Hospital leadership and brain injury program staff celebrated the ribbon-cutting for the program’s newest unit on Aug. 3. The unit, located on the sixth floor of the Marcus-Woodruff Building, began serving patients and families on Aug. 4, as part of a phased opening.

"There's a lot of hope in what we do at Shepherd Center, and hope is certainly here on the sixth floor. We are so proud of the expanded access to allow patients with brain injuries to be well cared for," said Jamie Shepherd, MBA, MHA, FACHE, president and CEO of Shepherd Center.

In addition to having a new therapy gym and state-of-the-art equipment, the new unit enabled the conversion of all semi-private rooms throughout the hospital into private rooms, giving patients a space to call their own for the duration of their rehabilitation.

"It's amazing to be at Shepherd [and celebrate] all that we've been able to accomplish — to be able to have 35 new beds for ABI. Having the quality be consistent across all three units is really important to us, and I've had a great team of people who helped get this accomplished. It's super exciting,” said Katie Metzger, OTR, MBA, director of the Rollins Acquired Brain Injury Program.

The new unit brings the total capacity of the brain injury program to 85 beds, which means more patients with brain injuries will have access to the specialized care and expertise Shepherd Center’s clinicians offer. The new unit expands opportunities for patients with other diagnoses, too. The Comprehensive Rehabilitation Unit (CRU) is equipped to care for patients with brain injuries, spinal cord injuries, traumatic amputations, dual diagnoses of spinal cord and brain injuries, pulmonary complications, multiple orthopedic injuries, and pressure injuries, as well as other neurological conditions. With more beds available for patients with brain injuries on the sixth floor, CRU will be able to admit more patients with other conditions.

The opening of the new unit is the culmination of years of planning and fundraising. Much of the funding for the new unit comes from Pursuing Possible: The Campaign for Shepherd Center, which concluded this spring. The campaign raised an incredible $446 million, which made the renovations needed for the new unit possible. Additionally, staff played a huge role in preparing the new unit for patients. Team members spent months planning details like the unit design, equipment procurement, staffing models, workflow processes, and communication systems, and worked hard to ensure consistency across all ABI units.

The opening of the new unit represents a new chapter in Shepherd Center’s history. But this new chapter is not unlike the one that started it all: people seeing a need and working to make sure it is met with expertise and compassion.

Written by Erin Kenney

From the outside looking in, everything was going right for Marine 1st Sgt. Mark Koerner. 

He’d had an accomplished career in the Marine Corps — he was the most senior member of his unit at Parris Island, South Carolina — and he had a loving wife and two young children. 

But not everything was going right. 

“A lot of things happened during my 20 years [in the Marines] that led up to me really having a hard time in South Carolina,” he remembers. “My symptoms just kept getting worse and worse, quality of life getting worse, and [I didn’t] understand what was going on with me. From an outsider's perspective, I appeared to be so blessed — and I was, and I still am — but why couldn't I be present in that?” 

He remembers feeling distracted, gaining weight, experiencing drinking problems, and generally feeling off. He did what he could to change things — scheduling surgeries he’d once pushed off, seeing behavioral health specialists at the Naval Hospital, quitting drinking. But a bad relapse pushed him over the edge. 

His first stop was Emerald Coast Behavioral Hospital in Florida, where he got help with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and substance abuse. Things were already looking up when he got back, and then he caught up with a friend who’d recently been to SHARE Military Initiative at Shepherd Center, a comprehensive rehabilitation program for veterans, service members, and first responders with traumatic brain injuries and mental health concerns. Mark applied to the program and was accepted. 

“I wasn't sure what to expect when I was going there, all I knew really was what [my friend] had told me about his experience there,” Mark says, “It just seemed like the next logical step for me to continue getting help that I needed before I took that giant leap and hung up the uniform.” 

Mark’s time at SHARE was unlike anything he had ever experienced. He was surprised to find that he had a say in his treatment plan, and while some days were difficult, he fully committed to the program. He had made sacrifices to be there — leaving behind his family and his unit — so he gave it his all. It was worth it. 

“It just all worked so well together that I honestly felt like I was a new man when I left there,” he says. “I was able to come back and face life, and it's not like any problems disappeared, but my ability to manage them was almost effortless compared to how I felt prior to SHARE.” 

