The eve of my wedding, we were all out drinking and celebrating my upcoming
marriage the following day.  My only sibling, my brother (we are two years apart and
grew up BEST friends) was there with us and was supposed to be my best man in my
wedding. 
 
He spied a cute girl playing pool by herself and we all encouraged him to go play a
game with her.  Well 11:00pm rolled around and I wanted to get home to tape a radio
show a local DJ was dedicating to me and my husband.  My brother wanted to stay and
finish his game and told us he could drive home fine. 
 
He never showed up. 
The wedding went on and we all hoped that he had gone home with that girl and was
just sleeping off a hangover. 
 
But his SUV wasn't at his house and he had left his dog at my house.  Also my
brother was always very shy and would NOT have gone home with that girl, having just
met her and all.  I KNEW in my heart there was something VERY wrong. 
 
So on went the wedding, my best man was missing, my dear brother.  After the wedding
we were all calling his house (he only lives a mile from me) and we drove over there
many times, my husband drove to the bar, called the local police and checked the
impound.  No brother. 
 
Day turned to night and I was out of my mind scared.  My parents were on their way
to check his house again when two police cars pulled up in my driveway.  I came
running out screaming, "WHERE IS MY BROTHER? IS HE OKAY?" 
The officer had a very sullen look on his face and said to me...."your brother was
carjacked, dragged and ran over by his own SUV and he *might* live through the
night." 
 
I was heartbroken....feeling the most pain I've felt in my whole life. 
 
I got ahold of my parents and my husband broke the news to them and we headed
directly to the ICU unit of the trauma center he was in. 
 
Nothing could have ever prepared me for the horror I was about to face.  My dear
sweet brother was in a coma, lying there lifeless with tubes everywhere.  His face
was black and blue, one eye was totally unrecognizable and the sheet pulled up over
his body was soaked with blood, major wounds, drag marks on his chest, he had a cast
on his right arm and a cast on his left leg.  There was blood coming out of his
nose, ears, eyes, every single place blood could come out of....There was a tube in
his head, there was a trach in his neck and he was hooked up to a breathing machine
and life support.  The whole right side of his skull was fractured and his eye
socket was crushed.  The bones in his skull were all in place so no surgery was
needed but they did do surgery to repair his eye and had no hopes of him seeing good
out of it, if at all. 
 
There I stood with my new husband looking down upon my dearest brother with the most
horrible pain in my heart. 
 
The doctors told us that he had brain damage and might never wake up and if he does
he will never be the same. 
 
My brother has a living will and it stated that he didn't want to be hooked up to
life support....but mom had power of attorney over him so she opted to keep it going
(yet worried that he might hate her for keeping him alive if he was came out a
vegetable)...the doctors said he got better every day, his vitals got better so
there was no reason so give up and let him die. 
 
2 weeks later they slowly brought him out of his coma.  It was awful.  His arms and
legs had to be tied down to his bed. 
 
There were four men involved in the carjacking but thanks to a witness who called in
that a man was being abducted the police gave pursuit of the man driving my
brother's SUV. 
The driver was caught and the others fled.  The driver plea bargained to only get 2
years in prison because my brother was uncapable of testifying in the trial.  He
couldn't talk for months and months.  He was in the hospital for two months and when
he came home we had to nurse him 24-7 and I am still to this day his primary
caretaker.  My mom also helps. 
 
My brother is now talking, walking (with some difficulty), laughing, remembering, he
only needs GLASSES to read, otherwise he sees FINE, he's doing things on his
own....... 
oh what a MIRACLE!!!!  He went from no emotions, total apathy to himself, only most
personality traits were amplified such as his shyness. 
 
It will be coming up on 10 months since his TBI on July 17th, and I must say that
nobody ever thought he'd come this far.  The homicide unit was called when they
found his body crumpled up along the side of the road, he wasn't breathing when they
picked him up. 
 
I just want to share my brother's story in hopes that it gives other families and
victims of TBI a glimmer of HOPE. 
I was so clueless to TBI and now I feel as though I could write a book myself on the
subject from my own personal experiences.  NEVER GIVE UP!!  Family and loved ones
are TBI victims' ONLY link to their past and memories and we fill in the gaps for
them. 
 
I see my brother as a miracle, nothing short of it and I am thankful to get to laugh
with him and talk with him every single day. 
 
There is so much more, but I just wanted to share some of his story and my story. 
Please feel free to write. 
 
I am keeping my brother's name secret in order to protect him from any further harm. 
 
Sunshine 
proud sister and caretaker of a traumatic brain injury survivor 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 
Lives are like rivers 
Eventually they go where they must 
Not where we want them to


Email Shannon