This is part twelve of the fourteenth #BrainQA: How did you get your brain injury? There was a whopping 300+ answers, thank you so much for answering everyone! I spilt the answers into categories
- Poisoning, epilepsy, army accidents and medical mistakes
- Infections and diseases
- Domestic violence
- Sports
- Multiple brain injuries
- Arteriovenous malformations (AVM), aneurysms, strokes and haemorrhages
- Attacks
- Suicide attempts
- Bangs on the head
- Brain tumour surgeries
- Falls
Road traffic accidents (RTA)/Motor vehicle accidents (MVA) were how most of the survivors from this #BrainQA suffered their brain injuries…
‘Someone texting on their cell phone on a major highway didn’t see the stopped car and rear ended me’
‘I was in a motorcycle accident August 2015. When my best friend ran into the back of my bike on hers doing over 100 miles an hour (racing her husband) she passed away and I spend a month and a half in the hospital.’
‘My daughter was a passenger in a vehicle and the driver was driving far too fast for the road conditions. Hit a telephone pole then hit a tree. My daughter had a complete facial smash as the telephone pole hit directly where she was sitting. Her friend died a few hours after the accident. Very sad day December 22, 2012.’
‘F4 tornado flipped my truck’
‘I was hit by a car while riding a bicycle.’
‘Hit head on at approx 65mph by drunk driver returning from M. Beach. Never thought I’d be retired involuntary at forty yrs old!!’
‘Multiple MVAs. Starting in 1975 then four more MVAs through 2006. Used to laugh,”if you have no license, no insurance, no assets, and of course no driving skills…..please hit me at your earliest convenience.”’
‘Car Accident on December 26th, 2000. I was 15 and on my way to help my mom’s friend who was moving to another town. I was supposed to babysit her kids. A drunk driver hit our vehicle. I suffered a brain injury, TMJ (Temporomandibular Joint Disorder) a broken left hip, lacerations all over my face and body.’
‘My husband was hit by a drunk driver’
‘Patch of diesel on the road, my car lost control and slammed into a big tree.’
‘Typical red-light runner. He hit two rows of left-turning cars. I got t-boned, he was in a half-ton pickup, I was in a Neon. He died of a heart attack not long after, was on a tall ladder (HVAC business). Was told he was likely dead before he hit ground. Ruined my life.’
‘Air born into a tree down a 60ft ravine….despite a major head injury my TBI went undiagnosed for six years’
‘I was hit by semi truck while walking home from school on Oct. 1984. Coma for 3 weeks.’
‘In a car accident I hit my left side on the window. Spent two years in recovery, ain’t good.’
‘My boyfriend was riding his dirt bike and got hit by a tow truck with a flatbed on the back. April 30 2017.’
‘Drunk Driving & Highly Upset SUV Accident on November 15th, 2003…Also, was in a coma for two months’
‘My husband was in car accident. He was rear ended. He hit the front and left side of his head on the mouldings and windows of the truck’
’29 years ago my boyfriend fell asleep at the wheel.’
’10 years ago it was snowing and icing very bad. I skidded on ice on the road was hit by one car tail gated by another. Was in a coma for 9 weeks. When I woke up couldn’t do anything normal. Been recovering for 10 years still recovering. Had to learn everything over how to walk talk anything.’
‘Car accident’
‘Car accident; ran a stop sign, hit by oncoming car, had no SEATBELT on….was ejected when my truck rolled…….coma fourteen days, TBI for life.’
‘Motorbike accident, car turned in front of me’
‘I was t-boned in 2000, in a coma for five weeks… Still have difficulty.’
‘Was hit by a car!’
‘Was ran over on Halloween’
‘MOTORCYCLE…no helmet..I was pilot’
‘Off duty policeman ran me over with his car when I was crossing a street. I was on my way to visit my girlfriend.’
‘An illegal alien hit from behind at 60mph to get me out of his way on a 4-lane highway and left me for dead’
‘Car was hit by a train back in 1990 I was not driving yeah anyways’
‘Car crash’
‘My son was riding a motorcycle, 100 mph, no helmet. It has been a struggle, as he had no insurance. He is six months out’
‘Mine was from a truck hitting me on my mountain bike’
‘I’ve had two wrecks where the seat belt popped open. Got a TBI out of one and a spinal cord injury out of the other. (I can walk.)’
