John’s Story: How Positivity and a Strong Summer 2023 Support System Helped Him Succeed
John, now 21, came to NeuroRestorative in November 2022 after sustaining a diffuse axonal brain injury. John suffered many physical injuries: neck injuries, broken ribs, two separate brain
bleeds, and he was in a coma for five days. After regaining consciousness, John was nonresponsive for six more days and only began remembering the accident after two months of intensive therapy. John’s family knew he would survive after one week, but they didn’t know his capabilities. He began his rehabilitation journey at the hospital.
Several months later, John’s mother, Nancy, started researching rehabilitation programs that would best suit John’s recovery journey. Nicole Button, Marketing Clinical Liaison for NeuroRestorative, contacted Nancy and visited him at the hospital. At that time, John was starting to read again, laughing, and was able to do some physical activity, but was experiencing significant aphasia.
Nancy stayed in touch with our team members and soon got a call that there was space available for John at our NeuroRestorative program in Cedar Rapids, IA. The family came to tour the program immediately, and right after the tour, John said out loud, “I love it here!” Soon after, John moved into the home.
John participated in daily therapy, including occupational therapy, speech therapy, physical therapy, cognitive therapy, recreational therapy, real-world-skill development and more. He started playing the piano, taking trips to the local YMCA, doing yoga, and practicing daily life skills like food shopping, paying bills, medication management, etc. In addition, John’s four best friends continued to visit John often at the program and played video games together – something they had always done together.
“We often have the opportunity to serve people that face significant barriers in their rehabilitation journeys,” said Amber Luck, BA, CBIS-T, Program Director. “It is not common, however, that we serve someone with a support system like John’s. His kind nature, resilience, and good sense of humor have likely played a big role in living, not just surviving— life with an acquired brain injury. Over these last months, we’ve seen that those attributes are shared among his family, too. It has been a gift to us to be able to support John and to be able to provide a sense of respite to his family, who have traveled this road to recovery right alongside him.”
“We are incredibly grateful to NeuroRestorative. They were honest and open with us throughout this whole process. NeuroRestorative has given us so many blessings,” said Nancy. Similarly, here at NeuroRestorative, we are blessed to be a part of people like John’s journey to becoming more independent.