Because my work is not limited by state boundaries, many of the stories I hear, and many of the brain injury survivors I work with, are located outside of Oregon. Such is the case with my friend Evan, who grew up in Texas, was injured in California, and then moved back to Texas as his recovery progressed. Evan took the time to detail for me his injury, his path toward recovery, and his lessons learned from the tragedy that befell him while driving along a Los Angeles freeway.
Over the course of my next few blog posts, I’m going to let Evan take center stage and tell his story. There are similarities in his story that many brain injury survivors will understand, while there are also aspects of his personal journey that are unique to Evan.
The following passage was written by Evan, and while it is a harrowing account of his injury, it also ends with words of hope.
On July 23, 2019, my life changed forever. A semi-truck lost one of its rear wheels on the highway. The 200lb tire bounced across the highway, over the median, and collided with my car head-on.
The wheel smashed through my front windshield, struck my head, and snapped my neck. Later, I would learn that the EMT said he couldn’t find my heartbeat twice. In other words, I died, came back, died again and somehow came back once more. I was in a coma for two days before waking to the reality of a severe traumatic brain injury among other complications.
Six years removed from the accident and 19 rehabs later, I am still struggling, still learning about my injury, and discovering how all brain injuries are different. Education is key. Whether you suffer from a brain injury or not.
We can all learn something to better understand this injury. So, my mission after my two “deaths” is to spread awareness and educate those willing to learn about brain injuries and how one catastrophic event changed the trajectory of my life.
There are two more short installments from Evan that I will share and when they are posted, you will see that from Evan’s personal tragedy a deep desire to help others with brain injury was borne. I hope his words resonate with you, especially if you are struggling and trying to figure out what’s next.
