Lawson Rankin was enjoying the sun, sand, and surf of Bali with 20 of his best mates to celebrate the end of high school. He doesn't remember the scooter accident that left him fighting for life, and he doesn't remember his first months in hospital. Now he is focused on the future. He wants to walk again, and he wants to go home, and he is working hard to get there. This is part three of a special series about Lawson's accident, rescue, and recovery.
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LAWSON Rankin stands between two parallel bars.
On the floor, between his feet, there is a long red line and three small green markings.
His hands grip the bars as he stands up straight; puts his head up, his shoulders back.
Flanked by two physios, facing his mum, Lawson takes three steps forward.
Then three steps back.
He re-adjusts. Takes a deep breath. Starts again.
He is focused. Determined.
He does it again. Then again.
He listens to the instructions of his physio who tells him to stand up straighter, to imagine his back as a paddle pop stick, not a banana.
Lawson eye's light up. He cracks a joke. Laughs.
Then he straightens, focuses again, and repeats the exercise.
This time he walks the full length of the bars, then does it in reverse.
"Back it up. Beep, beep, beep," his physio jokes.
Just a few weeks ago, Lawson could not sit in a bed without support.
He could not straighten his left arm.
He could not move his feet.
Now, he was two physios by his side, not four.
His arms and hands have more mobility, and he can move his feet on his own.
"It is going to be a long road," Lawson said.
"It's something to go through, and it is hard to go through it. But I'm just focusing on getting better, and I will work hard to get there.
"I have come so far."
Lawson sustained a severe traumatic brain injury in a scooter accident in Bali at the end of last year.
He had a nasty chest infection, a head wound, and suffered a fractured vertebrae.
He also acquired an antibiotic-resistant "superbug".
And for five weeks, Lawson was in a coma.
It was touch and go.
"It has been a rollercoaster," his mother, Therese Rankin, said.
"We were on this high of getting Lawson back, but then the scans showed that his brain injury was severe... That his condition was much worse than they had first thought.
"The meeting we had with all of the doctors and surgeons after he got back was pretty horrific.
"We were basically told that this might be as good as gets for Lawson.
"That was really upsetting.
"No one expected him to get this far."
The Rankins took it hour by hour, day by day.
They cherished every sign of hope. Every cough. Every twitch of a finger.
"It sounds dramatic, and it was," Lawson's father, Phillip Rankin, said.
"We sat in the room for half an hour in tears after that meeting with the doctors in Sydney.
"They warned us about everything. They told us the truth.
"It wasn't cold or harsh. It was just reality.
"They said to prepare for a year in hospital, and a year in rehabilitation."
No one could tell them what the future would look like for Lawson.
"It's not like a broken bone where there is a crack and you can see where it has got to repair. No one can tell you what's ahead," Phillip said.
"We clung to the 'but we don't know'. We were happy with any millimetre of hope.
"From then it was hour by hour - learning, watching, observing.
"You want a mindfulness lesson? Come to an ICU and watch someone survive."
Lawson gradually emerged from a deep state of unconsciousness.
It wasn't like the movies. Not like flicking a switch.
It took time - weeks. And patience.
Lawson would then spend the next five weeks in a state of "post-traumatic amnesia".
It was difficult for him to remember things from one day to the next.
While he had been in a coma, fighting for his life, a crowdfunding campaign had raised more than $200,000 to "Bring Lawson Home".
It was enough money to pay for his extensive international hospital bills, his medical evacuation from Bali, and some of his ongoing rehabilitation needs.
"It's a marathon, not a sprint," Phillip said.
Lawson doesn't remember anything from the Prince of Wales hospital in Sydney, or from the John Hunter Hospital, where he was transferred on December 30 - exactly one month after his accident.
He has no memory of the crash.
He remembers swimming in the pool with his mates at their villa in Seminyak.
He has a vague memory of singing with the band at a bar on the beach in Canggu.
