New bride ignores advice to 'pull the plug' after husband's crash

SAVANNAH, GA (WTOC) - Matt and Danielle Davis got married in December 2010. Seven months later, Matt crashed his motorcycle on Interstate 16. Nine days after the accident, the doctors sat Danielle down. 

"They said if it was them, they'd pull the plug," she said. "That's what they'd want their family to do."

Danielle refused.

“I knew that God could get us through that,” she said, in an interview at the couple's Georgetown home Tuesday. “I didn't think that it was too big for God.”

The doctors sent Matt home. Danielle and her mother were his caretakers. Weeks went by. Then, one day, he spoke.

"I'm trying," he told his wife.

Only he didn't know Danielle was his wife.

Three years of Matt's memory were wiped away with the crash. And the woman getting him through it all, whom he'd met barely a year earlier, was essentially a stranger. In an interview Tuesday, Matt said finding out he was married to that woman was a pleasant surprise.

"I saw her, and I was like, 'yeah.'"

Today, the couple unwinds with yoga. Danielle said, as Matt's caregiver, it keeps her grounded. And experts say it provides big benefits for people with traumatic brain injuries like Matt's.

"To bring back balance, flexibility, body in space," said Ila Hincheberger, an occupational therapist at Memorial Medical Center. "It helps you come to terms with what's happening in your life and focus on what's important."

Matt said yoga brings him peace and helps him feel more connected to his body. For Matt, even simple motions like picking up a pencil require careful thought and effort.

"People don't realize how much they can actually do with their bodies," he said. "They take it for granted."

Matt has spent hours before trying to help out his wife by doing a simple task, taking out the garbage. He has a message for husbands watching this.

"Dude, take the trash out, because there might be a day when you can't," he said.

If you want to help out the Davis family and others with traumatic brain injury, get moving.

There will be a $5 yoga class on Tuesday at 8:30 p.m. at Dancing Dogs Yoga off Broughton Street, behind Urban Outfitters. It's open to the public and your $5 will go to funding a program, called Love Your Brain, to help teach yoga to people with traumatic brain injury.