According to a recent update, former SD Worx pro Amy Pieters has made some progress in her recovery from a traumatic brain injury but still faces significant challenges.
Pieters crashed while training near Calpe, Spain, in December 2021. The then-Madison world champion suffered head injuries and was in a coma for four months. Last August she moved to the Daan Theeuwes Center in Woerden, Netherlands, which specializes in treating young people with severe acquired brain injuries.
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She made gradual improvements and resumed walking for the first time last October.
The latest update on the AmyPieters.nl website makes for sobering reading, even if she has come a long way since her crash.
“For Amy, the sense of day and time is difficult. When we tell her that she has turned 32 years old, she looks at us surprised and in disbelief,” the update states. “She still can’t talk, which doesn’t make it easy to explain something to each other. Her memory is short, very short.
“It is intensive and sometimes painful to realize that what Amy sees, experiences and experiences, is only short-lived.”
The update states that even when the circumstances behind her crash and injury are explained to her, Pieters forgets the information after a short period of time.
“Amy doesn’t seem to realize what she’s missing and can’t do anymore. The amazement she then shows us is tough for us,” the update reads. “She herself lives uninhibitedly in the present. Amy also struggles to realize where she is, where to go or which direction to choose. Amy needs help 24-7 because of this. She is not yet able to do anything independently.”
While she has made significant physical improvements, there is uncertainty around Pieters’ mental prognosis. The update states she is unable to live by herself and that it is unclear if or when she will be able to in the future.
Update on the situation of Amy Pieters:
"Amy is doing very well physically, but the prospects from her mental situation are not yet the way we want to hear and see them."
More information you can find on Amy's website:https://t.co/7MW1llFZxY pic.twitter.com/4SjodMotQJ
— Team SD Worx – Protime (@teamsdworx) July 25, 2023
The 32-year-old will soon end her treatment in the Daan Theeuwes Center as the facility has said it cannot offer continued rehab because of Pieters’ “severe cognitive limitations and her aphasia (speaking disorder).”
While the update states that Pieters appears to be happy each day, it makes clear that there is great sorrow that she has suffered such challenges.
“This is also a difficult and difficult period for her loved one and loved ones. It is extremely difficult to estimate where Amy can best go. A home different from her own, this is going to be a tough task and it’s very difficult to find something that fits our needs for Amy.
“These are prospects that we would have liked to see very differently. Yet we do not give up hope, as long as there is progress, Amy can still surprise us.”
A donation page to the support fund for Pieters can be found here.