TBI Family

Hello everyone, My name is Cynthia Martinez. I’m a single mom who at 34 years old went to my friends house for a fun game night with my 5 year old son, and after just a couple of minutes of being there, all of a sudden fainted with no warning... Once the paramedics quickly arrived I was rushed to the hospital where they discovered that I had an aneurysm rupture on the right side of my brain. Although it was clipped, conditions worsened when my brain began to swell, and then  

Hello, my name is Francesca Burr. My life changed last year on November 18th, 2016 at the age of 27 years old, when I had a surprising random amount of seizures, while walking down some stairs inside my house, which resulted in my skull being fractured in five places, jaw cracked and my nose had been broken. Luckily, my mum and step-dad came home from a meal on Friday night to find they couldn't open the front door because I was blocking it and all they could hear was my dog

Hello, my name is Daniel Franco. My life immediately changed on June 10th of 2017 during a CBS Sports Network-Televised Main Boxing Event at the Winna Vegas Casino in Sloan Iowa after receiving a brutal knock down from the right hand near the temple. Initially, it appeared as if I would be fine. I was alert moments later and was moved onto a stool so the ringside doctor could examine me. But it became clear all was not well and started to have a terrible headache while I was

Hello, my name is Silvie. I am 29 years old and based in Amsterdam. In May 2017, I got into a scooter accident, which has caused me concussion and whiplash. I didn't fall on my head. I was conscious and I thought I only hurt my ankle. So I thought I was lucky and went home, not knowing I just walked into a new life. The next day I felt so weird but I went to work anyway. I didn't know what was going on because I didn't fall on my head so what could it be? I went to work for t

Hello everyone! My name is Leah Chyma. I am an artist, nature lover, health enthusiast, yogi and traumatic brain injury survivor. On, August 7th, 2018 at 30 years old, I was leaving dinner with a few friends and we decided to take those motorized scooters home for my first and only time. Days later I awoke in the shock trauma unit unable to move due to the machines & measures taken to keep me alive. Apparently I was involved in a single person, freak accident on the scooter a

Hi everyone! My name is Melanie, I am from Amsterdam in The Netherlands and I am thankful to be able to share my concussion story with you in this community. I wish for it to help you realize that you are not alone and that there is hope, always. I sustained a concussion in 2012. That was back when I had just started a traineeship fresh out of university. I cycled home from work one day. The evening sun was warm and nice and I remember enjoying being outside the office. Then,

Hello TBI One Love community, we are the Roet’s family from South Africa. Our survivor is our daughter: Karlien. She was 2 at the time when she sustained a traumatic brain injury after freak accident at home in Aug 2018. Karlien had several brain injuries she also got a shunt. Unfortunately after 10 days of the accident Karlien had two seizures and a vein bursted her brain! After about 6 months in ICU she was discharged to home on 16 Jan 2019. Due to the TBI Karlien is on a

Hello, our survivors name is Lauren Taylor and two years ago on, May 12th in 2019, her life changed forever after suffering with a devastating brain injury. On that day, Lauren was walking a horse at the Aiken Horse Show when something spooked the horse causing him to wheel around and kick out. Tragically, Lauren was struck in the side of the head and badly injured. She was rushed to the trauma center in Augusta where she stayed for 2 weeks! Next, she was flown to the Shepher

Hello everyone, my name is Jaclyn Smolik, and I am from Houston Tx. I played sports growing up, specifically soccer where I received a couple concussions but they resolved without a problem. I went to play college soccer and March 2019 of my junior spring season I got another concussion. I didn't report it to the trainers and kept training. My symptoms resolved with no issues but then 2 weeks later on April 13th I was playing in my final spring game and received another concu

Hello everyone! My name is Alyssa Mosteller and I am from Georgia. In April of 2015, I was in a car accident , and suffered from a diffuse axonal injury. I was in a coma for eight days, but I was never really coherent or aware. One day I just “came to” and began to realize things. Due to my brain injury, I was paralyzed due to nerve damage and I had upper limb spasticity. I was so freaked out because to me it felt like nothing had happened to me. It’s crazy what our brains ca

