I was 27 and living the dream as a pro athlete before a freak accident left me unable to move from the neck down for the rest of my life: This is my story

Brad Smeele 'shattered' his vertebrae leaving him a quadraplegicHe has overcome extreme mental battles to be grateful for his lifeREAD MORE: Woman's stubborn pimple leads to cancer diagnosis

Nine years ago, Brad Smeele was a fit and healthy 27-year-old when a freak accident turned his life upside down.

While performing a trick at a wakeboarding competition in Florida, the New Zealand athlete crashed and ‘shattered’ his vertebrae leaving him unable to move from the neck down for the rest of his life.

The now-36-year-old spent months in hospital like a ‘prisoner’ in his own body. He was unable to move and had to come to terms with never being able to walk or do the things he loved again.

‘I’d wake up from these amazing dreams where I was back wake boarding and stuff like that. Real life was the nightmare,’ he told FEMAIL.

Despite the extreme physical and mental challenges the injury caused, Brad, from Auckland, has learned not only to accept his limitations, but to be truly grateful for the life he has.

Brad Smeele (pictured), 36, has overcome mental health struggles after a freak accident left him as a quadriplegic

In 2014 when he was 27, Brad was a professional wakeboarder. While training in Florida he crashed into a ramp performing a mid-air flip, landing on his head

In July 2014 Brad was ‘living the dream’ pursuing a career as a professional wakeboarder and chasing summer around the world.

‘I loved being out in the summer all the time, out in the sun on the lake. Babes in bikinis and all that sort of stuff,’ he said.

‘It didn’t pay well but there were some obvious perks to it all. It was the lifestyle that I really fell in love with.’

While performing a mid-air double flip while training in Florida, Brad fell and went headfirst into the ramp.

‘I tucked my head and tried to do a break-fall to tuck and roll out of it but I didn’t quite get my shoulders around. I basically forced my head down into my chest and shattered my C4 vertebrae,’ he recalled.

‘I was unconscious for a bit, face down in the water. My friends got to me and managed to turn me upright and I was blue in the face, eyes wide open, not responding, not breathing or anything.’

Bystanders went to perform CPR on Brad before he started breathing and regained conscious – but he couldn’t feel his body.

Paramedics were called and Brad was choppered to the nearest hospital where he had an MRI for doctors to assess the full extent of the damage.

Brad was told the accident had left him quadriplegic and was given a one to two per cent chance of ever using his upper limbs again. He was given no chance of walking again

He had a major nine-hour surgery to put his neck ‘back together’ with two metal rods and 14 screws and was put on a ventilator to help him breathe.

Brad was told the accident had left him quadriplegic and was given a one to two per cent chance of ever using his upper limbs again. There was no chance of walking again.

He was transferred to a facility in Atlanta, Georgia, where he stayed for three months until his condition was stable enough to fly home to New Zealand.

The ventilator he was on rendered him unable to eat, drink or speak and Brad’s mental health suffered greatly.

‘I didn’t want to burden my mum or my family and all the people around me with what I was feeling. I didn’t want to exist anymore. I didn’t want to continue on,’ he said.

‘I couldn’t tell them that and I felt really guilty for months. I could barely look my mum in the eyes without feeling that pain reflected back at me. I was dealing with it internally because I couldn’t speak. I felt like I was going through it all alone.’

Brad’s competitiveness nature eventually kicked in and he turned his mindset to wanting to prove doctors wrong.

He had a major nine-hour surgery to put his neck ‘back together’ with two metal rods and 14 screws and was put on a ventilator to help him breathe

After weaning off the ventilator and being able to be moved from his bed without his blood pressure dropping, Brad was stable enough to make the journey home.

‘It was a weird feeling. It was about the same time of year I would usually get home at the end of the (wake boarding) season so it felt very familiar,’ he said.

‘Driving around the city everything was the same except me. I felt really alienated, like I was going to be a burden on my friends and family and completely inadequate.’

From the airport, Brad went straight back into hospital where he stayed for two months before going to rehab for another month and moving into a wheelchair accessible home where he was placed on bed rest.

‘It was good on one hand but you’re coming out of the hospital system where I’m surrounded by other people in wheelchairs and I’ve got all the nursing care and everything there that I need,’ he said.

‘We’ve got this feeling that you go to hospital  and when you come out you’re going to be better but that just wasn’t the case for me. That was when the big mental battles really started.’

Brad started to question his identity which had been deeply wrapped up in his wakeboarding career.

Brad spent months on hospital like a prisoner in his own body unable to move and coming to terms with never being able to walk or do the things he loved ever again

‘I had this question mark over my head – who am I? Who’s Brad without wake boarding? How do I introduce myself? I used to say “Hi I’m Brad, I’m a wakeboarder”,’ he said.

At the three year mark after the accident is when Brad said he hit his ‘rock bottom’.

‘My focus was on the physical rehab. I was going to prove the doctors wrong, that’s what I knew how to do was to fight and work hard and put all that effort in,’ he said.

‘That was my full time job for three years, just going to rehab and after three years I still couldn’t move my arms any more than I could before. I felt like I hadn’t made progress, I just got incredibly lost.’

While he was admitted into spinal unit, he started writing about his experience, a process he said was ‘cathartic’ way to process his emotions.

The decision lead to him to eventually release his autobiography, Owning It: The Ride That Changed My Life, which he wrote by typing on a screen with a stylus in his mouth.

Brad also reconnected with an old friend of his mum’s and kinesiologist, Susie, who he said was a ‘godsend’.

‘My focus was on the physical rehab. I was going to prove the doctors wrong, that’s what I knew how to do was to fight and work hard and put all that effort in,’ he said

Susie gave Brad the tools to work through his mental pain and find a way to be thankful for the life he has.

‘I would try to switch my focus from looking backwards at what I used to have and everything that I’ve lost and everything I can’t do anymore and start looking at what I can do,’ he said.

‘What can I do? What opportunities are there? What am I grateful for? What do I have that I’m really thankful for?’

Brad’s health issues are ongoing as he deals with chronic pain, bowel problems and autonomic dysreflexia, a syndrome that causes his blood pressure to increase to dangerous levels.

However his positivity and humour remains strong in spite of his challenges.

‘I love taking the p*** out of my situation and making jokes about it. Someone would have to say something really out there to offend me,’ he said. 

‘I’m quite a stand-up guy, I’ll stand up to any bulls*** and I can never be running late.’

Being ‘wheelchair bound’ also hasn’t stopped him from getting on the dating scene and he said he is still able to maintain a sex life. 

Brad is using his experience to inspire and motivate others. He regularly speaks at schools, charity and corporate events about how he found happiness after his injury

‘That was one of the biggest things I was really devastated about losing. People think I can’t have sex – you can. I can start I just can’t finish,’ he said.

‘There’s been a bit of a dating dry spell recently but it wasn’t so bad at the beginning. I was surprised to get the attention and interest I was getting.’

Brad is using his experience to inspire and motivate others. He regularly speaks at schools, charity and corporate events about how he found happiness after his injury.

One of his biggest lessons over the past nine years was not to compare yourself to others, no matter what their situation is.

‘At the moment, especially with social media, comparison culture is rampant. Early on, I let myself feel a certain way about myself based on who I was looking at,’ he said.

‘I could be looking at someone with a lower level injury than me who can move their arms and I’d want to trade places but you never know what’s going on in that person’s life.’

‘To think that we can just trade places and think things are going to be better is an illusion. Rather than drawing comparisons, it’s about drawing inspiration.’