I would like to share my son's story about his brain injury and how he got it.

It was a typical day in November the year was 1995 on the 2nd day, Got James ready to go to school he was all excited about going to a field trip that his class was having, they were going swimming one of his favorite things to do.

The afternoon his class went swimming, and 1:30 that day we got the worst phone call any parent can recieve that our son was in the hospital, no one told us what was wrong. My husband arrived at the hospital first, and they had told him it was a playground accident, I was 5 minutes behind him, and when I got there the teachers told me that he had a bathroom accident. We both knew that he had gone swimming, and that was more than likely where it happened.

The paramedics came out and told us that James was found at the bottom of the pool, and that when he was pulled out he was CODE, at that time the teachers kept saying we only turned our backs for a few seconds. It' wasn't even a teacher that jumped in to get my son it was a local police office. He was rushed to the hospital, and was hooked up to all kinds of machines and hoses. Just looking at my son it tore me to pieces, I kept saying why James why him, he is so young.

The doctors and nursers working on him, didn't give up, and when I was told he was going to be flown out for flight for life. (Where the accident happened is in a town and the hospitals are not equipt with the right equipment for such things.) James was flown to Denver Children's Hospital.

When he arrived at children's he was rushed to ICU and was in a coma, just looking at my baby laying there it tore me up, He was in ICU for 4 days and was taken to the 5th rehab floor where he had such loving and caring doctors and nurses watching over him.

He was having aggrevation seizures and just watching him it was the hardest thing for me to see. I just couldn't take it, so the doctors told my husband that it would be better that I didn't see him go through those, and they told him to take me somewhere and they recommend taking me to the zoo. it was hard to leave but if I didn't I wouldn't be good for James.

While there at Children's hospital he went through physical and occupational therapy and speech, and he had a surgery to place in a G-tube, being there at Children's for 46 days was hard, specially being away from my daughter was just as hard. When we came home I knew that it was going to be a long and hard recovery.

He had to do the same thing with the therapy's each and every day, but to me if I could get him close to where he was I would do anything, I know he will not talk again, but just to see his face light up, and to be able to run and play is just as joyous for me.

People are always telling me that they could never go through what I have and that they admire my strength but we all have that same strength when it comes to a loved one who gets ill or who is injured, but It does take a toll on other things, as I am aware of.

But one thing that has happened is that it did bring my family a lot closer, and James gets to enjoy a Brain injury camp each and ever year which he loves to go to.

If I could take back anything that day, it would of been me taping his last words so that I would have them forever, I do to a point, and I have a few videos of which to see him talking, it took me a while to look at them but once I did, I really got to enjoy them more

While James was in the hospital he was treated with some special people coming to see him, one was seeing his favorite profootball team, and his favorite quarterback. Just to see these guys see James and have tears in their eyes, showed me that they have the hugest hearts around.

I look at James' birthday as a rebirth for him, he was born on May 11th and this year he will be 11, a dear and close friend said to me once that we are all given a chance to do something special, and James is that special person that can bring a smile, a laughter or a hug when it is needed.

He is my life, as my daughter and with Brain injuries I have learned a lot of new and intersting things.