An Australian woman who suffered a near-death experience followed by a months-long coma was unceremoniously left by her fiancé in the middle of the awful experience — and now she’s speaking out about it!
Brie Duval, now 25 years old, was living in Alberta in August of 2020 when she fell off a 33-foot-tall retaining wall at a rooftop bar in the Canadian province. She landed head-first on the concrete below and suffered unimaginable injuries, including two brain bleeds, broken ribs, and a severely broken back.
At the hospital, Brie was placed on life support and induced into a coma after she was unable to breathe on her own. Doctors gave her just a 10 percent chance of survival during the ordeal — but miraculously, she made it!! After five long months in the coma, she reawakened in early 2021.
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Upon regaining consciousness, she began to suffer the effects of post-traumatic amnesia, which left her unable to remember things like her address and the pass code to her phone. Over time, things began to return to her, though. And three months later, she became aware that she’d been ENGAGED to a man at the time of her horrible injury!!
As her brain began to slowly back-fill memories from before the horrible accident, Brie came to recognize that she’d been with her then-fiancé for FOUR YEARS at the time of her fall. However, he wasn’t anywhere to be found as she started to recognize reality again. And when she looked into it, she discovered he hadn’t visited her in the hospital at all! Like, not even once!!!
Speaking to DailyMail.com this week about the horrific ordeal, Duval explained she’d had “zero contact” with the man — as in, COMPLETELY ghosted — following the accident. This was after they’d been together all those years and preparing for marriage!
And it was only a five-month coma! Like, maybe we’d understand if he moved on after several years of uncertainty and despair, or something. But just a few months? During a traumatic time?? And he allegedly never even showed up to the hospital?!?! Like, what were the last few years together even for, then??
What the actual f**k?!
Duval explained to the outlet that her ex had even gone so far as to block her on social media! But, like, WHY?! She didn’t do anything wrong! She had a horrible accident!!
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Brie explained she only found out more about it after the dude’s new girlfriend — with whom he’d already moved in (!!) — reached out to her after feeling guilty:
“I have been blocked on every single platform including his phone. The only contact I did get was from his new girlfriend. She sent me a message saying she was insecure and made him block me on everything. Go figure. I was still in the hospital.”
This whole thing is crazy! What a s**tty thing to do to somebody! It’s shady in general, and then to ghost her like that amid severe injuries and a COMA?! Oh, hell no!
Duval explained her heartbreak and shock to the outlet, adding:
“I am still so incredibly hurt by his actions. I have no reason or closure as to why he did what he did. I just feel so hurt, I cannot explain the depth of the pain he has caused me. After four years, I was incredibly surprised. We were best friends, for years. I never thought in a million years this would happen. Especially at such an awful time in my life. I thought he was my soul mate, but I thought wrong.”
And while the former bar manager is doing her best to move on both physically and emotionally, it’s obvious that the scars will linger for some time.
As she revealed, she’s doing her best to try to get past things with her ex, but his alleged actions seriously damaged her trust. That’s understandable! Duval explained:
“Not just in romantic relationships but with relationships in general. It has led me to have such a distrust in people, especially people I am close with. I am trying very hard to not let his distrustful actions impact my relationships and life.”
Other than the ghastly ghosting, though, it sounds like Brie is in good spirits.
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After going through much of the aftermath up in Canada, she has since moved back home to Perth to be with family. Now, she’s working towards regaining full mobility as she continues to recover:
“I can now eat on my own and can now walk unassisted without a walking frame or wheelchair as I broke my back in the accident. I still have numbness from the waist down but have adapted my walking style so I can walk again. I am taking time off of work to be in Australia to recover with my loved ones. Recovery will take some time but I am hoping to return to work next year.”
Love that!
In the meantime, Duval has taken to TikTok to tell her story. She’s using the moniker HotComaGirl113 on that social media app — a nod to Rebel Wilson‘s character who suffered a 20-year-long coma in the 2022 film Senior Year.
Hilariously, in her first post on the viral site, Duval wisecracked about Wilson’s character looking as beautiful as ever coming out of her coma in the movie. As Brie explained, reality is quite a bit different:
@hotcomagirl1 Real coma experience vs. senior year coma experience! #fyp #coma #braininjuryawareness #braininjurysurvivor
Ha!!
Love that she can laugh about it now! It shows great resiliency on her part and bodes well for her future as she continues to regain the things that make up her life. We are rooting for her!
F**k this ex-fiancé, though, for real…
Reactions, Perezcious readers??
[Image via HotComaGirl113/TikTok]
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