Hello fellow Survivors, my name is Daniel and I am from Tuscaloosa Alabama. Back in April of 2021, I was a passenger in a car accident and ended up being the only survivor. All my organs dropped and I was incapacitated 3 times. I had a few ribs that were fractured and more than likely punctured my lung and caused me to have an impiema to my right lung which is a bleed that got infected. I was diagnosed with a TBI brain bleed on my front right lobe of my brain. I was in a coma

Hello everyone! My name is Kilee, and I am from Utah. In October of 2012 at the age of 19, I was a student and dancer at the: Southern Utah University. I had always planned on serving my church, but with the recent announcement that females can serve missions at 19 instead of 21, I was try to solve the decision of whether to go two years earlier than I planned. So I decided to drive home to pray. During the drive it started to rain, and my car begin to hydroplaned. Which caus

Hi everyone, my name is Jessie from Canada.. In 2013 I was in a very bad car accident. The local rehab center wisely encouraged me to take up mindfulness. Simply put, mindfulness means paying attention to the present moment rather than getting lost in (negative!) thoughts about the past or the future. Mindfulness was the soothing balm my brain so needed! However, I found some aspects of traditional mindfulness to be way too overwhelming. In time I learned to modify mindfulne

Hi, I’m Ville from Finland, and I just turned 27. April 4th marks the 5 year anniversary for my traumatic brain injury (or the start of the long journey struggling with it). April 4th 2015, I was kicked in the head while playing futsal (indoor soccer on hard surface). My first memory is from the ambulance on the way to the hospital. I was sent home from the hospital the same day. They didn’t do any proper tests or anything they “should” have done. My symptoms started later th

My name is Jen . I’m a TBI survivor and I wanted to share a little of my story in hopes it will help another . A few years back I survived 2 brain injuries , due to a medical malfunction and was left with no medical insurance . I was unable to walk or speak clearly and no income . After the first year of living with my mother (who was not very keen on having to take care of another person ) and after that I was left homeless . I had just regained my ability to walk and speak

Hello, my name is Emily Smith from Canada. I was in a car accident in 2016 where I collided into another car on the highway at 90km/hr and I was knocked out cold by three airbags ... Luckily, thanks to God plan , I was woken up thanks to a bystander who was frantically banging on my window to wake me because the fuel line severed on the passenger side of my vehicle and my car was engulfed with flames ... I was pulled out of my car half conscious and pulled metres from the car

Hello my name is Michael Otoo. I suffered a severe traumatic brain injury in the summer of 2016. I was involved in a motor vehicle pedestrian accident. I was in a coma for 5 days and was told I would never make it back to school or play basketball again. I am a university student athlete who had aspirations of playing pro basketball overseas and was devastated. I rehabbed with TRAC Group In Ottawa and had to take a year off to rehab. As you guys know with a severe brain injur

Hello, my name is Brittin Lane. Four years ago(2016), I survived a severe longboarding accident suffering a traumatic brain injury (TBI). I blacked out on impact, and woke up with short term memory loss and confusion, and damage to my neck, ribs, head and shoulders. A full year passed before any symptoms appeared, but within a few days, I went from a healthy, outgoing teenager to spending all of my days almost completely housebound. I only left her house for physical therapy

Hello, My name is Sadie Raymond, and I am the mother of Corbin Raymond. Corbin sustained his brain injury, after he was seriously injured in a car accident on July 4, 2018 when his friends and him were planning a fun day of tubing down the river. Corbin was rushed to concord hospital where it took a while to stabilize him and then he was rushed into surgery. We were told he had a severe head trauma and bleeding in his abdomen. They were going to operate but couldn’t give me

Hello, my name is Valeria Dinges. It was a beautiful Friday morning, October 22nd 1999, my husband, 3 children and I were on our way to his Grandparents house. My husband was driving and we were enjoying lighter traffic than usual for our area. (Just north of D.C.) Coming up on a car driving unusually slow in the far left lane, my husband gave a quick beep for him to either speed up or move over. There were 2 empty lanes to the right of him. The car continued driving slow, so