It was supposed to be a normal day for Mackenzie and Michael, who were living with their grandmother for the summer.

I am a physician with a traumatic brain injury.

I wanted to be a doctor from about the age of 6. I learned early on that with hard work I could reach the goals I set for myself. I received my medical degree in 1983 from Michigan State University’s College of Human Medicine then worked as a family physician in Michigan and Colorado. I sustained a traumatic brain injury(TBI) in 2002, at which point I spent months attending outpatient neurological rehabilitation, followed by 10 months of an unsuccessful return to work trial. It was very difficult to accept though obvious even to me, I could no longer practice as a Family Physician.

Through this period, and ultimately for about 5 years, I dealt with the process of accepting who I had become after my TBI and letting go of the person I had been before. I learned that working hard wasn’t enough to make my brain work as it had before, just like working hard can’t make a blind person see or a deaf person hear. In 1997, I had lost my mother to a TBI caused by a fall in her home. In 2005, my Dad fell, fracturing his neck and sustaining a life-changing TBI. Recently, my step-mother presented to the ER with motor and mental changes, and was diagnosed with lung cancer metastasized to the brain. She is undergoing treatment at this time. Along with my own injury, these experiences make me passionate about raising awareness concerning brain injury. 

In Colorado, I followed my passion by volunteering with the Brain Injury Association of Colorado to do presentations around the state about brain injury. I have since moved to western North Carolina. I continue to be passionate about speaking on topics related to brain injury to the general public, medical providers and military staff and troops, including groups of families and survivors, professionals dealing with patients with brain injury as well as college and graduate students planning on entering the field.

I do volunteer presentations to educate people about brain injury for two main reasons. The only cure for traumatic brain injury is prevention so people need to be aware of the risks and how to minimize them. And finally, with more awareness, those of us dealing with the consequences of brain injury, as well as our families and supporters, will have more information and support available to us, both in the community and from our health care providers.