Surviving Head Trauma: A Guide to Recovery Written by a Traumatic Brain Injury Patient - Softcover

Smith, Terry

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1440176426 ISBN 13: 9781440176425

Verlag: iUniverse, 2009

Inhaltsangabe

Sometimes life doesn't always unfold the way you plan. On July 20, 1984 while at Usmc Officer Candidate School in Quantico, Virginia, a young Marine was a passenger in a threeton troop transport vehicle that, while traveling at sixtyfive miles per hour, flipped and rolled several times, finally coming to rest upside down. Several Marines were dead, but one man was still alive. He was Terry Smith. After dying twice during brain surgery on that fateful day, Terry Smith has since learned to adjust to the limitations that accompany Traumatic Brain Injury (Tbi). At Bethesda Naval Hospital, Terry learned to walk, talk, eat, think, and live again, but learning to cope with seizures, anxiety, insomnia, paranoia, and memory loss did not happen overnight-or even after two decades. It is only through years of trial and error that Terry has learned to make the transition from preTbi to postTbi, proving that the healing process is neverending for head trauma patients. Terry Smith is a true survivor who has defied the odds. Today he shares his inspirational story of hope for the future for Tbi patients, their families, doctors, and anyone who has insurmountable obstacles to overcome.

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Terry Smith returned to college after three years of treatment, earned his degree in Mass Media Arts, and worked in Los Angeles, California, for various major motion picture studios and production companies. He later moved to Florida to enjoy a slower pace of life. He is married and travels as a motivational speaker.

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Surviving Head Trauma

A Guide to Recovery Written by a Traumatic Brain Injury PatientBy Terry Smith

iUniverse, Inc.

Copyright © 2009 Terry Smith
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4401-7642-5

Chapter One

"I felt death deep inside my soul. The yell of the Marine sitting next to me made the nightmare real. The explosion was the last thing I heard. Marines were dead." Fatal accident survivor, Quantico, Virginia, 1984

Smith and I were in a ghastly truck accident with other Marines at Officer Candidate School (OCS) in Quantico, Virginia, on July 20, 1984. He was a muscular man of average height and weight. He talked about sacred life when he was alive. I finally understood what he meant after I was hurled at sixty-five miles an hour from a three-ton, tumbling truck. Now, I wish I had listened more when he went into his spiritual zone. I was too busy in my physical, real world to hear his theoretical, theological, metaphysical, and supernatural philosophy.

I try to remember his words; they now help sustain my life. One of his favorite lines was, "Life is like the ocean. There are going to be high tides and low tides, good times and rough times. Life is on a cycle, but it always continues. Man just needs to ride the wave." Another one of his favorite but morbid sayings was, "Nobody gets out alive."

Sometimes, you can see the end of life coming in a long, grave illness. Dying can also take less than a whole second. Being alive, heroic, and healthy with a gleaming future can turn into death before the complete blink of an eye. People die with open eyes every day.

Stephen Rose and Smith did not see death coming when they died before they could blink. Rose was from California. He dreamed of a sparkling military future. Smith and I were from Florida - we grew up together. We, too, were well adorned for a brilliant, star-filled career. Smith said that he would one day remove his stars and become the commander-in-chief of the United States of America. In other words, he wanted to be president. I have no doubt that he would have done just that. That's the kind of person he was.

Sometimes, though, life doesn't always unfold the way you plan, no matter how ambitious, talented, or smart you are. On Route 619, at 13:00 that July day, a three-ton troop carrier was bouncing extraordinarily fast around the curves of Quantico. Twenty marine officer candidates in the back of the truck were gravely aware of the excessive speed.

When the vehicle swerved off the narrow, winding road onto the rough shoulder, the young men saw disaster in flashing horror. Three tons of steel traveling in excess of sixty-five miles per hour flipped four and a half times on the unbreakable road. One hundred and seventy-nine feet later, the trampled vehicle came to an upside-down, calamitous freeze in the trees next to the road, the enormous weight of the vehicle bearing down on the military men inside.

