ON THE MEND: Tamworth’s Brooke Dewberry pictured on her last night in hospital with friend Dan Murphy. After two weeks in hospital she came home yesterday.
TAMWORTH’S Brooke Dewberry is back home after two weeks in hospital, with her first wish being to meet her young children from the school bus.
The 42-year-old was the victim of a bizarre crime which shocked the community of Tamworth on March 1, after a couch struck her after being dropped from the inner balcony of a Tamworth pub.
Brooke, who suffered a fractured C5 vertebrae and bulging disc in the incident, was told by doctors she was lucky to be alive.
Her friend Dan Murphy, who was with Brooke the night of the accident, said it was great to see his friend finally come home.
Back at home for the first time since the accident, Brooke is still suffering from various aches and pains from her injuries but said she was just thrilled to be home.
“Today was a good day,” she said yesterday, after doctors declared she passed the final hurdle keeping her in hospital, by remembering her memory card test.
Ironically, Brooke is familiar with the cards. She’s generally the one using them to educate children in her studies to become a primary school teacher.
“Today I remembered them all – such a small thing but it’s huge to me,” she said.
Still suffering from gaps in her short-term memory, Brooke said it was getting better and better each day.
Flown to Newcastle’s John Hunter Hospital directly after the incident, Brooke’s recovery has been slow but steady, with a little help from her friends.
Bringing her daily coffee and flooding her room with cards, flowers and balloons, Brooke said her friends and family had been amazing, but she had also had kind offers from people she’d never met.
“Everyone has been so lovely. I can feel the support from the town people,” she said.
Overwhelmed with offers to mow her lawn, pick up her kids from school and to drive her around, Brooke said she was brought to tears by people’s generosity.
“People are just beautiful.”
Now all Brooke can do is wait and heal, with a neck brace required to be firmly supporting her injuries 24-hours-a-day for the next few months.
She will have to attend doctors and specialist appointments and scans every few weeks, before she even considers the weeks and months of rehabilitation ahead.
Brooke said she’s just grateful to have her life, and she’s well aware of how lucky she was to escape more serious injury.
“I’m just over the moon to be alive.”
Two men, Luke Ledingham, 32, of Lennox Head, NSW and Joshua Timoteo, 27, of Varsity Lakes, Qld, will reappear to face charges at Tamworth Local Court in April.