Patient Stories: Rehabilitation

Memorial Hermann|TIRR

Ashley: Brain Injury
When a bicycle crash led to a traumatic brain injury, she discovered new talent

Ashley,16, of The Woodlands, Texas, was riding a friend’s new bicycle. Unfamiliar with the hand brakes, she was unable to stop and took a fall that caused a traumatic brain injury. A seizure disorder developed and became progressively worse, reaching the point where she was seizing constantly.

A left hemisphere lobectomy resulted in the loss of her language, memory, communication, reading, writing, spelling and pragmatic skills, as well as emotional control. This significantly affected her ability to participate in school. At best, she was able to work with her therapists in small groups for a maximum of 10 minutes and with a teacher in her home on a one-to-one basis.

An early goal was to learn to use a planner/calendar so she could follow a schedule and complete daily assignments. Ordinarily a bouncy, energetic young woman, Ashley now worked hard to focus her energy on independence and cognitive assignments for 10 minutes, 15 minutes, 30 minutes and then 45 minutes, until she was able to sit through and participate in a full 50 minutes of a rigorous cognitive-academic tasks.

The Challenge Program provided physical activities that would enable her to increase her balance and judgment so that she would behave safely when out in the community and also harness her cognitive energy for the intellectually and emotionally demanding school-oriented therapies.

The Challenge staff worked with Ashley to develop strategies for school and communication, interfacing with her school to make sure she had an appropriate schedule and modifications. By the end of the school year, she was making all As and Bs. While helping Ashley identify electives that did not emphasize reading/writing skills, Challenge counselors suggested art classes. The result was the discovery of an extraordinary talent.

With the loss of her left temporal lobe, Ashley’s accomplishments in drawing and her ability to read, write and speak are nothing short of a miracle. Through much personal effort and attending summer school, she graduated on time with her high school class and will attend Montgomery Junior College to study computer graphics.