He doesn’t point to one specific kind of therapy as the tool that gave him his life back. Instead, it was the combination of everything — memory exercises, recreation therapy outings, Wednesday night cookouts, staying in the apartments with his peers, and the genuine kindness from the program staff. 

When he returned to his unit after his time at SHARE, he was transparent with them about where he had been and why. 

“It was a little hard to go back after being gone for so long, I'm sure [there were] a lot of rumors, a lot of younger Marines saying, ‘Hey, where did the First Sergeant go?’” 

“I told them exactly where I lived, where I was. I didn't expect it to happen, but after I was so transparent with them, I had a lot of Marines wanting to talk to me because they were going through things that were very similar to what I was going through, and I was able to help them through a lot of it and pointed them to resources and just gave them my experience and my advice.”

Mark retired from the Marines in 2024, after 20 years of service and seven deployments across the country and the world. He’s now a first-year apprentice in the International Union of Operating Engineers in Ohio, where his family has a home, his wife Abby has a job, and their boys are in school. 

“When I'm home, I can be present with the boys. I'm not wrestling with all the distractions, many of them selfmade, that I once was,” he says. “I'm able to wake up every day and be grateful for all the blessings in my life. “There's always problems in life, and nothing ever works out perfectly. I continue to run across them, but it's nothing that's insurmountable, and home life is very much improved.”

Written by Erin Kenney

When Keylan Watkins returned home to Chattanooga, Tennessee, from Shepherd Center, his mother, LaToya, took him to Erlanger Hospital to show them how far he’d come. 

“I wanted them to see the miracle Shepherd created,” LaToya says. 

Four months earlier, on June 2, 2023, Keylan, then 12, sustained a traumatic brain injury when he fell off an all-terrain vehicle. He was in the pediatric intensive care unit at Erlanger for 35 days, where doctors were unsure of Keylan’s prognosis. After learning about Shepherd Center from a caseworker, LaToya and Keylan arrived by ambulance to start his rehabilitation. 

Keylan was using a feeding tube and was unable to walk, talk, or eat. But he slowly made progress. 

“I was optimistic about his chance for recovery, but I also doubtful because of what the doctors had told me,” LaToya says. 

That doubt of Keylan having a successful recovery faded during their first week at Shepherd Center. 

“He was standing more, reacting more, and began remembering things,” she remembers. “I knew we were in the right place and that things would be okay.” 

In Shepherd Center’s Adolescent Rehabilitation Program, Keylan enjoyed being with other kids close to his age, socializing, playing games, and shooting baskets in the gym. 

“It was fun and took my mind off of what I was going through,” Keylan says. He set small goals for himself – like walking down the hall on his own – and surpassed them all. 

After 46 days at Shepherd Center and a few weeks at outpatient rehabilitation at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, Keylan returned home in October 2023 and began seventh grade. 

Now 15, Keylan is a freshman in high school. His doctors have discouraged playing sports because of the risk of head injury, but he stays busy off the field. He is happy just “chilling with his friends,” and has a job running the scoreboard and keeping the stats for basketball games at the Chattanooga Parks and Recreation Department, where LaToya also works. He is also training to be an umpire for softball games. 

Keylan and LaToya are both grateful for Shepherd Center. 

“I loved everything about Shepherd Center,” LaToya says. “It was such a family atmosphere. I tell everyone it is an amazing place and they create miracles.” 

Written by Sara Baxter 
 

“I'm doing the best that I can today, and that's good enough.”

After 23 years as an active-duty military member, including service in the special forces, and more than a decade as a government contractor, Brian decided recently that it was time to retire. He also realized that he could no longer ignore the injuries he had sustained during his service and the mental health challenges he was facing.

“I was having a lot of signs and symptoms of TBI [traumatic brain injury] and PTSD [post-traumatic stress disorder]. And I'll freely admit this now, I was in denial. And I was hiding it. And the way I was hiding it was by continuing to work overseas. But, you know, hindsight is 20/20, and now I know that all of that stuff is cumulative. … My wife and I, we were not getting along. I didn't realize how bad I was … I would get mad at things, but I could never let it go.”

He was also dealing with vision problems, balance issues, and headaches. Still, he says that, whatever his physical symptoms, he had learned to compensate and that many special forces members do the same, making it harder to get help. The phenomenon is called “operator syndrome,” Brian learned during his time at Shepherd Center’s SHARE Military Initiative.

