A neuroscientist-turned-OnlyFans model found her amidst the most unimaginable circumstances after a near-fatal motorcycle crash caused by an unexpected culprit, a pigeon. She survived the accident but woke up unable to remember who she was.
Mercedes Valentine, a 25-year-old British woman grew up ‘obsessed’ with bikes. She has fond memories of riding the bike with her dad as a child, and when she became an adult, she bought one. But little did she know that her dream would quickly turn into a nightmare, leaving her to confront life with memory loss.
The accident left the Brighton native with four broken ribs, a broken nose, skull, shoulder, a smashed eye socket, and a shattered pelvis.
The worst of all those physical injuries was the memory loss – everything from a month before the accident and the period after the ordeal was completely wiped from her mind.
She felt like a different person as she woke up from the brutal accident. “When I open my eyes, I sometimes don’t even recognize myself,” she told NeedToKnow. “Because I function differently and can’t remember most things, it’s like my brain is someone else’s,” she added. It was ‘really confusing’ and ’emotionally challenging’ for her to come to terms with the ordeal.
Mercedes, who earned a degree in neuroscience, was at the peak of her career prior to the accident in the summer of 2024. She had managed to buy a five-bedroom house for $900,000 and a Porsche Taycan Turbo in blue for over $100,000.
Soon enough, everything came crashing down. She spent the day celebrating her parents’ 60th birthdays and retirement and was struck by the accident the next day while returning home. Instead of joining her family in the car, she rode the motorcycle.
“I wasn’t being clever and was going very fast down a residential street where there was a pigeon on the lamppost above me,” she confessed. “As I approached, it swooped down and not knowing what it was at the time, I tried to avoid it. But then it hit my head on and I swerved.”
Her bike crashed into a parked car at the side of the road and she was “flung” 260ft into the air, before landing six house lengths from where she was riding.
Thankfully her family was right behind, and her mother, father, and older sister being qualified doctors, were able to help her immediately. A bystander dialed an ambulance. She was blue and not responding. Her pupils were dilated and it was assumed she was dead. But her dad was quick to take off the helmet from choking her and did his best to stop the bleeding. She was immediately taken to the hospital. She lost over three liters of blood, with two usually being fatal. She was resuscitated twice; once by her dad at the scene and again in hospital. For a week she remained unconscious.
Mercedes also suffers from Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome which causes weak joints and bones, and says that she was ‘literally on death’s door’ when she arrived at the hospital.
“I’m basically half metal now because of all the pins and plates in me,” she adds.
Doctors expected she would go blind, if not have double vision, once everything was healed and that she’d also have total limb numbness. She needed full-time care. She woke up unable to remember who she was. The memory loss was expected. She was able to remember her boyfriend Mark, 34, and all her family, however, friends and others were missed. A month later she left the hospital. But things aren’t the same.
“I’d be at the gym, and someone would say hello and I’d have no clue who they were,” she says. Mercedes adds “Time is completely warped to me now.” She struggles to recall what day or month it is on a regular basis.
Despite the struggle, Mercedes has managed to adjust to the new normal and tried to go back to her career in content creation. She often gets asked about the bruise on her eye, weight gain, and scars. She confesses that he ‘stupidity’ is what resulted in the accident, and wants others to learn from her ordeal to be cautious while riding bikes.
(Pic courtesy: Jam Press/@mercedesthedancerxo)
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