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Despite doctors warning he would 'never wake up' from a coma and at one point even pronouncing him dead, Adam Elnekaveh defied the odds.
He had suffered a traumatic head injury which left him with severe brain damage after he had an horrific motorcycle accident in Thailand during a lads' holiday.
The fitness influencer turned motivational speaker, 34, is now urging others not to make the same mistake he did after he flouted safety rules and removed his helmet during the fateful journey.
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Adam explained that he and his best mate had been riding through Thailand on motorbikes during a trip to celebrate the launch of his new health app back in May 2018.
Police in the Southeast Asian country pulled the pair over and issued them a fine after spotting they weren't wearing helmets.
After stumping up the money, Adam, who was 27 at the time, recalled how he 'stubbornly took his helmet off again' - which proved to be a life-changing decision.
"After a while, my best friend stopped his motorcycle and said there was a problem with it and it didn’t feel right," the author, from Los Angeles, told The Sun.
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"As I was a seasoned motorcyclist, I told him to give me his bike as he didn’t know what he was doing. It felt good. I went fast to tease my friend in an egotistical way.
"In the end, we don’t know what happened - whether I slipped or something hit me. But the bike gave out and I fell off."
His head smashed into the ground, cracking his skull and leaving his brain 'exposed', while oil which had spilled from the motorcycle 'shot up into his brain'.
The tourist was rushed to hospital and straight into emergency surgery, where doctors were forced to remove the part of his brain which had been contaminated with oil.
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Adam says that as a result, fifteen percent of his skull is now 'made of plastic', while explaining that medics weren't too optimistic about his future following the life-saving operation.
His parents, who had flown from the US to be at his bedside, were informed that he was never going to wake up from his coma, and warned that even if he did, he would likely be paralysed or in a vegetative state.
"They gave them so many scenarios - one was that I’d be [incapacitated] for the rest of my life, and in the best-case scenario, I would be paralysed," Adam said.
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"At one point, they even pronounced me dead," the 34-year-old explained. "My parents were devastated. My mum was on the phone crying to her siblings constantly."
He explained his best pal had rang his loved ones in a state of distress while screaming: "Adam fell! I can see parts of his brain lying on the floor."
Adam was flown back to the US while his family expected the worst, but miraculously, he awoke from his coma ten days after the surgery.
He said his mother and father were 'very stunned and discombobulated', while the doctors caring for him 'could not believe their eyes'.
The former bodybuilder said: "They ended up apologising to my parents because they were sending them hospice paperwork, saying there was no way I would ever move again."
He faced a gruelling road to recovery though, having suffered memory loss among a myriad of other injuries - forcing him to endure months of rehab and therapy as he learned to walk again.
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"I went through four months of having a wheelchair, and after that, I had three months of walking with a cane," Adam explained. "Then there were another two months of being in a leg brace.
"In all, it took about a year to completely come off all assisted devices. The recovery was agonising, but I always used to say, 'I can’t go to the post office and return my body'.
"I hit the right side of my brain. The right hemisphere controls the left side of your body. So my left arm and my left leg are not functional completely.
"I can use my fingers, I can move my toes, but it’s tough to bend my knee, and it’s tough to completely move my left arm."
Adam admitted he also felt 'so much guilt' about removing his helmet following the near-fatal crash, while he has also struggled with PTSD.
However, he is keen to make the most of his life - and he's penned a book titled Rebuilding Adam: The Tragedy regarding his ordeal, which calls on families who have loved ones in comas not to give up hope.
He urged those in a similar position to what his parents were in to 'never lose belief', as his mother and father 'fought and pushed and yelled because they believed their son was going to recover' despite what doctors said.
"And I did recover," Adam said. "I have a house, I have a car, I’m dating, and I have my own business, I’m travelling. I’m still getting things done because, in part, my parents never stopped believing in me.
"So don’t ever stop believing that your son or daughter can wake up from a coma one day. Time is the ultimate healing factor."
