After a Car Accident, Man Forgets His Girlfriend Exists - So, She Wins Him Over a Second Time

Tragedy Strikes

When Hayley and Cody met while vacationing in Hawaii in 2022, sparks flew. It felt like kismet, especially when they discovered they lived just a mile apart in their hometown of Los Angeles.

They spent a few blissful weeks getting to know each other and falling in love.

But then, out of the blue, it all came to a screeching halt.

Cody stopped calling. He stopped texting. It was as if he'd fallen off the face of the earth. Hayley thought he had lost interest. But it turns out, he wasn't ghosting her...he was in a coma.

Cody shares their "insane" love story in a now-viral TikTok that he captions, "50 First Dates or make our own movie?" And it just goes to prove, sometimes? Life really does imitate art.

The one-minute clip features a montage of photos and videos over the course of their relationship with text overlay. It starts off with a bang,

"I wasn't ghosting her, I was in a coma."

Cody continues, "I had actually been hit by a car and was in a coma."

Cody was driving a moped through Ibiza, Spain when he was struck by a taxi driver. He ended up in ICU with a traumatic brain injury and a fractured femur as a result. Spanish doctors questioned if he would even survive.

Haley only learned of the accident after doing some internet sleuthing on the guy she thought had ghosted her (as one does). That's when she stumbled across a GoFundMe page set up by his family to help offset his astronomical medical bills.

"You Always Meet Someone Twice"

When Cody woke up from his coma he had no memory of the past year, including Haley and their time together.

"Plot twist: because of my brain injury, I actually had no memory of our pre-accident connection."

But when it comes to true love, NOTHING can stand in its way.

Eventually, Cody was transferred to a full-time rehab facility in Los Angeles. Diagnosed with partial paralysis, he had to relearn how to walk and perform even the simplest of tasks. After months of rehabilitative therapies, he reconnected with Haley as "friends." But despite having no recollection of their relationship, it was obvious something was still there.

"Neither of us expected it, but feelings started to build," he writes. "I joke that she won me over a second time."

Cody admits that navigating boundaries between a relationship and caregiving was challenging "but I couldn't be happier with where we are."

"We've built a strong foundation in the most terrible of situations," he continues. "We've been together over a year now." And if the pictures are any indication, they are blissfully happy.

Love Can Move Mountains

Cody continues to deal with the aftermath of his accident. Traumatic brain injuries don't heal overnight and even two years later, he's still in intense, full-time therapy.

"Some of my next goals are relearning how to write, run, and swim," he writes in an update on his GoFundMe.

He continues to struggle with memory issues and uses notes for everything.

"My brain doesn’t “auto save” anymore so I use notes for everything. In order to accomplish a goal, I avoid multitasking and each step must be small," he shares. He has persistent brain fog and his attention is fleeting.

But with Haley by his side as his biggest cheerleader, he's been able to climb mountains, figuratively AND literally. Against all odds and the doctors who originally believed he'd be in a vegetative state for the rest of his life, Cody and Haley attended their friends' wedding in Guatemala in March.

While there, Cody completed a two-day hike to summit the Acetenango volcano. Haley was right by his side.

Despite the profound challenges posed by the car accident and subsequent memory loss, it's obvious that these two are meant to be together. Because true love? Always finds a way.