The ‘miracle’ coward punch victim who had his life support turned off and survived
Friday, 24 March 2023
Squinting his eyes to concentrate, Wynton King flicks through a photo album of his time in a coma.
He is standing in a rehab centre unit, surrounded by get well soon cards and pictures of him with his loved ones. He knows how he got here – a single, “brutal” coward punch during a brawl outside a pub – but is at a loss to understand why.
“Getting knocked out is a pretty bad deal,” he says. “That’s life, you just gotta move on.”
King, a popular guy and promising rugby player, was enjoying a night out in Christchurch after a friend's engagement party in October last year. When a fight broke out outside Rockpool bar on Hereford St, he was punched in the head after trying to calm a fighting teenager. He fell to the ground, unconscious. He had a severe brain injury and was put on life support.
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While in an induced coma, he suffered a stroke. His family were told he would never regain his “cheeky” personality, or the use of the right side of his body.
Faced with the most appalling dilemma, King’s mother and two sisters decided that he wouldn’t want to live like that, and instructed doctors to turn off his life support. The enormity of that decision still weighs on them.
“It’s hard to comprehend”, his sister Amber Sowman says. “Turning off Wynton’s life support and letting him pass away.”
But instead King, known as Winnie to his family, kept breathing. And lived.
Then slowly, somehow, he began to get better. He woke from his coma. He could look around his ICU room from his hospital bed. And did something his family thought would never be possible again. He smiled.
“That little grin was the biggest win”, Sowman says.
There was more. Weeks after his life support was turned off, King spoke. He swore at one of his mates. Then he started to say the names of some of his friends and relatives.
“I’ve got a lot of mates,” he jokes, “Too many if you ask me.”
“They’ve been pretty amazing. Heaps of people come to visit me in the last few months. It feels good, makes me feel like people actually care about me.
“Mum and (my sisters) have all been there to support me all the way through … Emotionally they’ve helped me, (we’ve) been through hard times.”
Months on, King walks and talks like he used to and is full of personality. He has full use of all of his limbs. He still has a long way to go, but Sowman insists he’s “100% the same stubborn s… he’s always been”, and still expects his sister to shout him lunch.
Doctors are astounded by his recovery. They told his family that recoveries like this almost never happen.
His CT scans will be shown to medical students and his case elevated to that rarified, non-medical category: A miracle.
“He is a miracle”, Sowman says.
But post-miracle life is different. King will never drive again due to damage to his vision. His memory is inconsistent. He didn’t remember his Dad had died, and had to have it explained to him several times, resurfacing the grief. He can recall the pin number for his phone, but not what he had for breakfast.
“I know what I want to say, I just can’t properly explain it. It’s weird.”
Brain to mouth (saying what he wants or is thinking) is tough generally. King knows what he wants, for example, if he is hungry. But articulating it, or finding the food himself, is too much.
He often needs to be prompted by others. Sometimes he just points to his stomach.
He thrives on routine. Sowman bought him a pool table for his birthday in February and now he plays several times a day. Before his injury, he’d play sporadically.
Another key plank is his friends. King has a huge network of people who all believe they are his best friend. He has that effect on people. Nurses at ICU said they’d never seen as many visitors as when King was a patient. They brought sleeping bags and pillows and slept on the floor beside his bed.
“It’s funny. He’s too cool for his family,” Sowman says.
“To his mates he’s God’s gift, but to us, not really. He’s just our Wynton.”
King doesn’t remember his assault. He knows he was hit, but the particulars are out of reach.
It’s for that reason he won’t meet the 18-year-old who assaulted him. The teen, who has interim name suppression, has admitted a charge of wounding with intent to injure and will be sentenced in April. The charge carries a maximum penalty of seven years’ imprisonment.
A suggested restorative justice meeting with his assailant may just overwhelm and confuse King. He might engage with the court process at some stage. Or not, Sowman says.
“To be honest, He just wants to move on.”