“We go to a provider for help, and they do the standard tests on us. We pass their standard tests with flying colors, and they don’t know what to do with us … They say there's nothing wrong with you, and we go home thinking, ‘What is wrong with me?’ So, it's really frustrating. And that leads to depression because you know something’s wrong with you, and you don’t know what. And that leads to anger because that's how you release your emotion,” he explains. “You don't want to bring that home. And I was slowly bringing it home. A little bit of baggage would get left off every time I'd come home from a trip until there was so much baggage, the room was overflowing.”

Brian heard about SHARE, which serves military veterans, service members, and first responders with traumatic brain injuries and mental health concerns, through friends who had been clients at SHARE.

“I’m like, ‘Hey, let me give it a shot.’ And the biggest thing that turned me on was it’s outpatient, but you're staying right there, right? So, you don't have distractions. You can just concentrate on healing. But you're not locked in, either. I loved it. I mean, the model for their program is amazing.”

So, in 2025, Brian came to SHARE for three months. He worked with a psychologist to address his PTSD and found that those sessions offered a “huge release.” He participated in occupational, physical, speech, and recreation therapy, working with his therapists to improve his balance, manage his headaches, and improve his communication with his family.

“My relationship with my wife has probably never been better,” Brian says. “We learned how to speak with each other. I mean, my hat's off to Cynthia [Zmroczek] in speech, because she really was the one that helped us. She taught us how to speak to each other, if that makes sense. But here's the deal: both parties need to be willing to work at it, and I was happy that my wife was willing to work with me.”

Brian also found the group sessions with other SHARE clients especially meaningful.

“It's a small group, but it's still more than a couple of people. And we are all there, really, for the same reasons, and just being humbled. You know what I mean? That was for me, like, ‘Okay, I'm not the only one going through this stuff.’ So that helped out a lot.”

He says physical and occupational therapy, along with medication, helped with his vision, mood, and reduced the frequency and severity of his headaches.

“I woke up one morning, and I didn't have a headache, and I didn't know what to do because that's the first time I woke up without a headache.”

In recreation therapy, he found that clients who had been at SHARE longer than he had been were there to offer empathy, guidance, and support. Music therapy rekindled his love for playing the guitar, something he hadn’t tried since he sustained serious injuries to his left hand, including losing a finger, because of a gunshot wound in Afghanistan. 

“It gave me the confidence to start learning and playing again … And then I also know that playing guitar really helps out with cognitive ability.”

Other clients at SHARE introduced him to trout fishing, a pastime he was initially skeptical about but now truly enjoys. That interest led him to get involved with Project Healing Waters, a national nonprofit that uses fly fishing as a therapeutic intervention for active military members and veterans. There, he’s found another supportive community.

SHARE staff also helped Brian get enrolled at the Veterans Administration, so after returning home to Greeneville, Tennessee, he’s been able to continue therapy, including exposure therapy to help him manage PTSD and more occupational therapy for his vision and balance.

He says he has a long way to go, but he credits SHARE with helping him make great strides.

“I can't say enough about the program overall. I really can’t. It has helped me so much. And my wife and my family.”

And he encourages others, including his sons, who are both active-duty military, to get help if they need it.

“Although I'm not active anymore, I'm still trying to lead by example, by showing them, don't hide your injuries, go get it checked out. Go get fixed early so it doesn't become a lingering issue. That, and always look at your buddies. They might be showing signs and symptoms that they don't even know they've got,” he says. “I'm trying to pay it forward through them as well.”

Written by Ruth Underwood

The way to Kaedan Everhart’s heart typically follows a path worn by horses, dirt bikes, and four-wheelers. Yes, it takes a lot to get Kaedan Everhart indoors. For anything other than a line dance, that is.

The 18-year-old from Statesville, N.C., goes by K-Lo among his friends at the rodeos where he ropes and the stables where he rides. Throughout high school, you’d just about always find a cowboy hat on his head and boots on his feet. Except for fall Friday
nights when the talented cornerback donned a football helmet instead.

“If it’s outdoors, I’m up for it,” Kaedan says. “That’s where I’m happy. That’s where I’m me.”

