Not all love stories look the same, but this one takes the cake for one of the most unlikely romances that eerily resembles 50 First Dates.
A man named Cody Bryant from Hermosa Beach, California is going viral on TikTok over the wild story about how his now-girlfriend Haley thought he ghosted her. It turns out he had just been in a coma.
Per his TikTok, the two randomly met while vacationing in Maui, Hawaii and eventually realized they lived a mile away from each other in Los Angeles. They went on several dates spanning a few weeks until things took a turn for the worse.
According to a GoFundMe set up by his friends, Bryant was placed in the ICU after he suffered a traumatic brain injury and a fractured femur. Bryant had been driving a moped and was struck by a taxi driver in Ibiza, Spain in September 2022.
He says neurologists in Spain were “not optimistic” about his chances of surviving his injuries, much less achieving any meaningful recovery.
Haley believed he had ghosted her the entire time and didn’t realize the reality of the situation until she stumbled upon his GoFundMe page.
Fortunately, Bryant was able to wake up from his coma and return to the U.S. to begin rehabilitation. He eventually reconnected with Haley on a platonic basis.
Here's where the 50 First Dates of it all comes in. Similarly to the 2004 romcom starring Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore, Bryant had no recollection of the relationship prior to his accident due to the severity of his brain trauma. However, somehow they picked back up where they left off.
“Neither of us expected it, but feelings started to build,” Bryant wrote on TikTok. “I joke that she won me over a second time 😜.”
He added that navigating boundaries with Haley between a relationship and her as his caregiver were challenging, but he says they couldn’t be happier where they are. They've been dating for “over a year.”
Haley gave her side of the story last August on the Seeing Other People podcast, which caught the attention of the New York Times.
Of course, you can’t believe everything you read on the internet and even the couple themselves are aware of the skepticism surrounding their love story.
“When your relationship accidentally goes viral but half the comments think it’s staged for clicks,” Cody wrote in a separate TikTok on Friday.
Bryant has been using his TikTok account since April to chronicle the journey of his brain injury recovery. He shares insights about relearning cognitive functions, motor controls, and other aspects.
