Update April 14, 2006

My name is Leah Pelletier and I'm Tylers' mom. It has been almost 2 years since Tyler's accident. He now lives in Missoula MT where his 1 yr old son lives. His name is Caleb.

Tyler has come a long way from 2 years ago. The doctors told us that he might not be able to walk for a least 1 yr. Let alone move around and talk. Seeing your son not be able to talk and walk can break any parent. But Tyler was up and walking within 1 month from the date he was released from the hospital. He started to eat solid foods the day he got home. He still had a feeding tube in his stomach and a trach in his throat. Those were removed within a couple of months later. Tyler had such determation to get better.

He lives in a assited living home in Missoula. He can walk, talk and feeds himself everyday. He is in the process of looking for a job. He still shakes a little and he does take medication for that. He still has to take sleeping pills to sleep and he still has double vision. He has had 2 eye surguries since his accident. But he is still making it work for him. He has 2 daughters in Texas and hopes to see them soon. He does try and talk to them every week. He is working on getting a program on public TV in Montana about TBI patients and how they feel. He is really excited about that. He still gets confussed at times, but the most part he can remember everything. He still does not remember the accident, but he may never will. And he is ok with that. Our family has moved on and is living again. We still have a few rough patches, but we try and fix them. I see hope in Tyler again. He had gone through so much in the last two years and now he can say, I'm doing good. We had to put him in 3 differnet hospials for many different reasons, but Tyler never gave up. I'm very proud of him and his walk to recovery!!!!

Tyler lost his girlfriend, his job, his daughters, part of his family and himself. But he is a surviver!!!!

I love you Tyler
Mom

Email Leah

June 26th was the day our lives were changed forever. Tyler Adam Pelletier goes to work around 5 o'clock in the afternoon, and as they say, always tell your loved one that you love them before you go to work because you never know what might happen. Well,as luck would have it,he was not in the best of moods before work. He left in a huff,a hurried goodbye and I love you before closing the door.

Its 8:32 PM. I, his girlfriend, am taking a nap and wake up extremely suddenly, sitting straight up in bed. Something is seriously wrong i tell myself. i rush to the computer to text him to be very careful on the drive home, i just had a really bad dream he was going to get into a serious accident. 9:04; he's still not home. But he was late yesterday so i dont panic. 9:05; i hear sirens that are really close, and hope they are not coming for him. I still have a really bad feeling in the pit of my stomach. I sense that something is very wrong. i send him a couple more text messages in the half hour before the police knock on my door. "Tylers been in a really bad car accident, you need to come the hospital immediatly. It's bad."

I arrive at the hospital, all the way there calling friends and family to tell them what has happened. Tylers friend and co-worker, Dwayne, meets me there and we wait to hear from a nurse. She comes out and tells us that he's alive and will make it but it's going to be a long road to full recovery.

It was raining real hard that night. It had been raining all week. Tyler had been going to fast on the wet roads. He missed a curve and hydroplaned across both lanes of the road. The car hit the curb and jumped it. Then wrapped itself and Tyler around a tree. He was not breathing when rescue personel arrived at the scene and they had no idea how long he had been out of breath. They believed they might be dealing with a fatality. They had to use the jaws of life to cut the doors off the car to get him out. They had life flight take Tyler to Brachenridge Hospital in Austin, Texas where he remained for the next month or so.

He had hit his head hard. He had bleeding on both sides of his brain. But thankfully no swelling. No broken bones, no bruies, no scratches, no scars...just his brain. The doctors said it was the worst kind of brain injury you could get--similiar to shaken baby syndrome. Tyler remained in a state of sleep for three weeks;until the bleeding had been absorbed by his brain. The nurses and doctors eased him off of the respirator and the pain medications. He was slowly coming back to us. When a familiar voice said to him,"Show me three fingers or squeeze my hand.", he would. Slowly he became fully aware of his surroundings. His mother, Leah Pelletier, rarely left his side. I do believe that he got better as quickly as he did because of the presence of God, the prayers he had around the states and the support he has from his family as well as mine and others who had never met him.

Today Tyler is doing better. He will have to relearn lifes skills. He is now able to transfer himself from his bed to his wheelchair, and has just recently started to walk again. He has made great progress. We are so proud of him for being strong minded and determined. We continue to pray daily for him and believe God will work with Tyler in his recovery.