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Category Archive for 'Traumatic Brain Injury'

It was the click she didn’t hear that turned Tammy Helton’s life upside down. Last July 9, Tammy hopped into her Jeep to head to the home in Twin Lakes that she shared with her husband, Mike, and the youngest of their three children. The music was cranked, and Tammy doesn’t remember hearing the click [...]

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By Mary Free Bed intern, Molly Cartwright For Eric De Ryke, learning to drive again was a triumph. His family and doctors thought so, too, since just five months ago they expected him to be in a wheelchair for the rest of his life. Today, Eric is able to walk, drive, and do his own [...]

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Twenty-year-old Nicole has a history of cerebral palsy. In 2007 she underwent surgery for a brain hemmorage, which caused severe weakness and increased spasticity in her right leg and arm. Nicole has participated in therapy for the past three years at Mary Free Bed and at home. Part of her therapy includes the SaeboFlex to [...]

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by Linda Truong, Mary Free Bed writer In 1999, a propane truck smashed into Pete Cook’s car leaving him with a traumatic brain injury (TBI). An emergency medical technician witnessed the accident and came to Pete’s rescue, caring for him until a trauma team arrived. Pete was airlifted by helicopter to Spectrum Hospital in Grand [...]

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In January, Jan Levering took her kids sledding after working two 12-hour shifts as a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) nurse. Exhausted, she decided to take one run down the sledding hill before sleeping in the car. Half-way down the hill, the sled turned 90 degrees and launched Jan 3 feet in the air. She [...]

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by Jessica Sikkenga It’s been two years since my Dad, then 53 years old, suffered from a ruptured brain aneurysm. The amazing neurosurgeons at Spectrum Health performed a lengthy brain surgery on September 27, 2008, to place a clip on my Dad’s aneurysm. My family and I spent the two weeks following surgery by my [...]

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by Holly Grissom, stroke survivor I was a patient at Mary Free Bed in May 2002 after having brain surgery from a cerebral arteriovenous malformation (AVM) that ruptured in my brain stem on April 19, 2002. I was 24 years old. I had actually just had my birthday 2 weeks prior. All of a sudden, I [...]

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Sarah Rapaport, just 5 days shy of her 30 birthday, suffered a life-altering stroke. While she’s made a remarkable recovery, Sarah had to re-learn how to do many everyday tasks. Her rehabilitation at Mary Free Bed included physical, occupational, and speech therapy, as well as driver rehabilitation. Today, Sarah finds encouragement and community through Mary [...]

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by Kate Snider, Mary Free Bed writer “Ten percent of life is what happens to you, the other 90 percent is how you react to what happens,” said Travis Zinger as he recalled what he learned during rehabilitation at Mary Free Bed Rehabilitation Hospital (MFB). On a snowy day in December 1993, Travis, then 13 [...]

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