How to save a life today
...a dispatch from bewilderness
The last day of my first life occurred on September 18, 2006. Eighteen years, 3 months and 3 days ago.
On that day, a drunk driver stole a truck, jumped a curb, and compressed a parked car. I was in the car. The good news is I survived. The bad news was brain damage.
Most of us lose people we love. I lost the person I was. Plus the home I lived in with my child, my work as a freelance writer, and the income that supported us.
There are one hundred trillion neural connections in the human brain. That looks like this: 100,000,000,000,000. That is more connections in one human brain than there are stars in the Milky Way.
One hundred billion neurons -- woven together in a pulsating tapestry of 100 trillion electrical connections -- make us who we are — or were. Mine were disappeared or broken by the same type of injury former Representative Gabrielle Giffords suffered when she was shot in the head.
Each year, an estimated 2.5 million Americans sustain a traumatic brain injury. Of these, over 60,000 die and another 80,000 suffer permanent disability, which means they lose the lives they had. In addition, hundreds of thousands lose the child, or mom, or dad they had.
These are the numbers of these conditions that occur in the U.S. each year:
Traumatic brain injury 2,500,000
New cancer cases 1,900,000
Heart attacks 805,000
Strokes 795,000
TBIs are more common than heart attacks in the US.
Recovery means returning to your former life, regaining your former mind. Most people don’t. Rehab means learning to live with what you have left. Eighteen years later, I still think and speak with a limp. Yet I am filled with gratitude. To be alive.
Disabled people are the single largest minority in the world, and likely the least heard from. It’s also the only minority anyone can join at any time.
According to the National Highway Safety Traffic Administration (NHSTA), 2 out of 3 Americans will be impacted by drunk driving in their lifetime. Each statistic is a person. Each death is preventable, as is each injury.
Thank you. Because I agree so wholeheartedly, please share this post anyway you can. And perhaps recommend my stack to your readers. It will be free for them.
Thank you. To save as many lives as possible, please share this post in any way you can.