Hello my name is Whitney Rodriguez, and my husband is Dominguez. I will never forget when both his and our life drastically changed!
What took place is, on the night of February 6th of 2006, on the way home from a Greek event at UF in Gainesville, the driver of Dominguez's car fell asleep at the wheel and they collided with a tree on Dominguez's side of the car!
That night I was in the car in front of his. We drove straight to the hospital. Everyone in Dominguez's car was fine, except Dominguez.
He had to be airlifted to the hospital, he stopped breathing on the way and had to be resuscitated, both lungs collapsed, a trach had to be put in - when they got him to the hospital they discovered he had brain bleeds (and a severe traumatic brain injury) and had to bring him in to place an inter cranial pressure monitor - his pelvis was fractured in multiple places, his liver was lacerated (grade 3), he remained in a coma (GCS Coma scale of 3 to 8) for over a month, his mandible was broken, and doctors told his parents he would never walk, talk, eat, or function independently ever again.
After a month in ICU they said he would "remain in a persistent vegetative state" and gave his parents pamphlets for assistive living facilities to put him in for the "extent of his life". These are words in the medical records. After a long time in the hospital, he was able to go home to begin rehab. He had to relearn everything.
After that, even though he may not have the best balance or coordination, may stutter when speaks, and may have short term memory loss, but he still laughs and inspires daily.
He always thinks, that in a way he is kind of like Dory from finding Nemo anyways! (The memory loss keeps things interesting on a daily basis!)
He was recently joined a CrossFit style Functional Fitness gym called Hard Exercise Works run by: @hewdeerfieldbeach 4 months ago and has already lost 30 pounds, gained a whole bunch of muscle and am learning how to do things we both never thought would ever do again (jumping, stepping up and down unassisted onto weighted plates etc.)!
Thank you for letting us join this supportive family. We are excited to connect and learn more!
