Brayden Cook had enjoyed some drinks with friends at a pub in the Peak District but, within minutes of leaving the boozer, was in agony with injuries suffered in a harrowing accident
A teenager is fighting for his life after a shortcut home from the pub led to a horror accident.
Brayden Cook hoped to take a quicker route home by hopping over a fence but plunged 5ft down an abyss and smashed his head on concrete. He is now in a coma in hospital with a “traumatic” brain injury, leaving mum Penny despairing. She said she is now “praying not to lose my boy”.
Brayden, 19, had gone to a pub in the Peak District during a hiking holiday with friends and, after “a few pints”, was sure the alternative route would get he and pal to the accommodation quicker. The pair didn’t realise there was a steep slope on the other side leading down to the road and Brayden, who went first, fell further than expected and hit his head on the concrete below, knocking himself unconscious.
Penny, 49, rushed to Royal Stoke Hospital when she was told about the accident on September 26. She said yesterday: “I just saw my little boy lying there with tubes in his mouth and his eye was so swollen. He was lifeless and it was horrible.”
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As well as a bleed on the brain, Brayden also suffered facial fractures. Penny said she’s been told Brayden will need to remain in hospital for up to six months and his rehabilitation could take up to a year.
The supermarket worker, from St Ives, Cambridgeshire, had been away with mates with the intention to hike around the Peak District. They’d had a fun evening in the pub ahead of their weekend but then disaster struck.
Penny, a community physiotherapist, is now anxiously waiting for her son to wake up nearly three weeks after the fall. She said Brayden looked “lifeless” and his left eye had swollen to the size of a “football” and was black and blue when she first saw her son.
“On Friday night they went to the pub and had a few beers. When they left Brayden and his other mate said they were going to take a shortcut over the fence. Brayden went first. He didn’t suspect that there was a slope or a hill [on the other side]. He must have just climbed over the fence and landed on his head,” Penny continued.
“Luckily the bones [in his face] haven’t displaced so they are treating it conservatively and he might not have to have surgery. His left eye was like a football and black and blue. He had three-inch stitches on the left side of his head as well. His face was dark yellow with bruises too.
“It’s a bit of a guessing game of how he’s going to wake up. I kept asking if he was going to make it and they [the doctors] said they couldn’t give me an answer and it was a matter of just waiting.
“I’m in a bit of a catch 22, because I want him to wake up and be okay but I don’t want him to wake up and have problems. While he’s lying there asleep, he has no problems.”
Penny says she and Brayden were meant to be flying to Thailand on December 10 for a five-and-a-half week backpacking adventure but this will now be rearranged.
She hopes to get her son private neuro-rehabilitation treatment with the money raised through her GoFundMe and also help her to remain by his side while he recovers.
Penny said: “The trip now won’t happen as he won’t be able to fly for a while because of the pressure on his brain. He went to Thailand for two-and-a-half months this year and didn’t come back with a scratch. He went to the Peak District and this is where we’re at.
“Because I’m self-employed and I’m not earning [as I’m with Brayden], I still have a house to run and I’m paying for accommodation near the hospital too. Brayden also needs supplies and the bulk of the money will go towards his rehab.”
You can donate to Brayden’s fundraiser here.