‘With me it happened with a seat belt. I was cut off by an 18-wheeler! I plowed underneath the cabin. He was going at an estimated 110-115mph. I was wearing my seatbelt but it popped open. It’s a miracle that I survived…’
‘Hit by a car as a pedestrian, two years in a row.’
‘I was involved in a road traffic accident in December 18th 1985 which caused my traumatic brain injury – avoiding an unknown vehicle which was driving on the side of the road (in a series of “S” bends) – They cut me out – I was in coma and rushed to a Hospital with Neuro facilities – predicted as having 25% chance of survival – I was in coma for 3 months – No ongoing memories for at least 6 months following the accident. I had to relearn how to eat, talk, walk, almost everything. I am so happy to be alive! and now I am using my experience to support people affected by brain injury, other survivors and their support network – Supporting those affected to self-manage effects of brain injury through: facebook.com/GilesHud’
‘Near fatal motorcycle/car accident. I was a passenger on the motorcycle, we were hit head on by a car both doing 55mph. I hit windshield of car; flew another 40ft then hit pavement. Somewhere between car impact and before pavement impact my helmet came off. I was life flighted, during that time CPR had to be done many times to bring me back around. I was in a comma for thirty days. My partner died at the scene.’
‘I had a heart attack while driving home from playing ice hockey night before thanksgiving 2014. Anoxic brain injury from lack of blood flow to my brain. I was able to pull my truck over in the left lane of the highway where a kind soul found me started CPR and called 911. Was in a coma for about a month then rehab hospital for second month. I still have vision issues as well as balance issues still.’
‘I was in a car accident in 2010 which gave me headaches that we kind of chalked up to stress from my dad losing his business. Then in 2013 I barely hit my head at home and that’s when the real damage happened. I started stuttering, got lost on the way home, couldn’t remember basic info to fill out med forms, couldn’t read. Spent two years in speech/cognitive therapy to re-learn how to read. I was suffering daily from debilitating migraines and was in and out of urgent care more than I care to admit. Since using essential oils, I still have headaches, but waaaaaaaay less severe than before and very few trips to urgent care.’
‘Motorcycle accident – very lucky to be here’
‘A stupid idiot had a car out for a test drive and slammed into my car that was stopped for a red light.’
‘I was hit by a mini van going at the speed of at least 30 mph estimated by doctors. God is Awesome!’
‘I was a passenger in a car that tumbled down a mountainside’
‘I was hit by a car 2 years in a row. 24 and 25 years ago.’
‘TBI after a near fatal car wreck – fell asleep at the wheel, no seatbelt on, was ejected from the car‘
‘Got t-boned by a car’
‘Motorcycle had mechanical failure, it rolled over me then through me and I landed head first. Impact was such that I shrunk 2″ as 4 vertebra broke and disc squashed.’
’10-28-16 I was on my way to a friends house in my car, then ended up losing control about five minutes away around a corner.My car ended up sideways in the opposite lane, got T-boned by another car, after I got hit by that one another car hit the car that hit me first!’
‘Head-on collision car accident on highway. Both of us going 65mph. I was driving “rabbit” car and he was driving a huge truck. He hit me head on and flipped on top. I was in coma for three weeks and I was in rehab for several more weeks after.’
‘I was hit head on total impact 90mph.’
‘Was T-boned in an assholes car he was going 140+ mph police guesstimated. Paralysed and unconscious for 14 days.’
‘I drove too fast around a bend in the road on a wet windy day. I was late for work, was in an induced coma for over a month. Decided to wake up and had to learn to do everything again….’
‘Drove drunk into brick wall. In a coma for six months, broke neck fractured jaw, 90% face titanium learned to walk and talk again’
‘I was hit by a car when I was walking to work over 25 years ago. It wasn’t a drunk driver. It was about 5:30 in the morning. It was dark outside’
‘MVA in 2010. My head hit the head rest and the steering wheel. I lost my ability to organise, manage distractions and stimulation, regulate emotions, and the ability to use my eyes to read. I got treatment but then dropped out. Seven years later, I’m still struggling and sliding backwards some.’
