I have a 17 year old son that has TBI. Adam was hit by a tractor trailer truck (as a pedestrian) on Halloween. He was thrown 113 feet after impact and suffered various injuries as well as traumatic brain injury. The broken bones, punctured lungs, and soft tissue damage are mending fine. The major problem is and will be the TBI, and emotional disabilities that linger on. After 5 days in a coma and on life support, Adam was moved to another part of the hospital in isolation because of complications with staph pnuemonia and bacterial influenza while recovering. After three weeks there, he was moved to Inpatient Rehabilitation up in Salem, Oregon for another three weeks. Presently he is doing outpatient therapy. He continues to complain about too many therapy sessions, which include physical, occupational, and speech therapy. He also has counseling sessions and doctor's appointments intermingled with psychiatric appointments. He feels he can be independant, this is our big disagreement. He is in 12th grade and has a tutor come into the home for 7 hours a week. His big complaints are that he can't just go where ever he wants and that he has frustrations over memory problems. This is still pretty new to us as it has only been 4 months since his accident. He has made remarkable recovery but has a long ways to go. The officers on the scene of the accident didn't think he was going to pull through, but he surprises us all, and I hope continues to keep working to make the best of it all. It was not his time to leave this earth.
