In the early 1980s Joe Greentree was a promising jockey and skilled horseman. His career came to a shuddering halt when a horse he was riding at trackwork at Cessnock racecourse crashed to the turf. Pinned under a thrashing horse, Joe was dragged clear by witnesses and rushed to hospital where doctors gave his family little hope for his recovery. "They told us he was in a vegetative state," said Joe's mother Audrey.

Finally, Kevin and Audrey made the heartbreaking decision to turn off the machines keeping him alive. Instead of dying, Joe had other ideas and continued to breathe for himself unaided. Despite doctors' claims that Joe was unresponsive, Kevin and Audrey were convinced he had an understanding of what was going on around him.
"His eyes would flutter a lot and one day I asked him to blink just once if he could hear me, and he did it. He gave me one big blink!" Kevin recalled.

After five months Joe was discharged from Newcastle Hospital showing minimal signs of responsiveness, unable to speak and being fed through a tube. It wasn't until Kevin and Audrey took Joe to a coma arousal clinic run by the Brain Injury Foundation that Joe was able to find his voice again with the help of brain injury specialist, Dr Ted Freeman. Just three days after his arrival at the clinic Joe was doing what doctors had previously said he could never do and Kevin and Audrey could see that their son was capable of enjoying a reasonable quality of life despite his horrific brain injury.

Moving from Joe's farm in Pittsworth, west of Toowoomba in Queensland, to Gulmarrad just over seven months ago, the Greentree family hoped that the Clarence Valley would offer them greater opportunities for quality of life and for Joe to indulge in his favourite past-time, fishing. However, Joe's physical limitations meant he was confined to just fishing off the bank. Access to a boat was difficult and dangerous for both him and his carers, so Kevin and Audrey went in search of someone who could help them design a boat that would accommodate his needs.

George Lousick, of Jopalo boats in Yamba, took up the challenge.

The boat was six months in the making. Joe and his family took ownership of their dream vessel several weeks ago, which they named Second Son. Unfortunately, poor weather has prevented Joe from going out in the boat. Kevin has taken it for a spin though and said the design of the boat had exceeded his expectations "As far as I know it's the only one of its kind," he said. The boat has a manual lift, which picks up Joe and positions him into a specially made fishing seat. The flat base of the vessel makes it easy for the rest of the passengers to move around, with Joe safely positioned in the middle of the boat.

"He likes to call himself the foreman," said Tracey.
"We all run around doing his bidding."

There's no doubt Joe enjoys a quality of life that far exceeds the expectations of the doctors who provided him care initially after his accident. While Kevin and Audrey have cared full-time for their son since the accident, they are also advocates for increased support services and coma arousal centres in Australia to assist victims of brain injury. They credit Dr Ted Freeman and the Brain Injury Foundation with giving them the hope they needed to bring Joe the quality of life he has now.