Before Catastrophic Brain Injury:The Family Before Coma

Before Catastrophic Brain Injury: Rita Part Three

In part three we talked about who Rita was before catastrophic brain injury.  She had moved to Florida to be with her parents and working as a waitress with no insurance.

Your daughter is how old on the date of the accident before catastrophic brain injury?

She was 29.

Her date of birth is what?

5/25/1980.

Do you have any other children?

Yes.

How many children?

I have, two sons.  I have a son that’s 27 and another one that’s 23.

And you’re married?

Yes.  This year, it will be 34 years.

What did your daughter do before she suffered before catastrophic brain injury?

My daughter was, actually, she was married for five years.  We’re from the northern Virginia area; Fairfax County, Virginia.  That’s where she lived.  She always had had very good jobs.  She, unfortunately, got a divorce and was starting her life over and decided, just to come, move to Florida because that’s where she wanted to be, you know, close to us.

She couldn’t find a job here.  she finally did find a job though, and it was at Sam Seltzer’s as a waitress.  That’s what she was doing.  So she didn’t have insurance at the time.

That’s one of the things that’s so upsetting to me because she had fabulous insurance because she had really good jobs most of her life, and then she comes here and gets hit by a car.

Your husband is with you when you’re driving down to the hospital?

Yes.  And my one son happened to be with us.

Do you have a job at this time?

Yes. I am a real estate agent.

And your husband?

He worked as a shipping and receiving person for a local company here.

You are how old?

I’m 56.

Your husband?

He’s 58.

What day of the week is this?

This is a Tuesday.

So you’re normally going to be at work the next morning. Neither of you go to work?

No.

Does he go back to work at some point in the next two weeks and you start to be the one who stays at the hospital or?

No.  Neither one of us, to this day, has gone back to work.  We, both of us were not able to.  I mean, you can’t even think about work, and you don’t care.  You know?  You just really have, you just can’t do it.  At least, both of us were like that.

So nothing about your life has gone back to normal like before catastrophic brain injury?

Oh, no.  No.  I mean we’re like on this mission to get our daughter as much as we can get back.

Next in Part Four – Emergence from Coma an Ambiguous State

By Attorney Gordon Johnson

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