The top half of the truck was crushed like a clay toy. The only sound was the burning fire of the canvas top and the wheels spinning. Slowly, moans of pain came from bodies strewn along the path and inside the wreckage. Nature took a deep breath of silence. Those who were thrown from the vehicle yet still strong enough to use uniforms to smother the flames extinguished the fire. A part of me died that day.

By the time the sounds of life began again with the birds chirping, Young, Murphy, and O'Leary were still trapped under the bed of the truck. The reckless driver, Private First Class Badgley, and Staff Sergeant Gorman were trapped inside the cab of the vehicle.

Approximately five minutes after the crash, another truck, an M-880, arrived on the scene. This truck transported ten marines. These adrenaline-filled marines lifted the three-ton truck and rescued Staff Sergeant Gorman, Private First Class Badgley, and Candidates Young, Murphy, and O'Leary. People were hurt with varying degrees of severity. Two marines ran to a house on Joplin Road, approximately 200 yards east of the catastrophe site on Route 619.

At 13:05, July 20, 1984, a call for emergency assistance was made to the Prince William County Fire and Rescue. At 13:14, a two-person medic unit from the Dumfries/Triangle Volunteer Rescue Squad arrived at the scene and provided an initial assessment of emergency requirement. Within fourteen minutes, eighteen emergency units were involved with treatment and evacuation.

Rose, Melone, Smith, Boettcher, and I were airlifted to Potomac Hospital to be stabilized before being moved to Washington Hospital Center and Bethesda Naval Hospital.

To this date, I don't remember any of these specific details. To assist me in my writing, I have used accounts from the official Marine Corps Investigation Report, eyewitness testimonies, and writings from my own journals. I clearly recall being excited about going to OCS. After that solid memory, there are small flashes of images of meeting a group of other OCS candidates in an airport and being transported to the base. After that, there are only abstract images that I can't describe.

My first memories after head impact start in the Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland. I was transported there after brain surgery at Potomac Hospital in Woodbridge, Virginia, during which I flatlined twice. We all would have died had we not been treated immediately. With head trauma, the difference between life and death can be reduced to simply how soon or late the patient is treated.

Bethesda was my first time being near the commander in chief of the United States-Ronald Reagan and I were being treated at Bethesda Naval Hospital at the same time. I thought of Smith and his dream of becoming president. He never returned from surgery. Rose and Smith were dead.

* * *

The reign of peace in the world fell especially hard today, Tuesday, September 11, 2001. Three planes were hijacked this morning. At 8:45 am, terrorists crashed planes into both World Trade Center Towers in New York City, the Pentagon in Washington DC, and a field in Pennsylvania. The aircrafts had enough jet fuel to travel more than 3,000 miles. Each passenger-filled jetliner exploded like an enormous torpedo.

Thousands of people are reported killed or injured. There is no exact number of casualties at this point; various media are saying that the figure might be too shocking for mass mental wellness. The towers had a combined capacity of more than 50,000 people. Both towers are annihilated. "Reality TV" has come to life.

At this moment, the horribly unreasonable experience seems surreal to me. If this reality were TV, I would change the channel. What preserves sanity in a maddening world is hope that these monumental screams of terror will somehow blossom into immense wisdom for human growth and development. What makes my family sane is that at least my son, Trae, flew safely from Florida to California a week before these inhumane atrocities. He has been flying safely alone for a few years with airline escorts between the East and West Coast.

If that truck had not flipped back in 1984, Rose, Smith, and I would be militarily involved in this new world war. Instead, they are dead, and I sit in the audience and on the stage. I record what I witness in the global theater, and I participate in the drama that unfolds there, a living cast member of this horrible tragedy.

Forever after I have died, I hope that no author will ever again record the...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: iUniverse
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2009
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1440176426
• ISBN 13: 9781440176425
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 108
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: gpsr@libri.de; gpsr@libri.de; ; Europaallee 1; Bad Hersfeld; 36244; Deutschland