"I think it might have been 'Take Me Home, Country Roads'," he smiles.
He remembers taking his friends to a convenience store, opening the door of a "broken fridge" to reveal a hidden club.
"We were all having fun," he said.
"We were having a really good time."
He remembers planning the trip with his mates.
Lawson had wanted to see his brother, Nelson, who was living in Bali.
He wanted to go for a couple of surfs.
He also wanted to do a day tour to the jungle.
Instead, late on a Saturday night somewhere between Canggu and Seminyak, Lawson's friends were pulling him out of a concrete drain.
Counting out compressions and breaths. Saving his life.
"It's crazy," Lawson said.
"I am so happy. I am so thankful they were there. That they did that.
"I will be thankful for that forever."
When Lawson emerged from his coma, and he began to understand what had happened, he "couldn't believe it".
When he went to Bali, it had been the end of November.
Suddenly, it was January.
"When the boys told me what had happened, and said it all started with a phone being stolen... We already knew that there were a lot of locals who were going around and pick-pocketing," Lawson said.
"I'd already had my phone taken from my pocket once, while we were just walking around. But one of the boys saw it happen, and stopped him. Confronted him. He got my phone back.
"It had happened to another one of my mates too. That time it was me who saw it happen - I ran up straight away and got his phone back."
The thefts had been brazen.
The boys were on high alert, and looking out for each other.
"It was a bit dumb... Chasing someone on a motorbike. It was just dumb," Lawson said.
"Riding a motorbike, at speed... looking back on it, I wouldn't do that again.
"It was the wrong thing to do. There is so much that can go wrong. That did go wrong.
"But I don't have any regrets. I can't.
"There is no use looking back. It's not helpful.
"I'm just focusing on my goals.
"Focusing on getting better.
"Working towards getting better."
Initially, Lawson had to learn to communicate with hand signals.
A closed fist with his pinkie raised meant "yes", a closed fist meant "no".
His first words after emerging from his coma were: "I'm hungry".
And one of his first goals was to eat - not through an IV, and not a puree.
"I didn't like the purees. I could only eat purees for a while. Different coloured purees. They sucked. They were so bad," Lawson laughed.
Since then, he has set - and achieved - a lot of small goals.
But his big goals are what keep him determined to get the most out of every therapy session at Rankin Park Centre.
He wants to walk again. He wants to go home.
"I never realised how much I took for granted before," he said.
"I never even thought twice about things like walking.
"Now I am learning all of these simple things again that I didn't even think were that important before.
"It has taught me not to take anything for granted again.
"It makes me value things more. Value everything more."
Through this, Lawson has found perfection in the small, simple things that he longs to do again.
A picnic overlooking Redhead Beach at sunset with his family.
Walking their dog, Juka.
Lawson was "a bit cut" that he wasn't going to university this year with the rest of his friends.
He loved maths and physics. Had been hoping to study engineering, or even medicine, this year.
He still intends to get there.
"It is one of my goals," he said.
"I never focus on what happened. I wake up in the morning focusing on what I am going to do in physio, and how hard I am going to try - what I have got to do to get better.
"I am going towards walking. Going towards getting 100 per cent better."
Lawson's drive and determination and humour has endeared him to the therapists, nurses, and doctors at Rankin Park Centre.
His doctor, rehabilitation specialist Dr David Kellet, said Lawson had sustained an injury they would describe as a "diffuse axonal injury".
"There are about 100 billion nerves that make up the human brain, and if there is enough force from a head injury that can transmit throughout all those neuronal cells, it can cause widespread damage across the brain network and affect the axons - which are the pathways of the nerve cells that make up the brain," he said. "It is a very complex part of the body, so it is very difficult to make confident predictions, at this point in time, about what things are going to be like in six, 12 months.
"Certainly, it has been a significant injury for Lawson, and he still has a lot of effects from that injury that are going to require further rehabilitation and further recovery over a long period of time.
