Posted on December 6, 2011 · Posted in TBI Voices
This entry is part 1 of 24 in the series TJ

Ejection Causes Severe Brain Injury: TJ Part One

In the beginning of TJ’s story we talk about how TJ’s incurred his brain injury.  In his case ejection causes severe brain injury after a high speed wreck.

It is not always the “innocent” who suffer severe brain injury.  Sometimes the survivor’s are not victims of someone else’s conduct, but their own as in the case of TJ who ejection causes severe brain injury.   The brain injury community is a community not united by justice, but by the disability, the commonality of the tragedy of devastating injury.  All belong. We hope all benefit, all contribute to the synergistic goal of making the world better for those who survive.

TJ who’s care accidents ejection causes severe brain injury belongs.  He is now the co-leader of a vital support group, the support group which Rita, our last story attends with her parents. See Rita Story. His partner in leading this support group, his guide to his current place in recovery is his step-mother Michelle.   Michelle is the woman so instrumental in helping not just TJ but Rita and a host of others.  We begin our TJ’s ejection causes severe brain injury  story with my interview of Michelle:

How did your step-son get hurt?

Five years ago on March 22 he was involved in a car accident.  He should not have been driving the vehicle, but the girl was intoxicated so he drove the vehicle. He was involved in a chase by police officers and he hit a rock wall and ricocheted into a telephone pole.

TJ has pieced together additional information of the accident where ejection causes severe brain injury:

What happened?

Well sir, I didn’t want to go to DSI (driving with a suspended license) so I took off from the cops.  Because if I get pulled over, I have a suspended license, it’s DSI; and I don’t want to go, go to jail.

So you, were you in a chase?

Yes.

It didn’t end well?

I crashed.

Now, do you remember what happened just before your crash, do you remember being in the chase?

I remember everything, up until before I hit.  I remember pain and then, I remember everything up until before I hit.

What  did your car hit?

A telephone pole and ricocheted to into a rock wall.

They took you to a hospital?

I was air-flighted, airlifted to the hospital.

What hospital did they take you to?

Boston.

Where did your accident happen that ejection causes severe brain injury ?

I was in the Cape, living at Cape Cod with my mother. It happened in Cape Cod.

Michelle continues:

He was ejected from the driver’s seat, out the back passenger window.  His sneakers were still on the gas pedal, so he was ripped right out.  His head hit the metal between the passenger door and the back passenger door.  His eye was basically hanging by a thread.

He went through weeks of being comatose.  His story and what had happened are two, they’re similar but they’re not the same as what did happen.

Now you listened to his interview?

I did.

Tell me the difference of what he told us versus what actually happened.

Well, he only remembers what he hears me speak about.  So, what he says happened, yes it’s true, but it’s not his recollection of what had happened, and he didn’t really come to an awareness state until probably about October and he was released July.

Was he the only one in the car?

No there was a girl in the car.  The impact was on her side, her side of the vehicle and she suffered a broken collar bone.

That was all?

That was it.  He was not wearing a seatbelt.  She was.

Next in Part Two – Coma Call Had to Go Looking for Parents

By Attorney Gordon Johnson

800-992-9447

About the Author

Attorney Gordon S. Johnson, Jr.
Past Chair Traumatic Brain Injury Litigation Group, American Association of Justice
g@gordonjohnson.com :: 800-992-9447