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Personal Narrative: Brain Injury

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Not many can say that they literally almost died and inquired a brain injury and then exactly a year and day later started college. August 16, 2014 forever changed my life. I was in a near fatal car accident, air lifted to Baptist Hospital, unconscious, and spent the next 41 days in the hospital. Once I became conscious again, 11 days later, I was moved from the ICU to another part of the hospital, called the STICHT Center, and then I had to learn how to do everything again. This tragic accident has not only made me a stronger person but it has made me appreciate the simplicities in life a little more. I ran a stop sign and was t-boned in the passenger side; I then hit the median, flipped and ran into a telephone pole. That was the instance that changed my life, forever. At that time I inquired a Traumatic Brain Injury, or TBI, and that was why I had to learn how to do everything again. It was almost like a stroke, only one side of my body was damaged, and that was my right side. When I was in the ICU on life support my family tells me that I moved my left side just fine but I could not move my right side at all. Finally, in the ICU, I started to move my right leg a little. It was …show more content…
What about the mental side of things? I had to learn how to read and write again (correctly.) I also had to learn how to process others emotions, as well as my own again. I did not just have to learn mechanical things, but I also had to learn to strengthen my memory again. I could not remember anything, not even if someone told me a word and a minute later asked what that word was. In that way I guess I was like a 77 year old woman. I had to learn how to do all these things again and now, I have been so diligent in my recovery, I am almost better, in many ways, than I was before my accident. All of these simplicities that I had to learn again, all played a part in making me the person I am

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