"However it is still relatively early days in terms of that recovery process."
Lawson's motivation, and the support of his family and friends, were working in his favour.
"He is approaching his rehabilitation with a lot of drive and enthusiasm and, increasingly, a lot of humour - particularly over the last couple of weeks," Dr Kellet said.
"He has clearly got an extremely supportive family and social network in Newcastle that I think is just so important for the process he is going through at the moment."
Each day, Lawson has physio in the morning.
Then there is speech pathology, and occupational therapy.
He zips down the corridors to each session on an electric wheelchair.
He breaks for an hour for lunch, then it is more physio in the afternoon.
He plays brain training games through apps like Lumosity. He thinks the puzzles, maths and pattern games help.
He does extra exercises with his parents in his room, or in the fresh air on the lawn outside the centre.
Phillip and Therese have been by Lawson's side every single day.
At least one of them is there 12 hours a day.
They bring in extra food, extra vegetables, extra vitamins - juices and fresh smoothies - to keep Lawson nourished and hydrated to give him the best possible chance at recovery.
"The food is good here. We just add to it," Phillip said.
A fruit box from a friend arrives at the rehab centre each week.
Meals are dropped at their front door.
"There is a lasagne competition on at the moment," Phillip smiled.
"It has been great."
Lawson has a constant stream of visitors stopping by to see him.
Family, friends, teachers. There is typically a big group of mates dropping by each afternoon.
Rankin Park Centre physiotherapist, Aidan Vassallo, said Lawson had come a long way in the short amount of time he had been there.
"He wasn't able to sit on a bed by himself. Now we are doing all of this walking practice," Mr Vassallo said.
"In his first walks he couldn't move his legs - we had to move them for him. Now he is moving them on his own.
"It has been a very big change. Lawson does work very hard in physio.
"After having an injury to the brain, like Lawson has, the main idea behind therapy is trying to practice those normal ways of moving in as much of a functional pattern as we can.
"We break down things like walking. This morning we were doing stepping practice, and trying to get that to be precise. And you want to be hitting large amounts of repetitions."
They were also helping Lawson practice whole tasks - like standing up from a chair - over and over again, or walking the corridors to give him "as much time on his feet" as possible.
"He also does a lot of self-directed exercise in his room alone or with his family to get more and more practice in," Mr Vassallo said.
"With the way the brain recovers, the more repetitions you do, the faster you get better.
"The repetition will help get that movement pattern locked in the brain again.
"Lawson just wants to spend all day in the gym with us, and keep working, and that's fantastic - we love that, because really, the more he does, the better it's going to be for his long term outcome.
"We are very happy with his progress."
They were trying to keep his therapy sessions different and interesting.
They had just added some hydrotherapy - mostly practicing walking and standing in the water.
"It's a long process that takes lots and lots of work," Mr Vassallo said.
"But he is on the right track to get some good outcomes."
The Rankins have a favourite saying they like to use when things go wrong.
"You get what you get, and you don't get upset," Phillip said.
"But Lawson has taken that to another level."
Having witnessed the huge response to their crowdfunding campaign to get Lawson home, the Rankins had seen human nature at its best.
"We fear the same things, we all want the same for our kids, and no one wants to go through what we have," Phillip said.
"This has all been frightening and scary, but it has been delightful to have been with our boy. To see him recover. See him get his humour back.
"It has been amazing. Hard, but amazing. Tiring, but amazing."
They were proud of Lawson's attitude. Inspired by it.
And although the road ahead is long for Lawson, the Rankins are grateful for the support and generosity of the community.
"We see him every day and every day is a miracle for us," Phillip said.
"Every single thing he has delivered to us, and presented to us - whether it's his first smile or fingertips moving - every single little thing has been cherished.
"And we have got to that point where we have all realised just how grateful we are for all of the support.
"We had nearly 4000 donations to his Go Fund Me. That is incredible.
"That is one of the good news stories."
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