On the morning of December 13^th, 2007, imagine you are a carefree senior, excited to be driving, super independent having two jobs then boom your life is altered. I was driving back to Locust Valley High school on a free period. The weather was horrible; it was hailing, sleeting, and snowing outside. I drove a 1983 Mercedes Benz that my friends and I called Oscar the Grouch because when you started the car, you were able to hear it from miles away. It was an old car and I was a new driver, not a good mix!

Driving around a bend back to the school, I swerved into the oncoming lane and hit a van. Luckily, there just happened to be an off duty EMT professional that is also a teacher at the Mill Neck Manor school of the Deaf two cars behind the van that I had hit. His name’s Tom Winslow, and he immediately saved my life at the scene. The seatbelt was choking me, which he was quick to identify and deal with. Tom, EMT’s, firefighters and police from the Locust Valley Fire Department put me into an ambulance and off I went, to Nassau University Medical Center Trauma Unit. I only recently found out from my cousin that they shut down all the intersections “like a red carpet” she giggled and shook her head; bewildered. The simple fact that I am breathing and alive is a miracle. They had to escort me to hospital because they as much as they wanted to, they couldn’t air lift me. The helicopter could not handle the weather.

The injuries were severe

Upon arrival at the ICU, I was intubated which means they put a tube in one’s throat to help them breathe and they also put me on life support for the next two weeks. When one is unconscious the doctors give a Glasgow coma scale which is a scoring system used to see the state of a person’s consciousness. This helps dictate where one is at when they suffered a traumatic brain injury, I was between a 3 to 7 on a scale of 3 to 15, the latter being a normal brain.

Timing was everything, from there they diagnosed me as having a subdural hematoma. They needed to perform immediate surgery known as a craniectomy, which is the removal of the skull. I was hemorrhaging which is when one is internally bleeding. Brain stents were put into my skull to alleviate the pressure and internal bleeding. They kept the skull out and I was in a coma for a month and half.

Finding the right medical team was vital

Near Christmas, my mother and father came to the understanding that I was not going to make progress where I was at. They somehow found a helmet and a special ambulance to transport me to the best doctors at Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan. Doctor Brian Greenwald was my main doctor, he changed my medications, and I woke up from a coma by the end of January. When I woke up, I thankfully remembered all of my family that was right by my side the whole time. The right side of my body was completely numb, kind of like when you are on the gravitron at a local fair and you cannot lift your body because of the gravity. The medical term for this is hemiplegia. Everyday going forward, I had to relearn how to walk, talk, write and do everything all over again, the simple habits and motions of life.

Around valentine’s day, I left, went back home with a concave skull, and celebrated my 18^th birthday with family and friends. I always had that helmet on too! I went back on March 3^rd, 2008 to have the surgeons perform a cranioplasty. “Surgical procedure done to correct a defect in a bone of the skull” (https://www.princetonneurologicalsurgery.com/our-services/brain-surgery/cranioplasty/). The surgeons put in an acrylic plate with metal screws to keep it intact. I was awake for the ICU which was scary and then March 19^th, 2008 I was out for good. As I walked through my high school graduation, I received a standing ovation, which now thinking back puts everything into perspective, how strong of a woman I am.

Meeting other inspiring brain injury survivors was an important step in my recovery

From there my parents put me into a program called “Phase Two” at Mount Sinai Rehabilitation Center, which was an outpatient program. I had met some amazing survivors, John Byler, being one of them, who has a nonprofit organization called The BISON Foundation. 

Bison is an acronym that stands for Brain Injury Support: Operational and Neurological, “we are pioneering new and better ways to help those affected by TBI”.

Giving back to other brain injury survivors

Phase two helped me so much in my recovery and I am so grateful for the therapists, nurses, doctors, and medical professionals at the Mount Sinai. There I learned how to take charge and become aware of my emotions and slow down my reaction to my triggers. After phase two, I started taking a couple of classes in college which didn’t ultimately work out because I was not ready. Next I went through a deep  depression but after years of finding myself, I have a stronger & closer bond with my family. I’ve met a beautiful man who I currently live with, have a great job, I drive, and I am now giving back to traumatic brain injury survivors. Giving warriors a space to find peace and understanding that it is going to be alright; “there’s beauty in the process” as Tyquan, my boyfriend would reassure me whenever TBI knocked me down.