‘Hello All, I was DDUI and drove into my neighbours tree at 75 to 80mph. I was life flighted to Hermann Hospital. Comatose for twenty seven days. I lost so much memory that I don’t remember Houston, Tx. Twenty three years that I pissed away. I’m now the social coordinator for the Memphis area TBI service. I also speak to the Pitner Driving School classes and for six years I’ve spoken to the graduating physical therapist at the UT in Memphis. “THINK FIRST” and God Bless all of us.’
‘I hit black ice…jumped a raised median, hit a tree on said median…ultimately crossed six lanes before my car came to a stop.’
‘I was riding my Harley home. A white van ran a stop sign, I hit them and then they got away. I hear a witness got a license plate but the police didn’t have enough evidence to continue. I dunno, that was two years ago. I actually called them earlier today and the detective on my case has retired. I’m trying to find the missing witness. The other witness I found through Facebook but he didn’t see the plate. He can’t remember anything else.’
‘I was driving home from work. I was turning left and another lady was speeding down the middle lane. She was going 40-50 mph.’
‘Motorcycle accident. Broke 8 2x4s and two palm trees with the right side of my helmet. Cracked the back of my head open on the gutter of the road’
‘Son’s TBI from being hit on his motorcycle by an off duty drunk deputy sheriff, making a left turn into his own driveway. Left my son in the road while he freshened his breath. No blood drawn, no roadside test, totally got away with almost killing my boy.’
‘I got hit by a car when I was crossing the road in 2007’
‘Car accident in 2006, driving to work on a town road known for having black ice. A late Jan day it was my turn to get it and hit another car. I was airlifted by helicopter to a hospital 1hr away by car…I’ve been in three hospitals and home since December 2007…..’
‘RTA (road traffic accident) with a black taxi in January 2002. I got thrown 25 feet in the air, landed head first on the bonnet then head first on the ground’
‘Was a passenger in an Iroc Z, should have been killed and would have been if I’d had my seatbelt on or if it was a hard top. Was also airlifted to a hospital 1.5 hours away…I had to learn how to take a shower again and be potty-trained again, at the lovely age of seventeen. Turned eighteen in the hospital. Don’t remember more than half my life’
‘Car accident’
‘Car accident in 2004. Mine was the only car involved’
‘High speed motorcycle accident…’
‘Car accident’
‘My son rode his dirt bike on a street. No helmet, went through a stop sign and crashed ito a car. He was only 15 too young for it and proved to be reckless before hand. It’s illegal on the street. I had no part in that accident. I told a certain someone no to getting him that thing. Was ignored.’
‘Car wreck’
‘Car accident. I was t boned by an expedition’
‘Motorbike accident on the beach.’
‘I was a backseat passenger in a car accident’
‘I sustained mine in an automobile accident. I was driving and it was raining when I was cutoff, I swerved to miss him, I managed to do so but because it was raining my car started to hydroplane and spin. I was hit a couple of times with my car finally hitting a utility pole and because I wasn’t wearing my seatbelt, I flew into my windshield head first, resulting in my T.B.I.’
‘Car accident. Coma for 13 days. Shattered pelvis. I was told I’d never walk again…I happily chase after my fifteen month old when I am not at work…which is in an OR. I love surgery as long as I am not the patient. (I’ve had surgery 5 times)’
‘Car accident…’
‘Car accident five years ago’
‘Car accident. Was in a coma for a month. When I woke up I was like a baby, couldn’t walk, couldn’t talk. My parents were told I would be that way for the rest of my life. I recovered in two months!’
‘Collision with a moose.’
‘Car accident was in a coma for two weeks’
‘Car accident. I was rear ended, my head broke the steering wheel and drivers side window’
‘Someone ran a stop sign and hit me going over 40 in a 30 zone’
‘I was thrown from the back of a Piaggio when we hit a car.’
‘Auto crash’
‘Drunk driver hit me 20ft from the office building. I was at a red light..and was rear ended..witness said she didn’t even hit the brakes’
‘T-boned at an intersection’
‘Motorcycle VS tree…’
‘Had to be cut with jaws of life out of my car and air flighted to Parkland Hospital Trauma Hospital where the ER head wrote I would die’
‘I was hit by a drunk driver on my lunch hour from work. I was five minutes away from getting back when a driver was escaping from police and swerved around a car driving through a red-light, I was her second offence doing this, she had a third within a year after me. I don’t remember any of it, I have big blank spots in memory. I don’t remember a lot when in hospital, just things that have hung in me… I was put on life support.’
