I lost my arm — now I’m one of the fastest drummers in the world

A transformer exploded a few feet from where I was standing while I was on the roof of a restaurant kitchen in Atlanta cleaning exhaust vents. Music had been the centre of my life — my father was a well-known guitarist in Australia, I got a drum kit at 14, and by 22 I was in two bands and preparing to audition for the Atlanta Institute of Music.

Then I was electrocuted. I woke in hospital with fourth-degree burns down my right arm to the bone marrow. After four weeks in the burns unit doctors offered a choice: spend years trying to save the arm, or amputate and leave hospital within a week. I chose amputation and moved back in with my mother, feeling that holding a drumstick again was impossible.

I dragged my drums out of the attic, taped a stick to my amputated arm and, painful as it was, could still keep a groove.

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