On March 25 1994 Liz we were at our trailer in Washington State getting ready to go home to Vancouver BC when she had a brain aneurism and collapsed. Fortunatly I had the key for the only trailer with a phone on the property so I was able to phone for the volunteer fire dept for assistance. The ambulance came and rushed her into the hospital in Bellingham Wash where by luck and Lizs guardian angel a neurosurgeon was at the hospital emergency when she arrived and he decided to put in a shunt drain immediatly and we believe this is what saved her life. After a number of phone calls he was able to get the provincial medicopter to come and pick her up and take her to Vancouver General hospital which is the brain center for the province. They said there was not much hope but I knew she was fighting even though in a coma and told them to do what they had to do to keep her going. After many CT scans in ICU she sank into a deep coma for 15 days and was slowly pulled out of it by the male nurse in the ICU. At five weeks she was almost back to where she was when it happened and the neuroligist said she had three more week vessals that could burst at any time in particular one large one with three weeks sides. She was able to make the descision for him to operate and remove these vessals which he did two days later. Unfortunatly the brain swelled and compacted with the skull and did severe damage to the left side of the brain which paralized the right side and put her back into a coma for two more weeks. After coming out of the coma she had problems with speech,memory and vision. She spent 7 months in hospital and was discharged from a 3 month stay at the rehab hospital and sent home as they said there was not any more they could do. After 2 months at home she was still in bed or in a wheelchair and was not getting any better and so we decided to get our own physio therapy. We were lucky to get a Yugoslavian lady thereapist who has been working on Liz for the last 4 years and has made a big difference to Lizs life. Her speach problems have cleared up, she still has vision problems but not as bad, she can walk a little with assistance of a cane and a brace on her right leg she still has no use of her right arm and hand but we are hopeing. The tbi postings have been a god send and for this we give thanks to Clara and John and Brian and all the others who give so much to us all