On Oct. 13, 2024, however, Kaedan sustained several serious injuries in a car accident, including a traumatic brain injury (TBI). His always-in-motion life came to a standstill, with a ventilator helping him breathe and operations to repair broken bones and brain bleeds. 

The great outdoors seemed very far away.

Kaedan eventually transferred to Shepherd Center’s Adolescent Brain Injury Rehabilitation Program. His care team set to work right away, getting him mobile again. As Kaedan’s brain awakened, his therapists challenged the young athlete with activities to help him re-learn to think, speak, and walk.

As part of his therapy, Shepherd Center staff even took Kaedan to a horse ranch to practice his skills. And they spent extra time addressing his right-side motor deficits, a consequence of his TBI.

“That meant the most to me,” Kaedan says. “They got my arm moving again. It doesn’t straighten all the way, but I can use it for all the things I enjoy doing.”

Indeed, he’s back to roping and riding once again, his most important and peaceful pastimes. This fall, he’s working at a ranch where he drives a horse wagon. The job is just a part-time one, as he’s now in his freshman year at Mitchell Community College, with plans to transfer next
year to North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University. Kaedan’s studying agribusiness with an eye, no surprise, toward a career that will keep him outdoors.

“God has something for me, ahead of me,” Kaedan says. “I’m thankful I get to see what it is now."

Written by Phillip Jordan

Baseball has been part of Grayson Pope’s life since he was three years old. 

“When he was about four, we were playing travel ball and they toured the University of Tennessee baseball facility,” recalls Grayson’s mom, Jamie Pope. “While we were walking back to the car, he said he’d play ball there one day when he got big.” 

Grayson, 19, graduated high school in May with a 3.9 GPA and started attending the University of Tennessee (UT) in Knoxville as part of its baseball team this past summer. Although he’s not playing on the team, he will be helping them in a coaching role, living in the dorms, exercising with the team, and making lasting memories. 

“It means so much to be on the baseball team,” Grayson says. “They have been so supportive of me since my accident and being able to give back and help out with the program means the world.” 

On June 6, 2023, while playing golf with friends, a pop-up storm hit the course. As Grayson drove back toward the clubhouse, a large oak tree fell on him, causing a severe traumatic brain injury. 

He spent 42 days in UAB Hospital’s ICU in a coma before transferring to Shepherd Center’s Disorders of Consciousness Program. After four days, he moved to the inpatient Brain Injury Rehabilitation Program. While Grayson’s dad and grandparents stayed in family housing provided by Shepherd Center to families and patients who live more than 50 miles from the hospital, Jamie stayed by his side in his hospital room. 

“I didn’t want to miss any milestones," Jamie remembers. "When we got there, he was like an infant. By the end of the first week, he was holding his head up. By the time he left inpatient and started the outpatient program, he was walking.” 

Grayson’s team of doctors, nurses, and therapists worked with him to incorporate baseball into his therapy. He recalls practicing on the Zero-G Gait and Balance System for safe mobility training. 

“I practiced hitting a ball and running while I was attached to the Zero-G," he says. "It has straps that can control the tension and helped me stand up without falling.” 

The recreation therapy team also took Grayson to a Braves game, where they toured the facility and met some players. “It was a great experience,” Jamie says. “There’s so much hope at Shepherd. They made me feel like Grayson was their only patient, and I know he wasn't. They will forever have a special place in my family’s heart.” 

By the time Grayson completed the inpatient program, he was able to walk again. After, he began Shepherd Pathways, an outpatient brain injury rehabilitation program, where there was an intensive focus on making sure he was ready to return to day-to-day life and school. 

Despite the challenges he faced, Grayson discharged from Shepherd on Nov. 17, 2023, able to function independently again. He returned to Shepherd the next summer for Project Rollway.

"He got to go pick out his outfit he got to wear. They had food and entertainment. What was really neat was we hadn't seen a lot of our therapists, especially ones from inpatient, for a while,” Jamie says. “We got to reunite with all of them and show off our kiddo. Up on the stage, the world stopped revolving for a split second, and he enjoyed that moment." 

Grayson shares his mom’s sentiment. 

"It was fun seeing all my therapists, doctors, and nurses again,” he says. “They were able to see how far I had come. Being on stage was fun, but I enjoyed seeing everyone more." 

