Support, Attitude, Motivation

The person who pulled Peter Kyriakides out of his darkest moments was his grandfather.

More than a decade ago, Peter was driving in Northern Ontario when he hit black ice and slammed into a tree. “The car was a pancake,” he says. Miraculously, he got out of the car and walked to the nearest house for help.

Back home, he started having concussion symptoms, but figured they would wane. Five months later, he fell in the bathtub and finally went back to the hospital.

“I never came out of the hospital the same way again,” he says.

Peter’s brain was severely inflamed, and he had a TBI. He also got an infection from a spinal tap at the hospital, and ended up in a coma for ten days.

When he finally went to rehab, he was in a catatonic state. “I spent a year there recouping and trying to understand what happened. But I didn’t want to live anymore. I told friends to kill me,” he says.

But every day, his grandfather would visit him, telling Peter not to give up. This consistent support and encouragement helped Peter through his darkest moments.

“I realized, I could stay the way I was and make everyone miserable around me. Or I can do the best I can with what I have. So, I chose to do the best I can,” he describes.

After three years of rehab, Peter was finally able to return home.

Today, Peter mostly uses a wheelchair and deals with lingering effects from the intense trauma his brain experienced. But he’s building a new life that’s shaped by what he’s learned from his brain injury.

“Before my injury, I was pretty superficial. I was into fast cars, motorcycles, making money, and partying. Now over time, I’ve recognized how precious life is. It’s not about getting things and partying and superficial things that have nothing substantial to them. Life just has so much more meaning than that,” he says.

One of the main things he hopes Canadians realize about brain injury? “Not all brain injuries are the same. Every injury is unique as the brain itself,” he says. “And the brain is not fixed. We can do so much to help our brains.” Like so many survivors we talked to, Peter emphasized the potential within each person to heal – but also recognized it takes a lot of patience, acceptance, and support from others to get there. He uses the acronym SAM – support, attitude, motivation – to encourage others on their own healing journeys.

“The first thing we need is support,” he says, thinking about his grandfather. “Once the support was there, I was able to change my attitude. When I changed my attitude, I had motivation to get better.”