I was a recent graduate from a small town High school and I had gotten a good job right after graduation at a machine shop that paid really well and was also sending me to trade school. I was an 18-year old kid with new opportunities and, from what I was told, I was making the best of them. I was a pretty large guy who liked lifting weights, working on my hot-rod, and partying with my friends a lot. I drank and smoked a lot, but that was OK, because everyone of my friends did it to. I guess I was popular, but in a small town like I grew up in, everyone was. I did become the talk of my town on that day in September of '94 though.

It was early that Thursday morning and I was heading to my new job down a back road in my newly purchased car when I was in a very bad accident. I was told I was going the speed limit when another car pulled out in front of me, causing me to swerve and lose control of my car. I skidded on the damp road across to the other side where I hit the ditch culvert and my car started flipping end-over-end into the bean field. From what I was later told, I was thrown out of the car, while it was still flipping, and landed some 50 feet from where my car finally rested.

The man who pulled out in front of me went to the first house he could and called 911, and the ambulance was there in a matter of minutes. I was told that the ambulance crew was not sure how they were going to find me in the middle of that field, but as soon as they got out looking for me, they said that they could hear me struggling for breath! They quickly found me face down with my mouth and throat full of dirt and almost dead.

When they finally got me turned over they had to use 8 (or more) suction bags just to get the dirt out of me! Then I was told that I died and had to be resuscitated. Then the Paramedics were radioed for and were told that they were in route, but due to the severity of my injuries, they could not wait for them. So the ambulance crew loaded me up on their rig and headed towards where the helicopter was landing. [Oh, by the way, they called for flight care for me! Do you want to hear something really neat? The pilot and the crew overheard the original call to the Paramedics and decided to get the helicopter geared up and ready, just in case, and when the call was made for them, they were already to lift off!!!] When the Paramedics met up with the ambulance on the nearest major road, they lost me again and had to do more C.P.R. They finally got me to the Flight Care Helicopter and I was airborne in seconds, on my way to St. Mary's Hospital. I was still alive, but just barely. I was told that from the time that the ambulance crew found me in the field to when the Helicopter arrived at the Hospital, I was resuscitated a number of times (I do not know how many for certain), but I just made it there.

Once into St. Mary's, it was realized that I had suffered a Closed Head Injury and I had slipped into a coma. The left side of my brain had been bruised, causing a variety of complications. The entire right side of my body had been paralyzed from nerve damage done to the left side of my brain. I only broke my right wrist and three ribs on my right side, but I had to be given a tracheotomy for my breathing, a feeding tube was put into my stomach, and a drainage tube was inserted into my skull to release all of the fluid that was causing my brain to swell. I was on complete life support for almost a month.

I was in a coma for 3-and-a –half weeks when my neuro surgeon told my family that they were going to have to find a permanent residence for me because it did not look like I was going to emerge from it. I must have heard them because that is the day that I woke up! Every hour, I was only allowed 1 to 2 visitors at a time in I.C.U., and my Dad was in with me and he was sure that I had opened my eyes and focused on him, but the doctors told him that it was probably just a nerve reaction. Then, my mom and one of my sisters went in and they saw me do it again! From the way that I understand it, the whole of the I.C.U. jumped and started paying attention. I was awake!

Of my entire story so far, I remember absolutely ZERO! I lost my short-term memory and most of 1993 and 1994. I could remember my Mom, Dad, etc., but I could not hold on to any new memories, like what I just had for lunch just 2 minutes ago (or that I even had lunch)! I spent a total of about 1 month in St. Mary’s before being transferred to Saginaw Health Source for rehabilitation. Now, this is where the fun really begins…

Once in rehab, my body had to be retrained to do everything that most people take for granted every day. First of all, I had lost close to 100lbs. The day of my accident, I weighed around 275lbs, and the day I came to the rehab hospital I weighed less than 180lbs. Most of what I lost was muscle and gaining that back was not going to be fast or easy. I had no coordination, or even control of anything that I tried to do. I couldn’t even sit up out of bed by myself, much less even walk. I had to have help to do everything during the my stay there.

I went through many grueling weeks of physical and occupational therapy learning how to just be able to eat by myself, change my own cloths, and even go to the bathroom by myself (once someone helped me get to the bathroom from my bed). Simple things like putting a 2ft diameter ball through a 3ft diameter basket were not attainable, at first. I had to learn basic problem solving skills like putting a puzzle together or making shapes out of huge leggos on a mat. I lost all of my motor skills of how to accomplish minor tasks like this. Believe me; it was very frustrating, because even though most of these tasks seemed familiar to me, I could not do them. I had to retrain not only my body and my mind to do these things again, but to do them together. That may be hard to understand, but my mind and my body were coming back at different speeds, and I had to try to get them to work together again. But after about 2 months of retraining, my family decided to take me home

My learning also had to be retrained, because with my short-term memory loss, I had to learn how to hold on to new memories in different ways than I had ever done before. I used to be able to read something once, watch it done once, or practice it once and I had it. But now I had to do it over, and over, and over, and...well you get the picture. Things just didn't stick like they used to. I was taught to use new memory strategies to remember things easier, but they still did not stick like we hoped they would, because my brain had to heal first. I was told by my therapists' and doctors that the human brain does not heal as fast as a broken bone or a cut. But after about 2 months of retraining, my family decided to take me home. They told my family and me that to make a full recovery, it could take up to 10 years.

Well after I came home from my hospital stay, spent the next 2-21/2 years in outpatient therapy, I was released from the hospital with a 100% recovery. So I started college again, slowly, and I started working again as well. Today, I have a good job, a wife of 7 years, and a 15-month old daughter. I have to keep my focus on what is most important to me now, and that is what I live for. The Lord gave me a second chance in my life to do things right, so now I live for HIM. I serve him in our church as a Sunday school teacher, and my wife and my daughter enjoy every moment together with me as we grow in his grace.

Amen...
Thank you Brad for sharing your story. May you continue to be surrounded by God Blessings, as with your lovely little miracle in the person of Ava.

Ladalia Postell
Staff Writer