Grayson went on to continue therapy closer to home, while finishing his junior and senior years of high school on time with his friends. 

“Baseball taught me you will fail more than you will succeed, but that is okay. Never give up, and you will learn from it and get better the next day,” Grayson reflects. “I am excited to start the next chapter of my life at UT.” 

Written by Damjana Alverson

Deltrick Elmore says the best decision he ever made was adopting his Belgian Malinois puppy “Bear” four years ago. The second one, he says, was taking part in Shepherd Center’s SHARE Military Initiative.

Deltrick enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1995, where he worked as a generator mechanic and later in explosive ordnance disposal. He left after three years and joined the Navy. After discharge, he served in the Army National Guard on and off from 2003 to 2019. While in the National Guard, he also worked as a consultant to Army bases and traveled around the world, helping plan tactical operations. It was during this time — including a stint at a base in Afghanistan — that he was involved in several explosions from enemy fire.

“At one point, I got blown across the chow hall,” Deltrick remembers.

He returned to the U.S. in 2019. He didn’t realize it at the time, but he had sustained injuries that caused long-term physical and mental symptoms from his time overseas. He had severe headaches and began noticing a decline in his cognitive abilities, slower reflexes, and shaky hands. He had bouts of depression and attempted suicide.

He sought counseling to combat his depression, but he couldn’t find relief for his physical symptoms. In 2024, he experienced a seizure, which revealed an undiagnosed traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder. His doctor referred him to SHARE.

“I didn’t want to go at first,” admits Deltrick, who came to SHARE in January 2025. “I didn’t think it would help. But it helped a lot.”

He was at SHARE for two months, where he got relief for his headaches and worked on balance, memory, and decision-making skills. Playing the piano and working in the vegetable garden during recreation therapy helped calm the shaking in his hands.

After he left SHARE, Deltrick returned to his job as a cybersecurity engineer. He says he is calmer and happier. He appreciates the treatment he received at SHARE, as well as the camaraderie he felt with the other clients.

“SHARE is a community where nobody judges you,” Deltrick says. “I thought I was going through this process alone, but they pull you in immediately. We cheered each other on. It was the best thing I’ve done so far.” Besides adopting Bear, of course.

Written by Sara Baxter

If you or someone you love is struggling, please don't wait. You can call or text 988 to reach the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline anytime for free, confidential support.

“From the outside looking in, nobody can tell that I had a head injury,” says Joshua Craft. “But there’s a fight I have with myself every day to make sure I’m doing the things I was trained to do.”

After sustaining a traumatic brain injury (TBI) 22 years ago, Joshua Craft has worked ceaselessly to manage his symptoms. And he credits Shepherd Center for starting his rehabilitation journey.

When Joshua was 16, he fell out of a truck while working a summer job, fracturing his skull. After stabilizing at a hospital in Birmingham, Alabama, Joshua came to Shepherd Center. His first memory of Shepherd was July 4, 2003, when his therapists took him and other patients to the roof to watch fireworks over the city. 

While in the Brain Injury Rehabilitation Program, Joshua completed physical, occupational, and speech therapy. After inpatient therapy, he moved on to Pathways. Throughout his time at Shepherd, peer support played a critical role in his recovery and inspired him to help other TBI survivors. 

“As I started getting better and improving, I wanted to help,” he says. “I wanted to be there for people. And that’s what I do now. I love to help people, whether I’m helping somebody whose home got damaged in a storm, or helping a fellow traumatic brain injury survivor.” 

After his discharge from Shepherd, his mom and aunt, a nurse and teacher, helped him navigate his needs at home. College proved to be a different experience. 

“I didn’t have anybody to advocate for me,” he remembers. “I had to make sure I was getting the accommodations I deserved, which is something I’ve told other TBI survivors — nobody is going to fight for you in college.” 

Joshua faced another challenge while in college: a cancer diagnosis. While his prognosis was good, he had to endure several rounds of chemotherapy, which gave him debilitating side effects. He says his TBI rehab prepared him for his battle with cancer. 

“Anytime I would get down about it, I’d tell myself, ‘This is nothing — you’ve slayed greater giants than cancer,’” he says. 

Joshua beat cancer and graduated from college, returning to his hometown to work for the local government. He still has lingering symptoms from his injury, both physical and mental. But he says he has the tools and mindset to navigate them, thanks partly to Shepherd Center. 

