Articles Posted in Inspiration

As I search through online information regarding brain injuries and traumas, I often find myself coming across a blog called “Second Chance to Live”. As a Sacramento Personal Injury Lawyer and being the person called immediately after someone is involved in an accident, it is more common for me to hear about the initial stages of someone dealing with a brain injury rather than the later stages. Many times, in the later stages, the injured person will find a new sense of hope and destiny to their life.

The blog is written by a man who, in the summer of 1967, was in a terrible car accident. As a result of the accident, he sustained an open skull fracture and was put in a coma for three weeks. His right frontal lobe, where we carry out executive decisions, was injured as well as having an impact to his brain stem. From here, he began a slow process of rehabilitating himself and was able to receive a graduate degree. His blog now talks about his life, his struggles, his joys, and what he sees as a second chance to live.

It’s quite inspiring. I find a renewed sense of hope as I read through his letters. I would like to invite anyone that has suffered from a traumatic brain injury or know someone that has to read this blog. I believe that it gives a good understanding to what a brain injury entails, emotionally and physically, for the person suffering from it.

An interesting story in the news brought me back to the days of Terri Shiavo and the legal battle her family went through in the court of law. After a car crash, a man named Jesse Ramirez was left in a coma, being supported by tubes and machines. After a week, the doctors informed Jesse’s family that he would not recover from the state he was in. A not so subtle indication that the family should consider switching the machines off, ending Jesses’ life?

The battle began when Jesse’s wife, after receiving advice from the medical team, decided Jesse should be taken off of life support. Other members of Jesse’s family did not agree and made a legal appeal to the court in which they won. Feeding and water tubes were reconnected and some several weeks of hard work by the medical team later, seemingly miraculously, Jesse regained consciousness to the point that he is now able to interact with visitors. He does not speak but he gives clear non-verbal signs that represent yes and no, if he is asked a question.

I find this story so incredible because it shows how traumatic injuries often have a longer recovery time than normal. We should be careful not dismiss a case, or a human being for that matter, within such a short frame of time. I continuously argue that the symptoms of brain injury are individual to every case. And as a lawyer, I see this type of situation as the one described in the article a little too often.

In our Personal Injury Law Firm in Sacramento, I often find myself inundated with stories of accidents, injustices, and pain. The bright side of this work comes however, when our injured clients are able to move on with their lives into the direction of new dreams, hopes and futures.

As I was reading through the web today, I came across an article that reflected this feeling and I have decided to step aside from the car accidents and brain injuries for a moment to share with you a woman who has overcome her own personal injury.

The woman’s name is Michelle Shackelford and she is from our own Sacramento area. Michelle had a career as a CHP motorcycle officer for many years, following a dream she always had held growing up. One day, however, her life as she had known it suddenly changed. The news article explained that while attending a police duty on the offramp of Madison Avenue, Michelle was hit by a reckless driver. Michelle wound up critically injured after being launched from her motorcycle and then, subsequently, hit by her own rolling bike.