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Glass Animals’ drummer sustains brain damage after collision with truck while cycling in Dublin

Upcoming gigs cancelled but band says he is ‘on the road to recovery’

Joe Seaward, the drummer with Glass Animals, has been sustained brain damage following a cycling accident in Dublin. The Mercury prize-nominated British band has cancelled upcoming tours but the Guardian reports he is expected to make a full recovery.

The incident occurred on July 2. In a post on Facebook, the band’s frontman Dave Bayley said: “Last Monday my best friend, and our drummer, Joe, was hit by a truck while on his bike here in Dublin.

“His leg was broken on impact and he became tangled in the truck’s trailer where his skull suffered a complex fracture. Miraculously, and thankfully, he is alive. After a couple of long operations he is now on the road to recovery.

“It’s going to be a long, difficult, and winding road, but knowing how determined Joe is, and seeing how much his body has recovered already in the past 10 days, I am so optimistic that he will make it back to his cheeky old self.”

Bayley said that neurosurgery involved reshaping part of Seaward’s skull that had collapsed and been compressed into the brain by the weight of the truck’s trailer.

“The operation was successful, but the collapsed skull had bruised and damaged the area of the brain responsible for speech. Initially Joe was only able to get out one word...’I’...but each day he is finding more.”

He added: “As far as we know, no other areas of his brain are severely damaged like this. He can still wiggle his fingers and twinkle his toes, and he still laughs at all my shit jokes, and demands we wake him up so he can watch the World Cup while we feed him ice cream and grapes.”

Alex has written for more cricket publications than the rest of the road.cc team combined. Despite the apparent evidence of this picture, he doesn't especially like cake.

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5 comments

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maviczap | 5 years ago
2 likes

From all I read about it, Dublin isn't a good place to cycle

Hope he recovers soon

Avatar
Luv2ride | 5 years ago
4 likes

Sounds a really nasty collision and that Joe may have been relatively lucky, i.e. could have been much , much worse.  Glass Animals are a top band with some great tunes.  Hoping Joe make a speedy and full recovery...best wishes to his friends and family.  Difficult times no doubt, but I appreciated the positive tone of his band mates statement.   Surrounded by positivity like that I'm sure he'll do great...

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rogermerriman replied to Luv2ride | 5 years ago
0 likes

Luv2ride wrote:

Sounds a really nasty collision and that Joe may have been relatively lucky, i.e. could have been much , much worse.  Glass Animals are a top band with some great tunes.  Hoping Joe make a speedy and full recovery...best wishes to his friends and family.  Difficult times no doubt, but I appreciated the positive tone of his band mates statement.   Surrounded by positivity like that I'm sure he'll do great...

 

Sadly the brain can’t recover, the damage is permanent, which at this point will be very difficult to be sure of, the brain is good at learning to do things with undamaged/less damaged bits of the brain, ie Neroplasicity. And equally, even MRI unless it’s a fairly obvious damage it will not pick it up, generally you find what works or not by trying it and seeing what happens.

 

It’s common for loved ones to be in denial, and to well wish it to be so, but from the sounds of it it’s a reasonably serious Brain Injury he has youth and money on his side, so a good recovery is likely but a full recovery is a nr impossibility, sadly its one of these things that news sites do tend to perpetuate which frankly isn’t helpful.

Avatar
Hirsute | 5 years ago
1 like

Was wearing a helmet ? And hi viz? Did he have a phone in his back pocket ?

Avatar
hawkinspeter replied to Hirsute | 5 years ago
4 likes

hirsute wrote:

Was wearing a helmet ? And hi viz? Did he have a phone in his back pocket ?

He obviously was't wearing hi-viz or else he would never have been hit.

I'm conflicted about whether he was wearing a helmet or not. On the one hand, if he was wearing a helmet, then everyone would be saying about how it saved his life, yet on the other hand, he survived so surely he must have been wearing one.

Phone? No idea.

Seriously, though, I hope he makes a full and speedy recovery.

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