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David T. Dick
My story begins about eight years ago, when I first had my brain injury.It starts out as I was in my car and I was driving and my former wife was next to me. I was going around a corner in my car and I had a cardiac arrest. We don't know yet whether my pacemaker glitched, or what else could have caused it. I was 22 years old and only married for one and a half months. They said I was clinically dead for about ten minutes before paramedics got there. My heart decided to start for three more times, once wasn't enough . Actually it was kicked with a defibrillator to get my heart going again each time. We were not hurt in the accident because I almost had the car stopped when I went over a curb and into a telephone pole. My brain injury was from anoxia which means my brain did not get oxygen to it for a long enough, so brain cells started to die.

I was in an alphawave coma and gradually came out of it raking weeks or months, I can't remember. The doctors told my family they didn't think I would live and I had to prove them wrong, just for the heck of it. The neurologist said that there was only minimal activity in my cerebral cortex. I couldn't control my body temperature. I lost my ability to swallow anything and cough or make a sound. I had to relearn it all over again. I still have a lot of trouble with my memory and coordination. It is a real pain !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!, but I still have to go through with it. But my brain injury friends help me to deal with it by playing games and talking with them at Head Trauma therapeutic recreation group and the Brain Injury Support Network of Central California. I have made a lot of new friends in these groups. I am glad that I am not the only person with a Brain Injury!!!!!

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