Amy Pieters’ Family Shares New Update on the Cyclist
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32-year-old Amy Pieters was on a training ride in Spain with the Dutch national team back in December of 2021 when she had a major crash. The SD Worx rider was placed in an induced coma in order to allow surgeons to relieve some of the brain swelling caused by the impact, and now, nearly two years later, Pieters is improving—but progress is slow.
Last week, her team shared a new update on her progress, explaining that she’s still suffering from short-term memory loss. The fund for her care—much of which will no longer be covered by medical insurance—is open, and fans of the racer are able to help defray the costs of long-term rehabilitation.
Following the accident and surgery, Pieters regained consciousness after a few months in a coma, but unfortunately, there wasn’t an immediate happy ending to her story. A year after the crash, she was still in rehab when she began to suffer from epileptic seizures that impacted her mobility. By February of 2023, she was able to pedal outside on an adaptive bike—her preferred mode of rehab—and could respond to questions with a yes or no, but still was unable to form sentences. Her family added in an update that she primarily would communicate via facial expressions.
The SD Worx team hadn’t forgotten their teammate, either. You can spot this sticker on many of their top tubes at races:
In July 2023, a new update was provided about Pieters’ progress:
For Amy, the sense of day and time is difficult. When we tell her that she has turned 32 years old (June 1 was her birthday), she looks at us surprised and in disbelief. 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.
From Amy’s point of view, that may be her luck, not consciously realizing and knowing what happened to her.
She listens carefully when we tell her what happened. Then when we come back to this later in the day, she doesn’t know what it’s about. 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. She herself lives uninhibitedly in the present. Amy also struggles to realize where she is, where to go or which direction to choose.
She is currently at the Daan Theeuwes Center, but the situation is dire for the Pieters family: Because she has made such great strides in her physical rehabilitation, she won’t be eligible to stay in the Center for much longer. Physically, she’s doing well, but cannot live independently and is still struggling to speak and communicate.
The family is now looking for an assisted living facility that can continue working with her and hopefully help her to eventually live independently, but as the family notes, it’s impossible to tell if or when any more progress will be made. But as they wrote in the update, "We do not give up hope, as long as there is progress, Amy can still surprise us."
To learn more about the fund for Pieters, which covers treatments and rehabilitation that are not covered by insurance, can be found here.
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