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Gerald Whitworth's Story

"On june 10, 2006 I was riding my motorcycle on a rural highway at 65mph. I was following a pickup trick on the highway. The driver of the pickup, who I later learned was unlicensed, slammed on the brakes to make a turn. The pickup had no brake lights or turn signals. I was unable to stop my motorcycle before hitting the rear of the pickup truck. I was ejected from the motorcycle, flew about 30 feet and landed in the oncoming lane of traffic. I was not wearing a motorcycle helmet at the time. My head crashed onto the pavement. I lay on the pavement for about 30 minutes before an ambulance could arrive and lad me for transport to the nearest hospital"

This is one story of many. Gerald Whitworth was taken to a hospital, where he received a CAT scan. The results were not good. Gerald's brain had swelled and he was bleeding onto his brain. The doctors said that they would need to transport him to a hospital in a larger area, but that he might not survive the flight. He went on the helicopter, and survived.

As soon as he arrived at the hospital, Gerald was put into a medically induced coma. He was kept in a coma for three days., The swelling in his brain had stopped, along with the bleeding, but Gerald was suffering from disorientation, sever headaches, and pain from the broken collarbone, broken ribs, skull fracture and knee injuries from the crash.

Gerald walked out of the hospital 6 weeks later, under his own power. The headaches continued while the swelling was going down, but there were no signs of substantial brain damage.

6 months after the accident, Gerald is coping with his loss of smell and taste, along with short term memory loss. He rebuilt his motorcycle, and continues to ride it, now with a brand new helmet. He has to write things down on a pad because of his short term memory loss, but other than that, he is doing just fine

Mandy McGehee's Story

"On August 15, 1998 I was in a near fatal car accident. I was asleep in the from passenger side of a Chevrolet Cavalier driven by my mother. We were on I-20 west in Jackson, MS. It began raining heavily and my mom hit a water pocket in the road and hydroplaned. She ran off the road and flipped over three times. My mother was not hurt badly. She was able to get out of the car herself. Although i was buckled up, the point of impact forward [threw me] forward and I was caught in the frame of the car. I suffered a skull fracture as a result of the impact. I was rushed to a nearby hospital where I underwent emergency brain surgery. As a result of the skull fracture and bleeding, a blood clot formed in my brain. The blood clot was causing my brain to swell. Surgeons told my family that that night I would probably die in surgery and that if I did life I had no chance at a meaningful recovery. A lot of friends and family began praying for me immediately. When I lived through the surgery, doctors only gave me a 20% chance to live. People began to pray harder. After it was determined that I would live, doctors told my family that I would probably have the mentality of a 6-year-old for the rest of my life, because they thought the brain damage was so severe. Friends and family continued to pray. On august 31, 1998, after being in ICU for two weeks, I was transferred to Mississippi Methodist Rehabilitation Center in Jackson, MS. There I received physical, occupational, speech, and respiratory therapy. I had traumatic amnesia as a result of the injury, so I didn't remember much about the first couple weeks of my stay at MMRC. I regained my memory the first week of September and began doing much better. I was released from MMRC October 9, 1998. I walked out of the hospital on my own. I began outpatient rehabilitation the last week in October and returned to college in January of 1999. I graduated from Mississippi College December 22, 2000 with a B.S. in communications. While in college after the accident, I made the Dean's list! It was the third semester after I returned to college. I have also gone back to school at MC to work on my Master's degree in Secondary Education. I have a 3.7 GPA and will graduate in May 2006. My neurosurgeon and neurologist have both told people that they think I'm a miracle. My therapist at MMRC told me that they had never ha a patient recover as quickly as well as I did. They cried when I left and came to see me graduate from college. I have read my medical records myself. My mother is a Registered Nurse, so I have grown up around Medical terminology and I know from what the records say that medically I should not be alive."

http://www.braininjury.com/