Michael: It’s my pleasure today to be joined by Erin Newcomb. Erin, congratulations on being the recipient of the Brain Injury Law Firm’s annual brain Injury Scholarship. On behalf of our law firm, De Caro & Kaplen, I am pleased to award you the educational scholarship at the beginning of the year 2023 Brain Injury Awareness Month. As advocates for people with a brain injury and their families we have witnessed the incredible hardships that are endured and the dedication and determination that are necessary to help rebuild a life following a traumatic brain injury. And with this scholarship, we want to recognize an individual’s hard work and perseverance living with a brain injury and pursuing his or her dreams and goals. Congratulations.
Erin: Thank you.
Michael: So the theme of this year’s Brain Injury Awareness Month is more than my brain injury. Can you tell us a little bit about how you sustained your injury, the treatment that you received, and the road to where you are today?
Erin: Yeah, I’d be happy to. It’s a long story, but I’ll try and give you some of the highlights. So it happened on August 29th of 2018. I was just starting senior year of high school and myself, my best friend and two other friends were leaving high school, our high school, to go to a different school for vocational courses and our high school, Houser in Hope, Indiana, Houser is on state Route nine, which is a very busy road. So when you pull out of the high school parking lot, you have to cross State Road nine. And my best friend was driving. I was in the passenger seat. And when she went to pull across a pickup truck crashed directly into the passenger door where I was sitting. Now, luckily, the driver of this truck was an EMT, so he immediately jumped out and tried to help me. But I apparently was trapped in the car. It took firefighters to cut me out of the car and then I was loaded into in evac helicopter and transported up to IU Methodist in Indianapolis by flying to up there. I arrived to the hospital with punctured lung, about nine or ten broken ribs, the lacerated liver, and had a punctured bladder, a shattered pelvis in my right radius, arm bone was fractured and they had to put a plate in my arm. So there’s a scar there, but it’s faded now and lastly, I had a diffuse axonal injury. Grade three, which is, I think, the most severe kind of traumatic brain injury. I had a chest tube placed a g tube, placed, a trach tube. I still have a scar there from that. And I was in a coma for about 14 days. Natural coma. So I got out of the hospital, I think in like October, and started doing rehabilitation therapies through RHI, which is the rehabilitation hospital of Indiana. I had physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy and vision therapy multiple times a week, and it was very taxing because something about the car accident brain injury affected my, the muscles in my eyes so that I have double vision out of the lower hemisphere of my eyes. And it still bothers me some. It’s been what has it been four and a half years. So it still bothers me. But yeah, so I had a lot of emergency surgeries right off the bat, but eventually was released and returned to high school using a walker. Because I graduated from the wheelchair to a walker and returned to high school with a walker. I had a friend to carry around my backpack and stuff from class to class, and the short term memory loss was a struggle for me, for a long time, and I still have memory issues to this day. So because of that, I get I receive accommodations from my college to assist me with my struggles. So I get things like extended time on exams and a quiet place to take the exams. But back to recovery and yeah, I took months of those therapies before I graduated from all of them.
Michael: Well, doesn’t sound like it’s been a very easy road for you, but you. You’ve accomplished so much since the time of your injuries. What would you tell other people who have sustained similar injuries and tragedies in their life in terms of advocating for themselves and thinking about their future?
Erin: Yeah, coming from a background like mine, it is important. I know that it is important to advocate for yourself. So that means if you’re having if you’re struggling with something and tell someone, you can get help and there’s a good chance that someone else is struggling with the same thing. So you’re never alone. And I’ve also been a person who has struggled with putting standards on myself and feeling like I never achieved or could stand up to the standards and everyone should just not. Sorry. One of the things I still struggle with is word finding. So just forget about the standards. Don’t try to live up to anyone else. Don’t try to be anything that you’re not capable of being. Just be yourself and do all that you can do. Keep pushing. I know through recovery, the first stretch of my recovery, it was really hard to find the motivation to keep trying. But I had parents and family and people to lean on, which I also think is important. But you’ve got to find the motivation to keep pushing yourself. You can always be better. Just push a little bit more and you can take the steps to get to recovery.
Michael: Well, what are your plans for the future?
Erin: Well, it’s still very up in the air.
Michael: But you did tell me when we chatted last week that you were interested in the field of special education and working with other people who sustained traumatic brain injuries. Tell me about that.
Erin: That’s an option that I’m considering. I’ve always loved working with children, and now I feel that I have a special calling, a special understanding of children who have developmental or learning disabilities or physical disabilities. I feel like I can understand and be compassionate about that. And I I’ve been where they are where they’re not able to learn. Not able to do this, do that. Can’t write, can’t walk. And I know how to accommodate for that. So I think my background and my love of helping others can mix nicely and make that a strong career choice for me.
Michael: I think that would be that would be wonderful if you choose that road.
Erin: Yeah. Thank you.
Michael: And you told me that you participate in brain injury support group meetings.
Erin: Yeah, I’ve only gone to one so far, but it was really cool. I mean, they talked about Love your brain yoga. It’s an organization that was started by people with brain injuries and they were promoting and really they were promoting and encouraging the use of yoga to help an individual recover from a traumatic brain injury. I’m not sure of all the details, but apparently the certain things about the mind body connection in yoga helps with recovery from an injury.
Michael: So I take it you’re going to continue with that?
Erin: Yeah, I hope do.
Michael: Okay. Well, is there anything that that you also want to tell people who are listening to us today? Any further that that yont to relay to them?
Erin: Yeah. It’s okay to be different. It’s okay to not be the same person that you used to be. The person you are today is who God intended you to be. Everything happens for a reason and he has a plan. God has a plan. And if this is not what you planned on, it’s what he’s planning on. It will all work out. Just keep putting one one foot in front of the other and doing your best and everything else will work itself out.
Michael: Well Erin, your amazing story of perseverance after the horrendous injuries that you sustained physically, cognitively and emotionally is nothing short of inspirational. Our scholarship is an important reminder that each and every person who sustained a traumatic brain injury is an individual, is a person, not just a statistic. So, Erin, you and your journey of recovery and your attitude are precisely why we created this award. And today, many industries place profits over safety, including the trucking industry, the motor vehicle industry, construction industry, even some in the medical profession and some in the sports field. And we tend to lose sight of the full impact of the injuries that you sustained and their impact on both you and your family. Because as you are aware, life can be changed in an instant.
Erin: Yeah.
Michael: So it is our hope that this scholarship assists you in the rebuilding of your life and in your future. So once again, on behalf of our law firm, De Caro & Kaplen, I want to congratulate you and wish you the best in the years to come.
Erin: Thank you so much. Means the world.
Michael: Good luck to you. And God bless you.