A man documenting his journey online back to recovery after a traumatic brain injury revealed that his girlfriend thought she was being ghosted after the accident – but then she stumbled upon his GoFundMe page.
Cody Bryant, who is documenting his recovery on his social media, getting back to an active and healthy life after a moped accident, shared that he and his girlfriend, Haley Woloshen, have had a rather unusual relationship story as they got to form a connection not once, but twice.
The couple met in Hawaii in 2022 and bonded when they found out they lived a mile apart from each other back in Los Angeles, spending weeks together after that, a post on Bryant’s Instagram states.
However, Bryant was unfortunately hit by a car while riding his moped in Ibiza, Spain, leaving him in a coma with a brain injury and a fractured femur that required extensive surgery, according to his GoFundMe page set up for him at the time.
After his injury, family members flew to the Spanish island, where Bryant stayed in the ICU for weeks while his body and brain had time to heal.
While this was happening, Woloshen thought she was being “ghosted” by the man she just met, until one day, she stumbled upon the very same GoFundMe page that was raising funds for his medical bills.
The couple reconnected after Bryant spent months focusing on rehabilitation after being flown back to the United States, and Woloshen started to help him out “platonically”.
“Plot twist: because of my brain injury, I had no memory of our pre-accident connection,” he wrote in one post.
"Neither of us expected it, but feelings started to build. I joke that she won me over a second time," he added.
The couple, who have now been together for over a year, said they had to figure out a balance between caregiving and having a relationship.
“But I couldn’t be happier with where we are,” Bryant said.
On the GoFundMe page, Bryant said that because of his brain injury he did not even understand why he was in rehabilitation for the first few months.
He described his recovery as a combination of “pain” and “mental fatigue” while he was in intensive therapy to try and regain the full function of the left side of his body, but he kept on pushing.
Despite what doctors thought, however, months of recovery and determination has meant he has been able to accomplish so much.
“Neurologists originally thought I wouldn’t live or I would remain in a vegetative state long-term. Once I became more cognitively functional, my new American neurologist said my motor function recovery was highly unlikely,” he wrote in an update on the fundraiser in September 2023.
“Yet, here I am proving all of them wrong. I’ve made some of my biggest gains in the last few months, and I don’t see any signs of slowing down.”
More recently, Bryant wrote in March this year that his days continue to be filled with “intense physical therapy, a comprehensive health routine, and endless research on healing my brain”.
He said that while his brain has retained most of his long-term memories, he is still missing a lot of the entire year before his life changed in the accident, including his trip around Europe.
However, Bryant has been able to create new memories ever since, including a two-day hike in Acetenango, Guatemala.
“I’m proud to say that I completed this hike last week, and at the top, I got to watch a volcano erupt,” he wrote in the fundraising update. “This epic view and accomplishing something many thought I’d never do again combined for quite the emotional experience.”
“I still struggle with balance and muscle coordination, so descending on slippery, steep, uneven ground resulted in a lot of slips and falls. Thankfully, Haley’s cheerleading skills came in handy to minimize the impact,” he added.
Bryant continues to advocate for brain injury awareness across his social media while he carries on with recovering and documenting his journey.
