Advocating to create hope for a better future for individuals with acquired brain injury
Two days prior my Junior year in high school
I sustained a severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) the evening of August 29, 1989 in a one car accident on McCully Road in Hampton Township, PA. Sitting in the front passenger seat, with my seatbelt on. My head turned faster than my brain could keep up with. The impact caused my brain stem to twist and stretch and the right hemisphere of my brain hit the inside of my skull.
I immediately went into coma and had a post-traumatic seizure at the scene of the accident. At the age of 16, in seconds, my life inevitably changed. You never really understand the dynamic of brain injury until it happens to you. Recovery is an on-going process. Despite the struggles, mourning and depression that accompanies TBI, a person can never give up.
That was over 30 years ago and I have made a remarkable recovery since—a recovery beyond everyone’s expectations, but my own. I hope that by sharing my story through this website, my personal experience can and will influence the recovery trajectory of others’ who have sustained brain injuries and provide hope for the future.
Latest Content
Poems
Through the years, I have found poetry to be a healing mechanism. It has been an outlet: it has allowed me to grieve and has provided me with the ability to move past my emotions. These poems might not be considered literary masterpieces, but they are authentic. Each poem, has allowed me to move forward and establish a life beyond my brain injury.
Essays
I have found that through writing about my TBI, the process has allowed me to put my brain injury into perspective. Below you will find an essay written about how my speech was affected. My inability to speak played a huge factor in relationship to how I was not able to fully participate in life after my brain injury. This essay discusses my speech impairment, the processes utilized to help improve the quality of my speech and ability to talk coherently. The essay documents my continued determination to overcome this debilitating impairment.
About
The doctors’ prognosis was that I would be bedridden for life and there was not much chance of any significant recovery. The doctor’s also said that should I recover enough to return to high school, it was highly unlikely that I would graduate without major assistance and higher education was out of the question.
Only those willing to go too far will know how far they can go.
My life.
The following short video chronologically illustrates my life as a little girl and includes a clip from a varsity cheerleading practice when I was 16–two weeks prior to my TBI. The video concludes showing the physical repercussions of the TBI and various pictures from my post-secondary graduation ceremonies from: West Virginia Wesleyan College, DePaul University and The George Washington University. Thank you for watching!