‘I got hit by a car riding my bike to my friend’s house to watch the Mickey Mouse Club when I was nine. Flew 20ft and came down on my head. 20/7/89’
‘Truck accident’
‘Hit the roof of a vehicle that had it’s covering sheath removed, very hard due to reckless driving of a driver on a bumpy road. Hit the bar, boom.’
‘Motorcycle accident without helmet 4.5 years’
‘Head on car accident.’
‘My son was in a roll over car accident. He was the passenger, his friend who was driving became a quadriplegic. My son has a severe TBI and DAI with shearing. His buddy died after seven years. My son is still alive and kicking!’
‘My son 19, was a passenger in a car hit by a train’
‘Motorcycle wreck 6/13/15. Hubs (at the time) took the curve too hot and then over corrected. Threw us both off. I had 3 brain injuries, 1 bleed and 2 swelling. Front, right side and back of my brain. Inside I had lacerated liver, broken ribs, bruised kidney & thyroid and the doc had to take 6″ of my colon off. Broken hand and 8″ of road rash to the bone on my knee and elbow.’
‘Car accident on December 9, 2013’
‘I was on the back of a motorcycle and we hit a car head on at 110 klms’
‘I was riding my mountain bike to work at a local nursing home. A small truck came by and my handle caught his side mirror and popped me up in the air and I landed on his windshield with my head and smashed the windshield, breaking my c1 vertebrate and my skull cracked all the way from there to my right ear drum.’
‘Rolling my car’
‘A car accident that I don’t remember…was told I was ejected…probably best that I don’t remember it.’
‘Car wreck 2005’
‘My son’s car got stuck on tracks and was hit by a train going 70 mph. He was on his way home from a xmas party at work, he had a few drinks and was believed to be texting while driving. We will never know how he got stuck on the tracks for sure since he doesn’t remember.’
‘Motor Vehicle Accident’
‘Car collision 2000, 5 weeks coma, brain stem twist, hospitals 1.5 years’
‘Police chased me into an oak tree 12/02/1977 was in my red ford 150 pick-up!!!’
‘My son was in a car accident in 2013.’
‘Passenger: Head on collision wearing seat belt-speed estimated at 170km in 1994. Result 22 fractures, induced coma after 7 days-woke up 6 weeks. Clinically dead for 15 minutes.’
‘I was delivering pizza in my ’88 Mustang GT 5.0 which had no airbags when someone cut me off and I swerved into an oncoming truck which rolled me over a few times. It’s a damn shame I lost that car lol’
‘Sixteen years young, March of my junior year of high school…Damn Near killed myself in a bad car wreck (black ice, I was NOT speeding)’
‘I survived a real bad car crash when I was 17! Had a 15% chance of surviving. Since I was wearing my seatbelt my head was the only thing that shook back and forth hitting the steering wheel and hurting my brain.’
‘Car accident. I was sitting in the back. 16 years old. I went out the back windshield like 75 feet.’
‘Car crash: hit at 70mph double impact speed as a passenger; coma, sustained lesions and spinal injury. Three years and 10 months into recovery’
‘Was hit by a car!’
‘My sons happened in January 2017. He was ran over by a Dually (A pickup truck with dual wheels on the rear axle) the back tires physically ran over his buttocks and back. As he fell he got his head either on the flatbed part of the truck or on the asphalt. Neck injury, two brain bleeds, the tissue on his lower body was torn from the muscle, multiple facial fractures, leveraged lung, life hematomas on back and buttocks. He’s my miracle!’
‘A guy ran a red light and hit my truck so hard that I was ejected through the passenger window.’ (no seat belt 🙁 it was a quick trip to the store, 3 blocks away! Never, ever again!)
‘My mom was hit by a golf cart: Several brain bleeds, face partly broken, some broken ribs, septic shock few weeks later…yet here it is nearly 4 months later and she is walking, talking, eating and moving all limbs.’
