I like it remember it “
And Kenny speaks openly about his current relationship with the motorcycle: “The motorcycle has always been part of my life and it will continue to be, although now a little less, but I would not change anything that I have done. The motorcycle is dangerous, but there are many dangerous things. Now I don’t miss it, I like to remember it, I don’t want to ride as a competition anymore, I want to be able to ride a motorcycle again like a normal person, not compete. “
To the Noyes Camp, his riding academy, “I go, but not on a motorcycle, I go to talk to people, to control and throw a fight,” he jokes. Iana says that she spends there for 40 minutes before she starts looking at the correct line, moving cones so that people don’t go by. “He is obsessed with the safety of the circuit and see that they are mini-bikes,” he emphasizes.
In the book there is a lapidary phrase that sums up his amazing recovery from a deep coma: “This fall has not only marked the end of my sports career, but has given me the opportunity to reset my life. My goal is still to improve, but It is no longer for motorcycle racing, or any other selfish reason. Now I have the opportunity to start a new chapter. “
The determining role of the family
A key piece in his recovery has been his family, his wife Iana, his parents Heidi and Dennis, the renowned journalist and former pilot, and his brother Denny. “The work of the family is fundamental, especially at the beginning. The most important difference is how a person comes out of the minimum consciousness, which is the most important period when you are in a coma. Many people change their character, they are not the same again. I believe that family work is essential and at the very moment when the person is more asleep, when you see that he does not react, it is to be there insistent to remind him who he is. You have to be there almost every half hour because he forgets, teaching photos, ‘this is you, this is your dog’. I know it works because we have given these tips to people who have gone through times like this and are coming out better than expected, “explains Iana, to whom Kenny did not Recognized again until after six months.
Iana Noyes: “Family members do not have to lose hope because they get out of death with work, especially family members, at first. The person lying there can’t do anything, they don’t know who they are, they don’t recognize you and you have to teach him who he is so that he can be a person more similar to who he was “
Iana gives the keys to the fundamental role of the environment of the injured brainHim: “What you should not do is, above all, collapse, or not in front of him, because we all collapse. A turning point is to close the chapter and be aware that it will not be the same, life will change and many relatives cannot do that and that is why I advise people to seek help if you really want to be with that person as a couple. If you cannot find help in yourself you have to seek it. Family members do not have to lose hope because You get out of death with work, at first especially that of family members. The person lying there cannot do anything, he does not know who he is, he does not recognize you and you have to teach him who he is so that his personality does not change and can be a person more like the one he was “.
“The most difficult part for me and for Kenny has been having to say goodbye to our past life, it has been like going through a process of mourning and accepting that, although life is different now, it is not worse, it is simply another. Kenny is exactly the same person, obviously not the one from before, the life he had before is not going to be the same, but he is the same, he remembers who he is, he simply has to adapt to this new stage and yes, struggling with many obstacles As you can see, and talking is the most important thing, “says Iana.
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