“Everything was right for me at the time [of my injury] — the stars lined up. Nobody else in the world could’ve given me better care or support than the ones that were there. I was very fortunate,” he says.

Written by Erin Kenney

Julianna was treated for a concussion and cuts and released, and Arlene was hospitalized for a few weeks with a concussion as well as facial and pelvic fractures. But Phyllicia was airlifted to Atlanta Medical Center, where she remained in a minimally conscious state—on a ventilator—for 28 days. 

The greatest survival stories start in such moments. In July 2020, as COVID-19 was raging, Phyllicia transferred to Shepherd Center. The hospital was in lockdown mode, with strict protocols in place to protect their highly vulnerable population and staff. 

For two months, Phyllicia’s father, Chris Thomas, slept on a cot in her room. But in those 60 days, he got the best gift any father could hope for—his daughter began a remarkable recovery. When she first began to emerge, she motioned for her father’s cellphone. On it, she typed a message: “Are Mommy and Julianna OK? And when do law school classes start?” 

Almost every night, Phyllicia and Chris spent time by the koi pond in Shepherd’s Anna and Hays Mershon Secret Garden. On Saturdays, Arlene and Julianna would come to the other side of the garden gate to visit—COVID-style. “Shepherd Center was busy healing my body and my mind,” Phyllicia says, “and having my father and family there really healed my spirit and my heart.” 

Phyllicia was an inpatient at Shepherd until September 2, 2020, followed by nine months of daily outpatient therapy at Shepherd Pathways, where she relearned how to swallow, how to speak, how to walk, how to write. Gradually, her short-term memory started coming back, and she got stronger every day. “I don’t think I would have improved as much as I did if my dad hadn’t been with me,” Phyllicia says. “When I started emerging, he was there to remind me who I was before the car crash and also to remind me of the goals that I still wanted to reach.”

Only one year later—in the fall of 2021—Phyllicia was back at law school. Kristian Nitsch, Ph.D., psychology supervisor at Shepherd Pathways, was instrumental in facilitating her return to classes, arranging classroom and testing accommodations as needed.

Fast-forward two years, and Phyllicia walks across the stage to receive her environmental law degree. She keeps in touch via email with about 20 Shepherd doctors, nurses, therapists, and technicians, all of whom played crucial roles in her recovery and now celebrate every achievement with her.

Even though some of the staff members’ names are fuzzy, Phyllicia remembers every act of kindness, from the nurse who gave her teal socks and coloring books when she was feeling down, to another who surprised her by decorating her hospital room with pictures of her favorite things and spelling her name in her favorite color—purple—above her bed.

Throughout her recovery, from the darkest days to the brightest, everyone at Shepherd was focused and positive. “They never said anything was impossible,” Phyllicia says.

Written by Teresa Weaver

This story is an excerpt from “Mission Moments: 50 Years of Rebuilding Lives One Moment at a Time,” a book celebrating Shepherd’s 50th anniversary in 2025. 

“We had had enough, and we made a promise to finally get into shape. And so, we contacted our cousin Jesus, who's a personal trainer, and got set up with a plan to finally be comfortable in our own skin,” Joshua explains.

But as the pair drove out of their neighborhood, a delivery truck ran into their car. Mike died in the crash, and Joshua sustained multiple injuries, including broken ribs, a fractured clavicle, damage to his diaphragm, and a traumatic brain injury (TBI), which affected his ability to move his left side.

Joshua spent the next three weeks at Ascension Sacred Heart Bay Hospital in Panama City. For the first two weeks, he used a ventilator to help him breathe and couldn’t offer much response to his parents or the medical staff.

Angie remembers that after the first week in the hospital, Joshua could gently squeeze her hand and give what looked like a thumbs-up. Joshua’s neurologist said they needed more of a response — something like a peace sign, he suggested. Eventually, Joshua did give them a sign — with his middle finger. It wasn’t a peace sign, but one that his mom and dad knew reflected his spit-fire personality.

With signs that Joshua might emerge from his disorder of consciousness, his parents began to consider where he should go for rehabilitation. Their options were a nearby facility or Shepherd Center.

“We had never heard of either one,” Angie recalls, “but the staff at Ascension was absolutely phenomenal, and they told us without a doubt that they would choose Shepherd — and we're so glad that we did.”

