Countless numbers of families have gone through the experience of being told a loved one has suffered a devastating brain injury, and not to expect miracles when it comes to recovery. In many cases, patients have proved their doctors and therapists wrong with unbelievable comebacks. These inspiring stories remind us that there is still much we don't know about the body's capacity to repair itself.
One such case involves a former Marine currently from Sunnyvale, California. Ever since he was involved in a 1991 car accident while he was stationed in Saudi Arabia during Operation Desert Storm, the 47-year-old has been fighting to reclaim the parts of him that the head-on collision took away.
The man's injuries were so serious that his family was discouraged from visiting him in the hospital in Germany where he was taken after the accident; he wasn't expected to survive. When he finally came out of a coma five months later, he needed a wheelchair to compensate for the weakness in his left side. He was also legally blind and had to learn how to speak again. Despite these brain-injury-related setbacks, he has never stopped fighting. Several times a week he reports for physical therapy at a facility in San Jose, and one of his current goals is to complete a vocational training program that could allow him to work again -- possibly with a police department, a lifelong dream that inspired his decision to join the Marines in the first place.
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