• JAVIER SANCHEZ

    @javisanchez

    L'Hospitalet de Llobregat

Updated Monday, December 26, 2022-02:00

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  • News The pilot Kenny Noyes, in a coma after his fall in Motorland

"They told us that if he woke up, he would do so in a vegetable state and they prepared us to take care of him at home while he remained in a coma for months or even years," recalls

Iana Petrova

, who, despite the harshness of the story, laughs and releases: "And look at him , here is the uncle".

Petrova is the wife of

Kenny Noyes

and Kenny Noyes is a pilot.

Or he was a pilot.

Or, as he says, in his other life he was a pilot: "I no longer see myself as a pilot or as a former pilot. I have learned to differentiate between my life before the accident and my current life. And I feel lucky. I might not be here ".

On July 5, 2015, at the Alcañiz circuit, during the Spanish Superbike Championship, Noyes suffered an accident that caused severe head trauma and left him in a deep coma for two months.

Glasgow 3. Most severe state: no ocular, verbal, or motor response.

According to the forecasts of the doctors who treated him, first at the Lozano Blesa University Clinical Hospital in Zaragoza and later at the Guttmann Institute in Barcelona, ​​he had little chance of waking up.

But he woke up.

And now, more than seven years later, he walks with the simple aid of a walker, speaks despite some difficulties, and best of all, he's just been a father.

Between both situations, yes, he, his wife and his entire family went through difficult times.

PEDRO SALADOARABA PRESS

"When I woke up, the first thing I did was look to see if I still had legs and if they were moving. It was instinctive, irrational. I didn't know my name, how old I was, where I was or who was around me, but I looked at my legs I suppose that is what I internalized for so many years riding a motorcycle", recalls Noyes who has just published a book, 'Superbike, Moto2 and Glasgow 3 Challenges' (Trebol Sports), which motorcycling fans may like, yes, but above all it is an essential work for those who have lived through a coma.

As affected or as a relative or friend of the affected.

Because life when you wake up is very raw.

depression upon waking

In his first days 'awake', Noyes thought he was 16 years old and only recognized his parents: it took him a while to remember Petrova or to understand Spanish.

In his first months 'awake', Noyes remained almost inert, with a lost look - "he had lost his soul", he says - and in a relative state of consciousness.

In his early 'awake' years, Noyes spent most of the day asleep due to medication, fell into depression and wanted to kill himself.

"It is a process that most injured of this type go through. It is painful, but it is normal. It is also true that the medication made him very tired, caused him small apneas and that greatly affected his brain recovery. As soon as they changed that medication and they gave him oxygen, he improved a lot, he changed overnight," says Petrova in L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, where they both live and where Noyes recovers with two monthly rehabilitation sessions at the Step by Step Foundation.

After a lot, a lot, now his main job is to strengthen his legs so that, maybe next year, he can walk without needing a walker.

PEDRO SALADOARABA PRESS

The difficult economy

Raised between Miraflores de la Sierra, in Madrid, and Borrego Springs, in California, his father, Dennis Noyes, a pilot, journalist and commentator, transmitted his passion for motorcycles to him and he started racing at the age of 10.

At 30, already a veteran, he reached the Moto2 World Championship, where he achieved fifth place as the best result, and was still maintaining his career in minor events when he suffered the accident.

From that tragic year, 2015, he assures him, he remembers absolutely nothing.

After so many years giving gas, he has almost nothing left.

"I don't have much of a relationship with other pilots, very few people visited me in the hospital. It's normal, I don't judge them. I didn't expect anything else either. A pilot doesn't want to know what can happen in the event of an accident. That's why when someone dies, everyone passes page so quickly," says Noyes, who is struggling to get ahead.

The insurance from the Spanish Motorcycling Federation (RFME) barely helped him pay for a brief period at the Guttmann Institute in Barcelona and, since then, everything has come out of his pocket.

The help received in 2018 through crowdfunding (62,000 euros), his wife's salary and a small disability pension allow him to make ends meet.

The future looks complicated, but Noyes's optimism can handle everything.

"The functioning of the brain is very curious. As soon as you do something again for the first time, you already remember how to do it forever. That's what I focus on now", he concludes.

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