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Australian cartoonist Michael Leunig suffered a serious head injury in a 2016 accident on his Victorian farm. In a 2018 interview, he described how the injury affected his memory and sense of self—and how witnessing other people’s courage through illness changed his appreciation of life. “Near-death” is the framing of that feature, not a clinically defined near-death experience.
What happened to Michael Leunig?
Leunig was checking a bushfire shelter he had designed on his farm when its steel trapdoor fell on his head and arm, according to Pip Christmass’s report for PerthNow, published May 1, 2018. He felt nauseated and dizzy but did not recognize the symptoms as concussion. The report says bleeding inside his skull accumulated over three weeks before he had a seizure.
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He woke in an ambulance and underwent an operation in hospital to relieve pressure. Leunig described the injury as severe. The detailed account of the trapdoor, bleed and treatment comes from the PerthNow interview; ABC’s December 2017 profile independently corroborates that he suffered a concussion injury in 2016 and was still recovering at the time. Read PerthNow’s 2018 feature and ABC’s 2017 profile.
How the injury affected his work and sense of self
In the PerthNow interview, Leunig said the injury affected both his memory and his sense of identity: “It had a big impact on my whole sense of self, my memory.” Feeling vulnerable and unlike himself was disturbing, he said: “I was quite disturbed by it, because I felt very vulnerable and not myself.”
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Trying to continue working became stressful. His account makes clear that recovery was not only a matter of the initial emergency treatment; the changes he described reached into his everyday life and creative work.
What Leunig said he took from the experience
While in hospital, Leunig watched people facing illness and was struck by their courage. He reflected: “It takes courage to grow old or to work your way through illness, it really does.” For him, seeing that courage contributed to a renewed appreciation of life. This is his personal reflection, not a claim that everyone experiences illness or recovery in the same way.
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What is known about his recovery—and what is not
The timeline reported by the two profiles is limited but clear: the farm accident occurred in 2016; PerthNow reported that the bleed built up over three weeks before the seizure; and ABC said in December 2017 that Leunig was still recovering. These are details about his individual experience, not general medical statistics.
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