‘My three year old was hit by a car going an estimated 30mph at the end of June. She suffered a severe TBI. Life flighted and 24 days in the hospital/rehab and you wouldn’t know to look at her that something is wrong. We notice some differences but most people don’t. We are very lucky. We will see what the future holds as she had a bilateral frontal lobe bleed.’
‘Car accident’
‘Sleepy college student in a large SUV turned in front of my Vespa when I was going 40mph. I launched into the side of the truck’
‘Being hit from behind by an illegal alien at 60mph and left me for dead’
‘Car accident 2010’
‘I was in a car accident on my way to work. Black ice and a slop in the road made me get hit by a truck. Well I am still here, one step, one day. I had to learn how to talk and walk again. I am still here six years later still have troubles but am dealing with them.’
‘My son had a motorcycle accident March 2016’
‘Bicycle vs car. I was listening to a CD on headphones a few blocks from my house while cycling to my job. This was a bit before spring break senior year of high school (I think – I know it was senior year). My friend was driving. I flew out in front of him on a blind corner.’
‘Motorcycle hit and run at x-mas’
‘I was seventeen in 2012. A semi t-boned my truck. Now almost 5 years later I have been t-boned again.’
‘Joyriding teenagers accident head on into a tree going 75mph with me asleep in the back and with no seat belt on’
‘Auto accident (12-19-09). Guy ran a red light t-boning me in an intersection on the passenger side.’
‘My son was sixteen at the time of his car accident. He was driving to work at 5:30am on Easter Morning, his front passenger tire locked up and he hit a field approach doing 60. The car cart wheeled 7 times, at some point he was ejected, flew about 100 feet, landed on his back and skidded across a field until he hit a huge rock putting a hole in his skull and he flipped… Was found bleeding out with his face in the ground. He damaged every lobe of his brain, 7 fractures in his spine, 5 broken ribs, surgically removed his ruptured spleen, his left hip and femur were dislocated up and into his spine…. Two weeks on life support, a month in ICU, 2 months in the hospital, 6 surgeries and 6 blood transfusions, SO MUCH THERAPY!!! He had to relearn how to walk, feed himself and many hand coordination skills. Today he’s almost 19, graduated high school with his class, works full time in a career he loves. He’s my hero, my warrior!’
‘Helmet-less motorcycle accident’
‘Car accident and multiple football concussions’
‘My son had a car accident…hit a tree…wasn’t wearing a seat belt…but thank God…if the side was totally demolished he would have been instantly dead…the accident threw him to other side…..that saved his life…’
‘Motorcycle accident luckily I had a helmet on because it cracked’
‘Dec 1 1999. Struck by a pickup truck while crossing the street on campus. I suffered subdural/epidural hematomas. Given minimal chance of survival. Frontal lobe damage.I now have: No smell (anosmia), executive function problems, serious anger issues, OCD/ADD, PTSD… but I survived. I still show up, do the work, and tell people to bite me if they have a problem with me. They aren’t worth my time.’
‘Motor vehicle accident’
‘Rollover car accident July 2, 1996. I had just turned nine.’
‘Car accident 1986.’
‘MVA’
‘Was in a MVA, headed on with a school bus, October 30, 2008! coming up on my eight year anniversary…was in a coma for 6 weeks!’
‘Rear ended at 60mph while I was at a stop 11/2/15’
‘I went for a bicycle ride, twice. Moron in car hit me. Woke up in hospital…twice.’
‘Motor vehicle accident hit 11 times by 5 other cars. I still only remember the feeling of getting hit from behind and nothing for the 3-4 hours after that.’
‘I was nine years old hit by a car!’
‘I was run down by a vehicle aged 15. Had a brain bleed and was in the hospital for two weeks.’
‘My girlfriend has TBI and she’s in a wheelchair thanks to a drunk driver rear-ending us at 80 mph. This happened while we were sitting at a red light in a convertible with metal rods that hold the top up. These rods hit us both in the back of the head…’
Would you like to share how your brain injury happened? You can do so here
#BrainQA is a Q&A to bring brain injury survivors together and to raise brain injury awareness. Every Monday at 8pm (UK time) on facebook, twitter and instagram
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