William's Perspective

The first thing I remember was waking up one day, looking around and realizing something was wrong; I couldn’t talk or move. Little did I know at the time, my life had been changed forever. I had a traumatic brain injury. I was told I was in Charlotte Rehab Hospital in Charlotte, N.C., but I didn’t understand what had happened to me. In March of 2005, while traveling to Florida, the car I was riding in was hit by an 18 wheeler. Due to the impact, I had a traumatic brain injury, six strokes, and was airlifted to Shands Hospital in Jacksonville, Florida. I was coming out of a 40 day coma, unaware of anything that had happened to me. The first thing I remember seeing was a huge green tree out the window of my hospital room and my family all around me. They comforted me and kept telling me not to be afraid that God was taking care of me.

Over the next few weeks, I slowly began moving. I went from not being able to move my left leg at all, to moving my toes, then my foot, and then my leg. As I sat in my wheelchair in the hall of the hospital, watching others being pushed in their wheel chairs, I asked God to help me walk again.

My family began to give me food for my brain. I could feel something happening inside my body. I was gaining strength each day and movement was returning to my arms and I was able to stand up with my nurse or parents holding me, and then I took my first step. I learned, step by step, with the help of my therapist and family how to walk using a walker. It was as if I was learning everything all over again. I didn’t understand then why I had forgotten how to walk. Once I progressed to the stage of learning to walk with a cane, I decided my goal was to walk out of Charlotte Rehab when I was discharged.

The day finally came for me to go home; it had been 72 days since our accident. Praise God, I was finally discharged. It was obvious He heard my prayer because that day I was able to walk out the door of the Rehab Hospital.

But God did not stop there working in my life. After I got home I began family and outpatient therapy. My family worked with me almost non-stop every day. It seemed as if everything we did was turned into some type of therapy. In some ways, it was like waking up from a long dream and trying to figure out why life had changed while I was sleeping. But as I became more aware of what had happened to me and saw how God was healing me, my faith grew stronger and stronger and I asked Him to help me run again. Before the accident I was training as a cross country runner and the day before we left on our trip I ran seven miles. Thus it became my goal to run cross-country.

Month after month as my speech, motor skills, and walking all continued improving, my brain was working better and I was encouraged by that, but I still couldn’t run. I was determined not to give up. I kept working and believing God would help me reach my goal. My walking kept improving and then one day I was able to walk to the end of our hall with more speed. My family cheered me on, worked with me and encouraged me to keep going and believing that God was rebuilding my strength to run someday.

I continued working on building my strength through good nutrition, and food for my brain cells. (My goal now is to tell everyone about this brain food.) I exercised my body and my brain daily. My brain had to be trained and exercised. My mom would say, “We have to train your brain, tell your brain to move your arm.” Training my brain to relearn everything became our daily routine.

After a year of constantly training and feeding my brain it gained strength and relearned almost everything that I knew before the accident. When I left Charlotte Rehab I was 15 but only on an elementary level of understanding. The cognitive therapist said I would need much assistance and special classes to catch back up to my grade level. But with my family working with me, I was able to return to my Christian School in the fall of 2005 and finished the 10th grade with honors. Training my brain was working!

With a year of hard work, I was also able to run again. I still stumbled and fell at times, but I would get back up and keep going. God kept restoring me and I was able to join the cross-country team my junior year of high school. On my first cross-country meet I placed 11th out of 60 runners. I was able to run cross country as well as keep my grades up. In the summer of my junior year I reach my original goal; I ran seven miles. Praise God!

My senior year was very hard, but I did well and graduated with honors! When I spoke at my graduation ceremony, I told my class that life will be full of obstacles; it is how you face these obstacles that determine the outcome. I gave God all the glory, for how He had helped me to face my obstacles and overcome them. I now know more than ever that He has a great plan and a purpose for my life. I want to help others who have suffered a brain injury by sharing with them how they too can “train their brain.”
William Boggs