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A Journey of Recovery

May 21, 2014

A Journey of Recovery 

My daughter Bailey was involved in a pedestrian versus motor vehicle accident on May 19, 2009. She was 11 years old simply out with a friend enjoying what started out as a beautiful sunny day. That all drastically changed in an instance when the driver of a Ford F-150 was distracted by his cell phone. His failure to pay attention to the road led to him not yielding to two innocent pedestrians crossing the street. Ultimately my daughter was plowed into throwing and dragging her small frame about 50ft from impact. She suffered a severe traumatic brain injury, diffused axonal shearing, fractured right hip/femur, multiple pelvic fractures, anatomic storming, and numerous other injuries.
 She sustained loss of gray/white matter differentiation in the lower portion of the cerebral hemispheres, left more than right,in the brainstem, and adjacent brain. Subdural, subarachnoid,intraventricular and intraparenchymal hemorrages with diffused brain swelling with transtentorial and tonsillar herniation. Shearing injury of the splenium of corpus callosum and probable additional shearing foci in the hemispheres. Her Glasgow coma was 3.

Bailey spent nearly 6 months inpatient at the hospital. During that time she had to relearn everything that she once did with ease. She went on to continue out patient therapies for the next three years. She continues to do therapy at home. She now is fully independent. She has mild short term memory loss, mild deficits to her right arm, and right leg. The results of having hemiparesis and from losing 1/4-1/2 of an inch in length to her right leg due to the fracture at the growth plate. She walks independently, and can use her right hand, she can write now with both hands which ironically being ambidextrous was a goal she has prior to her brain injury.

Bailey has taught me so much and continues to do so everyday. I learned how strong we both were and that together nothing is impossible. We developed a “Win Win” attitude right off the bat. The word “cant” was not one we used. If something was difficult that meant it became a goal to accomplish but never an “I can’t do it” situation. She has astronomical determination and put all she has towards recovering as much as she could.
She currently is 16 years old and a Junior in High School with a GPA of 4.0 for the first half of the year, her cumulative GPA is 3.7. Right now she is looking forward to her Junior prom and exploring colleges.
Thank you for allowing me to share our journey,
Dawn Michelle Ehasz

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