Unmasking Braing Injury Draft

Unmasking Brain Injury

Unmasking Brain Injury promotes awareness of the prevalence of brain injury; gives survivors a voice and the means to educate others about what it’s like to live with a brain injury; shows others that persons living with a disability due to brain injury are like anyone else, deserving of dignity, respect, compassion and the opportunity to prove their value as citizens in their respective communities.

Name: Kimberly   Date of Injury: 08/2008   My Story:   “My brain injury occurred a hot summer night when I was deployed to C.O.B Speicher in Tikrit, Iraq. I was coming from the MWR with my Battle Buddy in the Humvee. We had just got to the parking lot of her LSA and a mortar came over the hesco barrier of the front gate which was across from the LSA.   About my mask: My favorite color is purple. It soothes and relaxes me. My journey has been a challenge and I often get confused and thrown off, hence the lightning bolt down the middle. Because sometimes living with this injury like the strike of a lightning bolt my day can change. The black butterfly because they have their own built-in self-dense mechanism and they are rare and beautiful. “

Date of Injury: March 2006   My Story:   “I had surgery at Walter Reed. I had a brain bleed in the cerebellum caused by surgery followed by spinal meningitis caused by contaminated bone. Now 13 years later I am living in VA nursing home. I am left side weak in a wheelchair and still work hard in therapy. I miss my family very much. I do go home as often as possible, but it is not the same. I miss driving and most of all my child.