Marion's Brain Injury
In a life that had already been challenging, the January 2007 brain injury has proven to be Marion’s greatest challenge. Immediately after the injury she was in the emergency room locked in a nonresponsive state. After a few days in intensive care and still not responding, she smiled at her father, a miracle that he will never forget. From that day forward she has been fighting to come back. Weeks later she started to communicate with blinks and squeezing of hands. She spent a total of six weeks in the intensive care unit at the hospital slowly regaining consciousness. She was hooked up to a number of different medical machines and had to be on multiple medications. There was a breathing tube down her throat, a feeding tube in her stomach and a shunt in her chest for dialysis.
Marion came out of intensive care after six weeks and spent the next two months recovering in the hospital. She still had a breathing tube in her trachea and was still dependent on the feeding tube for nutrition. She would move a lot, her movements were uncontrolled and very ridged. She moved so much that a family member had to be with her at all times. She slowly began physical therapy and speech therapy, but both were very difficult for her. Marion then started communicating using signs, thumbs up for yes and thumbs down for no. She also pointed to letters on the alphabet chart to spell words and even started to say a few words.
After approximately two months in the hospital, Marion was transferred to an in-patient rehabilitation center for approximately six more weeks. There she received three hours of physical, occupational and speech therapies every day. The therapies were very difficult for Marion because of the severity of her brain injury, but she fought each day to try to get better. Through all of this she was still receiving hemodialysis three times a week, three hours each session. A family member was with her in the rehab center 24 hours a day during the entire length of her stay. She had to learn how to swallow food again and her swallowing got much better over time. She began reading paragraphs of text and could choose the right answers when asked questions about what she had read. Her short-term memory was impaired but she was able to remember people and some things from before the injury. Her strength was getting better however she weighed only 85 lbs.
In June 2007 Marion was released from the rehabilitation center and was able to come home. She still had her feeding tube, but she had started to eat pureed foods. Marion was very active and tried to move and get up a lot, even at night. She didn’t sleep very well. Her parents had to be with her 24 hours a day to prevent injury. Marion continued to receive in-home physical, occupational and speech therapies three times a week. However because of staffing problems and decreased availability of the therapists, most weeks Marion received less therapy than she needed. Her parents would pick-up where the therapists left off and work with Marion on her rehabilitation.
Marion was still fighting and getting better, but very slowly. Twice her dialysis catheter got infected and she had to be hospitalized. She was placed in intensive care while the infections were treated and kept in the hospital approximately ten days each time. This set her back in terms of her progress with rehabilitation.
Marion was finally eating well enough to have the feeding tube removed. She was also able to have the hemodialysis catheter removed and begin peritoneal dialysis. The peritoneal dialysis is administered at home by her parents. The dialysis sessions last about an hour each and must be repeated four times a day. Now on peritoneal dialysis, Marion was becoming healthier. She was now deemed well enough to go out of the house for her therapies three times per week. She was able to stop taking her blood pressure medications, at the recommendation of her doctor, and she can now eat a wider range of foods. She has a great appetite and has started to gain weight. She now weighs about 100lbs.
Since her brain injury, Marion has continued to fight to regain what was lost. She gets better and better as time goes along, although in small steps. She has amazed doctors, nurses and therapist throughout her brain injury and recovery. She is now able to walk with someone holding her under her arms, however she cannot stand on her own. She still has to be fed pureed foods but is swallowing with much improvement. The next step is to get her to chew solid foods, which she continues to struggle with. She still depends on her mother for assistance with bathing and dressing, but is able to help herself more and more. She has to be helped to the bathroom but now has more strength and can lower herself to the toilet. Her speech is getting better and she has been able to talk in sentences although at times it is hard to understand. Marion is such a loving and sweet person. She gets very emotional if she sees someone she hasn’t seen for a while and will cry, but they are tears of joy. She loves to give big hugs and has the most precious smile you have ever seen.
Marion is now strong enough to travel out of Reno to a clinic specializing in brain injuries, however she needs the funds to be able to do this.