Graf 7 Person

Graf 7
Have you ever met one of those people that you always seem to remember when the going gets tough? Someone who even though the odds are against them has managed to overcome a staggering situation?
My younger brother Larry is one of those people. Almost two years ago I received a devastating call from my mother. “Larry is in the hospital in Lewiston and he is in a coma.” Needless to say, I was extremely distressed. As it turns out, while Larry was skiing at Sugarloaf he went off the trail and slammed into a tree. Of course, he wasn’t wearing his helmet so the damage was quite bad. He shattered his pelvis, broke his left arm, bruised the left side of his torso, and jarred his brain around inside his head. The first time I saw him was a shock. He had his left arm in a cast, a breathing tube in his trachea, a feeding tube in his stomach, and he was a mass of bruising and swelling. He stayed in his coma for weeks. When he finally came out of it he couldn’t talk and his muscles in his whole left side were also so tensed up that he could barely move them. After all of the testing and retesting done to him we found out that my baby brother had major damage to his nerves in his brain and he would probably never get back to the physical condition he was in before. On top of that his short term memory and his speech were severely impaired. Larry was sent to a rehabilitation center but went home to my parents after a few weeks because he couldn’t handle the facility he was in. After a year and a half of therapy five days a week, Larry no longer needs a wheelchair and he can walk with a walker. He can write with his left hand again although it is a little sloppy. His speech will never be perfect because of the damage to his trachea due to the breathing tube, but he is understandable. He works everyday to improve his memory and has come a long way in gaining this back. Although he will never be able to drive or live without assistance again, he can still do things for himself. When I think about how things aren’t going the way I want them to or when I’m feeling down about myself, I think of my brother Larry. He went from a healthy, able bodied 24 year old to a helpless, broken 24 year old in a matter of seconds. Yet, somehow he has overcome the tragedy in his life, through pain, determination, and shear stubbornness he has over come the severe damage done to his body and brain. I look up to my little brother and it is him I think of when the going gets tough.