it's not unlike a lot of others except there is no-one else i can pass the blame onto no drunk driver no icy roads. my tbi came about by my own accord. it was on November 2nd 1992, it started out as any other day i left home at 5 AM heading out to work. i was a foreman for a construction company i had been a union carpenter for 27 years.

we started work at 7 but i always left early to stop at a local greasy spoon for coffee and BS. I left there about 6:15 and drove the 30 miles on to the job site we were building a us post office in Delaware. work started as usual at 7 sharp being a union job of course coffee break was at 9:15 but only 15 minutes. i looked at my watch it was 9:30 time to go back to work heading back i was informed one of our hydraulic man lifts was in the way of electricians so i climbed on to move it as I'd done hundreds of times, while backing the lift up i looked back and saw the beam coming but no time to do anything. the beam hit me in the back pushing me forward onto the controls of the lift i was pinned as i was pushed i was pushing the controls with my body the more i pushed the more i was crushed by the way i was up in the air 27 feet. i was caught from my waist to my head with 9,00 pounds of pressure no escape. there were 14 people working for me i yelled the best i could nobody heard me.

i never lost consciousness finally the pressure squeezed me enough that my chin pushed the off button by the controls but not before breaking my jaw in 5 places because i never passed out i heard every pop of the bones breaking in my jaw. my teeth were pushed out one at a time i spit then onto to lift floor. eventually someone saw what had happened and tried to get me out the brain surgeons they are they decided to cut the lines but they have check valves in case of accidental breakage so the lift was stuck in that position. the rescue squad had to use the jaws of life to free me.

i remember getting free and into the ambulance then into the emergency room where i was trying to tell them to call my wife but my broken jaw was just kind of flapping as i tried to talk but when i pointed to my wedding ring they understood and said it was being done the problem is my wife was in Texas for her job at the time i had taken her to the airport the day before they did get in touch with her and told her i was there and talking that i had broken my jaw. i was so combative in the emergency room they gave me some kind of meds. to temporarily paralyze me(or they thought) i guess i went into shock about that time my heart rate jumped to like 260 and blood pressure sky high caused me to have a massive stroke i lapsed onto coma that lasted 9 days

by the time my wife made it back from Texas. i can remember most every minute of it i could hear the doctors telling her I'd die by morning my left eye never closed for some reason i could see and hear when i came out of my coma i told my wife who had been to see me and what they were wearing the doctors couldn't believe it i was told i had over 50 visitors that first day they even forgot the 2 at a time rule my wife said at one time there was 17 people in my room at once the nurses let them stay. when i woke up 2 days later they took me in to set my jaw and i wore an external fixator until 2 days before Christmas i can still remember each one that was standing by my bed when i woke up there was 9 people not counting nurses and doctors.on December 16th i was transferred to a re-hab in pa. only to be shipped back to the hospital in Delaware because of high fever re-hab wont take sick people.

if i lived through the night this time they would remove my gall bladder the next day well i lived they did i felt much better then stayed there another week then back to re-hab lots of extensive therapy physical and occupational along with speech and cognitive on January 11th i was doing well enough i was transferred to their independent living facility on site there i am completely paralyzed on my left side and still needed lots of assistance doing most everything

in my room was twin beds so my wife was allowed to stay with me. she went to work from there each day and returned at night workman's comp even approved the extra expense. i had 7 house of therapy a day so the time went fast i remember my first night in the independent living i was in bed i just knew i could get up to go into the bathroom WRONG i got out of bed and hit the floor yelled for help an aide heard and came got me back in bed was a long night no sleep. you'd think i woulda learned wrong again that night in bed i looked over looked at my wife in other bed i knew i could make it that far i crawled into my wheelchair i made it gave her a nice hug the bed was too small she sent me back to my bed so i climbed back into the wheelchair and damned if that thing didn't throw me back on the floor the aide heard the thump and came in she said that the only time she ever sees me i'm on the floor we both laughed back in bed i went. with a lot of hard work and perseverance i was able to go home in February for the nights my wife picked me up after work we went home i got up early and rode with her to work a bus picked me up across the street and took me to therapy all day this went on till the 12th of march 1993 the i was released to stay home all the time.

my wife took 90 day emergency leave and stayed with me as i still couldn't stay alone i couldn't ever wipe my own butt. how embarrassing that was i couldn't even stand up to pee i found out what it's like if someone leaves the toilet seat up whoo thats scary. i remember the first time my wife got back to rehab after work when i was with my physical therapist and she saw me walking with a quad cane she just smiled at me then we both started crying seems like ages ago. she finally had to go back to work the 90 days were over i had a community

services agent who came to the house 3 days a week for 5 house a day he took me anywhere i wanted/needed to go. we went bowling, visiting my friends or whatever i wanted to do my doctor prescribed a membership to the YMCA so we went there and got in the swimming pool i practiced my walking and exercises my Christmas present to my wife was going to be walking from the bedroom into open our gifts without any assistance it took lots of work but i did it boy was she surprised i couldn't have bought her a better present but i had another motive too my daughter was getting married in may nothing was going to stop me from walking her down the isle NOTHING i was lucky the house we lived in was a rancher one floor so was fairly accessible whatever needed to be done to make it so workman's comp picked up they were good in every way but i didn't know that when my law suit was settled they got every penny back in my case it came to over a million dollars but they knew it all along.

well it's been almost 8 years now i'm still paralyzed completely on my left i was left handed still cant write very well but dont need to we have more money than needed we are happy live a good life my wife was even able to retire we take lots of vacations wheelchair and allow have 2 wonderful grandsons ages 2 and 3 we love spending time with them. thats my story and i'm sticking to it.

thank you for listening i mean reading
great big huggs
your TBI friend
larry
survivor of a stroke

Email larry