Milestones

When Joshua transferred to Shepherd on June 21, he could shake his head yes or no but still couldn’t open his eyes. He no longer needed the ventilator to breathe but still had a tracheostomy tube to help him transition to breathing independently. He was admitted to the Disorders of Consciousness Program, and his mom remembers a huge milestone Joshua reached soon after arriving.

“This kid could barely open his eyes, and within 24 hours, Shepherd had him saying ‘mom’ — and by June 24th, he was a chatterbox,” Angie recalls.

Joshua’s personality began to shine. When his cousin came to spend time with him, Joshua pulled a prank on her. He asked her to call his friend Clark. She searched his contacts on his phone, trying to find Clark’s number. He asked her again to please call his friend Clark. Clark Kent. She called Joshua’s parents, upset that she couldn’t find the number. Joshua then laughed, “Superman. Ha! Ha!”

He marked transfers in the Hoyer lift with an excited “Weeeeeeeee!”

“My nurses loved it,” Joshua recalls.

“He had everyone laughing with him,” his mom adds.

Joshua’s sense of humor — and sense of determination — helped him in his therapy sessions.

“If I couldn't do something, that just lit a fire under me. If I fell down, I wouldn't sit on the floor, I wouldn't be frustrated and give up. I would try just one more time,” he recalls.

He says the staff often had to remind him to slow down and not push TOO hard, but he appreciated how they tailored his therapy to his interests.

“They do a very good job of keeping therapy not only beneficial to you but also enjoyable,” Joshua explains. “One of my goals was to be able to play video games again, and they 100% had me playing video games frequently during therapy, which was a part of therapy that I genuinely loved because they found a way to make my work, my rehabilitation, fun for me specifically.”

While he was growing stronger, Joshua’s family stayed in Shepherd Center’s donor-funded family housing. He says having them nearby made a huge difference and that he “relied on them for the whole journey.”

Meanwhile, his family took advantage of Shepherd’s counseling and peer support program. Angie says she still takes comfort in things she learned from the peer support staff.

When Joshua graduated from the inpatient program, he continued rehabilitation at Shepherd Pathways, a comprehensive outpatient rehabilitation program for people recovering from brain injury. By the time he left Shepherd, he had regained use of his left side. He was walking and only occasionally using a wheelchair for longer distances.

Looking to the Future

Now he’s back home, and his family has recently moved from Panama City to Tampa. He left his wheelchair in the garage and hasn’t used it since. He still goes to outpatient physical and speech therapy for what he calls “fine-tuning” for specific physical skills and to work on his memory.

He’s also back at the gym. He’s lifting weights and has lost 110 pounds. Over the summer, he won second place in the transformation division of a bodybuilding competition. He’s studying to be a certified personal trainer through the National Academy of Sports Medicine.

“I just genuinely enjoy the fitness world, so I want my job to be in it. I started my fitness journey as a way to finish my promise to Mike, but then I got healthy, and I was kind of at a crossroads. Why should I continue pushing myself? And then I found the answer to that is — I want to help as many people as I possibly can. I want to help people who are, like me, lost on how to lose weight. Being in that spot, it feels like quicksand, and I want to help all those people who are in my shoes.”

Now that the family is settled in Tampa, Joshua plans to focus on school. He’d like to get a degree related to nutrition to complement his personal training certification and enhance his ability to help others. As he reflects on his time at Shepherd, he says, “They gave me my life back.”

Written by Ruth Underwood

Written by Erin Kenney
 

Ole survived and, two weeks later, transferred to Shepherd Center’s Disorders of Consciousness Program, part of the Brain Injury Rehabilitation Program.

For his mother, Mihret Hamda, getting to Shepherd Center gave her hope.

“The minute we got there, therapists started working with him,” she recalls. “I had this tremendous sense of relief that things were progressing.” She was even more relieved when he emerged from his disorder of consciousness after seven long weeks.

“When I woke up, I remember being terrified,” Ole says. “I didn’t know where I was, and it was hard to fall asleep.” He couldn’t speak, breathe independently, walk, or do anything for himself. He spent three months at Shepherd Center relearning how to do everything before transferring to Shepherd Pathways — Shepherd Center’s comprehensive outpatient rehabilitation program for people recovering from brain injury  — to continue his rehabilitation.

