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Twenty-eight-year-old Dominika Weyrová is smiling at her laptop camera, even though in her situation, many would not be able to get out of bed. Four years ago, during a stay in Taiwan, she crashed on a scooter and ended up in a coma with a severe brain injury. She lost all the memories she had gathered in the previous twenty-four years, yet she returned to her studies. At first, she kept falling asleep in class and did not understand simple equations, but today, with the help of other students and the university itself, she is about to submit a diploma thesis at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering.

First of all, I would like to point out that I had total amnesia after the accident, so I forgot my whole previous life. What I will tell you about the times before and shortly after the accident, I more or less do not remember and only know it second hand from my loved ones.

So what do you know about your life before the accident? How about school?

I was a star pupil, I could read before going to first grade, and I picked everything up quite easily. I went to an eight-year grammar school. However, I do not recall any knowledge I gained there. When I applied for university, I got accepted for math studies, but I wanted a more practical field, so I tried mechatronics at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering. In the second year, I moved to the field of applied informatics and management, which is still my current field. I extended my bachelor’s degree studies for four years. I attended the first semester of master’s degree studies, and because I probably wanted to travel and discover a different culture, I decided to travel to Taiwan.

But you have not enjoyed that for too long.

There was a short holiday two weeks after my arrival. Two other students from Canada and I decided to go on a scooter trip. I do not remember what happened at all. We set off in the evening, it got dark quickly and we probably hit the rails and our scooter, on which I rode with one of the boys, crashed into a metal structure. A friend who followed us called for help, but my passenger was dead on the spot. They took me to the hospital and then found out that I had severe brain damage. I was in a coma for a month.

How did you get back to the Czech Republic?

The departure was getting delayed because there were issues with the insurance company. I paid for the insurance on the day of the accident. After a month, it was dealt with and the doctors took me to Brno, partially conscious by then. I scored four points just after the accident on the 15-point Coma Scale, which evaluates the reactions. After waking up, I had an adult body and was able to move, but my head barely worked. I acted a bit like an animal. I did not even recognise people around me. I spent eleven days in the Brno hospital and then I went home.

What did the doctors tell you and what were your first days back home like?

Doctors told us that there was severe diffuse axonal brain injury. On impact, the axons between neurons in the brain rupture. The brain is said to be relatively unused, so it can look for other path to the memory, which gives one hope. But at the time, I did not understand anything, so I just had to accept some things. For example the fact that my mom was really my mom. My sister helped me draw diagrams of who was who, and I created various memorisation aids to help me recognise them. I was given medications that put me to sleep, but gradually I started doing activities that trained my brain. At first, I started colouring mandalas. That was the peak of my intellect at the time. I struggled to be precise in my colouring, like a child, but gradually it got better. My friends used to visit me and bring colouring books. I did not recognise them, and over time I started finding out what I used to talk with them about in messenger.

You were done with most of your university studies before the accident. But I guess you had to go back a lot in your learning.

I could read even at the very beginning, but I did not know what the words I read meant. For example, I did not know what a stone was. I learned from a children’s book about nature. I played memory games with animals and had no idea what the animals were. I started playing five-in-a-row, even though I kept losing. I went to cognitive exercises with my sister, who had to interrupt her studies because of me. I started to improve very quickly and was able to solve simple multiplication arithmetic a few months after the accident. But when I first tried to write out some calculations, I had no idea what to do.

When did you start living a more “normal” life?

The accident happened to me at the end of February, I was in the spa for two months during the summer holidays, and in September, when my condition improved significantly, I said to myself that I wanted to be more independent. I signed up for a seasonal job. I had a university degree and several programming languages written on my resume, but I could not even pick up a phone and answer it. I also started taking an English course, which was also one of the things that came back to me quickly.

And what about university?

A year after the accident, I thought it was time to try to return to BUT. After consulting with the study department, I took some bachelor’s degree courses again. I also went to the Alfons Counselling Centre, which helps students with special needs. I was immediately offered the opportunity to private tutoring, so I got tutored in hydromechanics and mathematics. Math was a big misery for me, but it looks like some basics stuck in my brain, it is just hard to find them. When I needed to learn logarithms, I looked in the textbook and understood it fairly quickly. But at first I kept falling asleep and did not understand why the teacher was writing hieroglyphs on the board. I did not manage to pass some subjects at first try.

You have a second degree disability. What does studying at a university look like with such a limitation?

My brain tires easily. Two years ago, I had to go to bed around eight. And even today, my attention fades quite easily. But school helps me a lot. I get 25 percent extra time during exams. The Alfons tutors help me. I can go through the study materials with them at my own pace. I lack the basic underlying knowledge, and I cannot ask about it in class. I solve this by the private tutoring. I am taking my studies really slow, which is also possible thanks to the BUT waiving my study extension fees. But I would like to finish school this year. I am writing a diploma thesis which, among other things, deals with the optimisation of an algorithm for better operation of complex conveyor belts with the help of a routing table. Last year, I would not have believed that I could finish my studies.