Video Transcription

I’ve got four brothers. Pretty tight. Like, we’re still pretty close. We mainly just hang out, eat food, and finish school. So, I’ve been out of school for six months, and I just started an apprenticeship in carpentry. I was just going about my life, going out on the weekends, and then this weekend just turned really bad and nasty, for the worst. We went to one bar, had been there for a couple of hours, and it all seemed relatively quiet, a good night. Having drinks and everything like that, having a bit of fun, and then, apparently, one of my mates was whacked or bottled, not too sure exactly what it was, by a certain person. That person was kicked out.

People get ten times taller and start to take on the world, you know. So, the bloke that was kicked out called, you know, for the bloke that he bottled to come outside. The kind of person I am, I just went out there to not protect but just to make sure things were all right, so no one was getting into any trouble. I played a bit of a pacemaker, which I thought I was trying to do. I said, “Come on, what’s going on? He did this. Don’t worry about it. Let’s go upstairs, we’ll have a drink, let’s forget it.”

Then it just escalated out of nowhere. I was just king-hit, and then I ended up having my head on—not once, not twice, but three times. A few of my mates had to drag me across the road, and two or three BLS… I still, you know, remember not every night, but it comes back to me very, very regularly. I can see the punch, I can see the stomps, I can see it all happening again—the head bouncing off the ground, that kind of stuff.

Shortly after, I got a phone call from the ambulance that was taking me to Royal Melbourne Hospital. It came through to my mom, and they said, “You better round up the whole family. He’s probably not going to make it through the night.” So that was… pretty lucky to be here. I couldn’t wish it upon anyone, having that phone call. My mom and dad, you know, had to round up the troops.

After 12 days in Royal Melbourne, I was sent out to Royal Talbot in East Malvern. When I was allowed to have visitors, I had the security guards kick my parents out of there because I just didn’t know who they were. I just said, “Get them out. I don’t know who they are.” Mom and Dad said that was probably the worst part of the whole experience. Yeah, that was pretty daunting to know. It was like being born again—having to learn to walk, write, read. Then I had to get my license again, had to learn how to cook, had to learn how to make my bed. I didn’t even know what making a bed was.

If this hadn’t happened, I’d be qualified by now, and I might still be playing footy. I miss the interaction with your mates, like two or three times a week. I miss all that. Yeah, and it’s just so fresh. I just live through every moment of it again, and I replay it over and over again. From every day in my life, it’s always there. I think of it, and I just go, how could someone actually stand on someone’s head with that kind of power? It’s just another thing to realize that that was actually my head. I’m doing this because I’m lucky. I’m the lucky one. There have been so many people who’ve lost their lives, and losing their lives is not… I’m just being lucky.

I just want to hopefully send a message out to some people and say, before you throw that one punch, just think. That one punch could end someone’s life. Is it actually worth it? Is it going to resolve anything? Even if it’s over a drink being spilled, if it’s over a girl being pushed, is the punch actually going to resolve what it’s all about? That’s all I’m hoping to do, is just be a voice for the people who can’t be heard.

Video by Step Back Think