Well I think its about time I put my story in here. My car accident happened 4 years ago this Oct.21th. It happened in 1997.At less I can talk about it with out crying. I have been coming here to the TBI room for 3 an a half years now. I was riding back and forth from Lansing to Detroit for support for my mother. She was going throw a divorce. We drove back and forth about 3 times. On Oct.21,1997 was the last date we would be returning. My sister-in-law was going with us,she was doing the driving. My mother sat in the front passenger seat. I was sitting in the rear seat behind the driver. I didn't know my mother didn't have her seat belt on, I was told it wouldn't go around her. It was 3:30 in the afternoon. The traffic was getting heavy. The speed limit was 70. We were coming home on East 96, there is three lanes, he was going West 96 there is three lanes. The court decided that the man that hit us was a sleep at the wheel. He was a 67 year old man driving a 67 year old car. I was told all this, I don't remember any of it.

The man's car rolled head ,toe at us. He hit a van that was in front of us at the tail end and that spun him head on to us. That hit spun us around in to on coming traffic and we got hit again head on. I was told I was in the hospital for 11 days. I don't remember coming home. I don't remember any thing for four months and then not much of any thing. I was never in a coma. They said I was talking to everyone, that is how the hospital got a hold of my husband. I told them the number. I broke my neck,teeth,nose, shoulder,knee and received a closed head injury. My mother died with her forehead crushed,broken neck and back. My sister-in-law just had a broken ankle.

I don't remember my family telling me in the hospital that my mom died. I started remembering 6 months after the accident a little more, that is when it sunk in, that my mother was died. I was along at the time I realized this, I called my husband I lost it. I remember things here and there up to a year after the accident. A year is when I started remembering most of the things going on in my life. I do remember telling my husband that I didn't feel right, like I went to bed me and wake up another person. I couldn't get him to understand that. I tried different doctors till someone listened to me. I was sent to the right doctor finally. He is the one that told me I had traumatic brain injury. I started therapy at 3 months they tell me. But in the mean time my husband left me, he told me that he lost his wife in the accident, that I was a different person. But not till after he stole some money from the settlement and found him self a girlfriend. Things have gotten better since then. I try my hardest. I still haven't returned to work, but that's next I think. I'm making new friends ,cause the old ones are gone like the husband. I feel so along, lost, but I keep trying. I haven't started dating yet, I'm to scared to get hurt again. I live one day at a time.

Email Carol