Former Facebook exec thankful to be alive after near-fatal brain bleed, takes selfie to prove it

How does a former Facebook executive celebrate cheating death? With a selfie.

During a commencement address to Babson College’s class of 2015 on Saturday, Kevin Colleran opened up about how he nearly died in a van accident earlier this year — and shared the selfie he took immediately after brain surgery.

 

Colleran, a 2003 alumnus of the Boston-area college and one of Facebook’s first 10 employees, suffered a serious brain bleed during the February crash.

The 34-year-old, now a venture capitalist, was walking along a Boston street on his way to grab breakfast when the van hurdled toward him, he told the Boston Globe.

“I remember turning over my right shoulder and saying, ‘I’m about to get run over,’” he said.

He was able to walk away from the crash scene seemingly unharmed, but an hour later he started vomiting.

He was rushed to the hospital and diagnosed with internal bleeding on his brain and was immediately taken into surgery. Had he not admitted himself, he would have died within hours, his doctors said.

Colleran told the graduates that the brush with death made him realize how lucky he was.

“Well, you can imagine that when I woke up from brain surgery and found out I had been only an hour or two away from death, I took some time for reflection,” he said in his speech.  “A lot of people ask me what I would change as a result of my reflecting on the accident — and my honest answer is, nothing.”

“I had absolutely no reason to go back to work,” Colleran told the newspaper. “Except every reason in my mind and every reason in my body, which was, ‘Gotta get back, gotta get back.’”

Wrapping up his commencement speech, Colleran encouraged the graduates to find the same kind of meaning in their own work and passions.

“Now, I would not wish any of you to ever get hit by a bus.  But I do hope that you live your life in a way that leaves you without regrets,” he said.