Family

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Am I Brain Damaged? By Lori Purdy Faitel

One month before I turned 25 years old, I was in a devastating car accident. I was clinically dead 2 times, and then was kept alive on life support for 7 days.

At the time of the car accident I had recently begun to live the life of the businesswoman I was dreaming to become. I was living in an apartment with Robin, a long time girlfriend; for both of us it was our first time to live away from our parent’s homes.

Robin and I moved into our apartment in January of 1986 with old used furniture and supplies. We were very happy and enjoyed our new found freedom. We were becoming independent women. We hosted parties at our apartment and invited everyone we knew to visit any time.

Robin and I worked two totally different professions, I was an up and coming businesswoman at a Board of Realtors and Robin was beginning management for a Busy Pizzeria. I worked the 9-5 shifts and Robin worked mostly evenings. We didn’t see much of each other even though we lived together.

On a life-changing day I was in a car accident on my way to work. I spent 7 days in ICU in a coma and many months as an inpatient with various therapies. When I became strong enough I moved back in with my parents because I continued to require 24-hour supervision. I improved and later was able to move back in with Robin, I also began working again.

The world had changed as I was out of circulation. I remembered local sites, I remembered my friends, and I remembered that I was able to live a normal life. But everything changed, I needed to learn to adapt to people, socialization, self-care, dignity and education again.

In my book of memoirs from the car accident you will read of the pain, confusion, anger and hatefulness I went through. When I finally learned how the normal world lived, I began to appreciate what any abilities I had that were close to normal.

I went back to work and tried several different jobs. I ended up back at college. I was given the opportunity to develop again. In my re-development I had many choices to make, some choices could have led me to a life I don’t want to think about.

I want to share with you my heart, my insights, feelings, triumphs and losses. I pray in reading what I have gone through this will open the hearts and minds of everyone to the very scary situation of head injury.

In these memoirs you will read my most secret thoughts and actions, please respect me and share with my joy in that I am today a fully functioning normal woman. I missed at least 6 years of what was to be my regular life but now have chosen to utilize what I have learned to enlighten the public.

Welcome, Lori

available online at bn.com and amazon.com

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