Surviving Head Trauma: A Guide to Recovery Written by a Traumatic Brain Injury Patient

By Terry Smith

Sometimes life doesnt always unfold the way you plan. On July 20, 1984 while at USMC Officer Candidate School in Quantico, Virginia, a young Marine was a passenger in a three-ton troop transport vehicle that, while traveling at sixty-five miles per hour, flipped and rolled several times, finally coming to rest upside down. Several Marines were dead, but one man was still alive. He was Terry Smith.

After dying twice during brain surgery on that fateful day, Terry Smith has since learned to adjust to the limitations that accompany Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). At Bethesda Naval Hospital, Terry learned to walk, talk, eat, think, and live again, but learning to cope with seizures, anxiety, insomnia, paranoia, and memory loss did not happen overnightor even after two decades. It is only through years of trial and error that Terry has learned to make the transition from pre-TBI to post-TBI, proving that the healing process is never-ending for head trauma patients.

Terry Smith is a true survivor who has defied the odds. Today he shares his inspirational story of hope for the future for TBI patients, their families, doctors, and anyone who has insurmountable obstacles to overcome.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Oct 21, 2009
• ISBN: 9781440176432

Terry Smith

Terry Smith served as an infantryman for 30 years in the Army Reserve. This included three and a half years on full time duty in the Regular Army, from 1970 to 1973, after volunteering for service in South Vietnam. Following training as a tropical warfare adviser, he arrived in South Vietnam on 1 July 1972 where he joined the Australian Army Training Team Vietnam. In Vietnam, he served with the Phuoc Tuy Training Battalion of the United States Army Vietnam Forces Armee Nationale Khmer (FANK) Training Command, until the completion of that programme in November 1972 and thereafter, with the Jungle Warfare Training Centre at Van Kiep. Following the withdrawal of the Australian Army Training Team Vietnam from South Vietnam on 18 December 1972, he completed his full time military service with the 5th Battalion the Royal Australian Regiment, before returning to civilian life in December 1973. He was appointed a Member of the Military Division of the Order of the British Empire in 1977 and a Member in the General Division of the Order of Australia in 2010.

Book preview

Also by Terry Smith:

Queen Benita

Jason’s Final Coming

Helvena

The Funny Thing about Death (Stage Play)

Surviving Head Trauma

A Guide to Recovery Written by a

Traumatic Brain Injury Patient

Terry Smith

iUniverse, Inc.

New York Bloomington

Surviving Head Trauma

A Guide to Recovery Written by a Traumatic Brain Injury Patient

Copyright © 2009 Terry Smith

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

iUniverse books may be ordered through booksellers or by contacting:

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any Web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

ISBN: 978-1-4401-7642-5 (pbk)

ISBN: 978-1-4401-7644-9 (cloth)

ISBN: 978-1-4401-7643-2 (ebk)

Printed in the United States of America

iUniverse rev. date: 10/14/2009

Contents

Foreword

Preface

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

Six

Seven

Eight

Nine

Ten

Eleven

Twelve

Thirteen

Fourteen

Fifteen

This story is dedicated to USMC Officer Candidate Stephen M. Rose, to all head trauma patients who have died, and to those who love them. This account is also for survivors and loved ones who deal with the day-to-day reality of living with TBI.

It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.

—Anonymous

Love

My wonderful wife, Wendy;

My son Trae and stepdaughter Kaila;

My sister Jackie ~ SunshineBoxing.com ~ Smith;

Helene and Bill;

Ronnie Belton, Fred Johnson, and Arthur Finley;

Stanley Clarke, Frieda Hooper, and John Woodgie;

Franklin’s, Johnson’s, Joneses, Rose’s, Marshall’s, and Maxwell’s;

Sandy and Mac, Judy, Ronnie, and Robin and Melanie;

Coach Donovan, Miss Hill, Mr. Eaves, and Mr. Brent.

In memory of Mother and Daddy; Big Momma; Jack Murphy,

Ron Ricket, and Judi Ann Mason.

In Honor

President of the United States of America Barack Obama

Major General Arnold Fields, USMC, Retired

Colonel Anita Dixon

Lieutenant Colonel Angela Fortune

USMC Officer Candidate Carlo Melone

Dr. Jamie Revollo

Staff Sergeant Zumwalt

The Veterans Administration

Disabled American Veterans (DAV)

The National Head Injury Association

The National Head Injury Foundation

The Brain Injury Recovery Network

Hospice

Foreword

I may not be a brain trauma survivor, but I do know what it is like to love one deeply and live patiently with one—my husband.

I am Terry’s wife, Wendy, and I watch firsthand how he copes and deals with his losses and yet strives to always contribute his best to this world. He may not always remember what we did last week, but he sure tries to keep track by writing or recording it.

This book is written by a strong man who beat the odds while at the U.S. Marine Corps Officer Candidate School and lived to write about his twenty-five years of failures and successes of living with traumatic brain injury (TBI).

If you are a parent, child, spouse, sibling, or friend of a survivor of TBI, or the one who survived, sit back in a comfy chair and enjoy this long journey of experiences and lessons learned by Terry Smith. I hope that you find knowledge and understanding as well as hope and inspiration from his deep, personal words.

Wendy Lariviere Smith

Preface

Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) takes the lives of more than two million people every year. The United States National Head Injury Foundation calls this murderous villain a silent epidemic. Because of the casualties of war, these statistics are climbing at extraordinary rates.

This book is my story. I started writing on Tuesday, September 11, 2001, seventeen years after my accident. I will show my strategies for overcoming the long-term effects of TBI to offer ideas about how to cope with the slow process of recovery. Memory deficit, skull loss, seizures, anxiety, dementia, agoraphobia, loss of hearing and smell, tinnitus, and paranoia are some of the obstacles I have experienced. If you or someone you know has brain trauma, I hope the map of my personal experience will help guide you through the life to come. This book is a lesson of hope for anyone who has ever overcome or is overcoming an obstacle.

The injured person is not the only one affected by the consequences of head trauma. If you’re a loved one of someone who is unable to read this story, be strong. Healing can be a slow process. If your loved one has had a brain injury, take care of yourself. You need to be nourished and rested. Life will take its natural course, and you shouldn’t allow the patient to make you become a patient.

There are documentaries about people who survive head injury as mental vegetables for their remaining lives. However, the TBI patient’s perspective after an extended number of years hasn’t been expressed as widely in the media. My story is from that perspective—twenty-five years since flatlining twice during brain surgery after an accident. My story proves that there can be happiness and love despite the challenges.

The unimaginable, constant sound inside my head still trumpets like a symphonic horn section gone mad forever. Only those who hear the sound understand this mysterious reality, medically called tinnitus (defined as a continual ringing or roaring noise in the ear, usually because of damaged hair cells in the ear). I hear the phantom but have become accustomed to its presence and my loss of hearing. Without more medical advancements, doctors indicate this unyielding noise will always exist. It’s been twenty-five years since the opus of sound inside my head arrived, and the intruder remains ever so alive. If you don’t hear this etching scream, embrace the peace of silence around your