Ole continued to improve and credits the “super chill” therapists at Shepherd Center and Pathways for his progress. “They made it fun so I could work hard to regain my cognitive and physical abilities,” he says. “They sometimes played The Weeknd, my favorite artist of all time, during my therapy sessions.”

Through it all, he was focused on one goal: As president of his senior class at Providence Christian Academy in Lilburn, Georgia, he wanted to give a speech at his graduation.

In May 2022, just eight months after the crash, Ole walked up to the stage and gave that graduation speech, and included a thank you to his therapists. He received a standing ovation.

Ole continued to work hard at therapy, returning to Shepherd Center several times to improve his function.

Two years later, Ole is a freshman at Georgia State University studying biomedical sciences. He hopes to one day design machines like the ones that helped him learn to walk again. His next goal is to move to on-campus housing and live on his own.

Believing that Ole's love for fitness and access to personal training played a crucial role in his recovery, Mihret founded Ole’s Angels, a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting adolescents and young adults with brain and spinal cord injuries. Ole's Angels provides access to physical training and nutrition consulting with the goal of enhancing the recovery and overall well-being of its participants.

Ole and his mother are grateful to Shepherd Center for his incredible recovery.

“God gave us so many miracles, and one of them was Shepherd Center,” says Mihret. “Thank you just doesn’t seem to be enough.”

Written by Sara Baxter 

“No kidding, I don’t remember pain or anything. I just remember seeing all my deceased loved ones,” Dusty says. “Truly, my Mamaw Mac came up to me and gave me one of those Little Debbie Zebra Cakes. Then my Granddaddy Bill, daggum cigarette in his mouth and a cup of coffee. And he leans down to me and just says, ‘Not yet.’”

And that’s all that Dusty, now 35, remembers from his accident or many of the days and weeks before and after it. Following numerous surgeries at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, the Stockbridge, Georgia, resident had a similarly surreal experience when he arrived at Shepherd Center in March 2020.

“I began to wake up right as the COVID lockdowns happened,” Dusty says. “My wife Julie and the rest of my family couldn’t be around because of the protocols. But I didn’t understand that. I’m seeing all these strange faces in masks and protective equipment. It felt like, ‘Is this purgatory?’”

Adding to the dreamlike vibes, one of Dusty’s ICU nurses was Michael Ellis, RN — a good friend and someone Dusty’s known since high school. Dusty credits Michael and Suzie Goggin, RN, CRRN, with helping him gradually understand his situation.

Dusty’s most significant challenge to a full recovery was the traumatic brain injury he’d sustained. At Shepherd Center, his care team helped Dusty re-learn how to talk, walk, eat — in short, everything. He also received vital care for his wounds. While many people with complex injuries and illnesses face an increased risk of obtaining wounds as a secondary complication, Dusty’s expert wound care team helped prevent further complications and additional surgeries that could have derailed his rehabilitation.

“Honestly, I felt like a child at first,” Dusty says. “The progress felt slow, but with everything they were doing, my brain eventually started kicking into gear.”

Dusty also completed outpatient therapy at Shepherd Pathways, and he utilized Shepherd’s Driving Evaluation and Rehabilitation Program to re-learn how to drive. Today, he’s once more taking his kids — Madison, 8, and Rhett, 5 — to and from school each day. Dusty’s also flying again with his pilot father-in-law. And the longtime Atlanta Braves fan is excited about a new baseball season.

“I could very easily be dead,” Dusty says. “I never forget that. So, I’m just happy every day to be alive and well.”

Written by Phillip Jordan

“I wanted to walk through those doors and say thank you to the people who gave me a second chance and who gave me my life back,” Cassie says. “I am so grateful to everyone at Shepherd Center.”

On January 29, 2022, Cassie was competing in a national horse jumping competition in Ocala, Florida, when she fell during a jump. She sustained a traumatic brain injury and remained unconscious for 18 days. She initially went to UF Health Shands Hospital in Gainesville, Florida, and then was airlifted to Shepherd Center a week later.

When Cassie emerged from her disorder of consciousness, she could not move her left side. She spent the next four weeks learning to walk again as well as regaining strength, balance, and mobility. She continued her rehabilitation at Shepherd Pathways, Shepherd Center’s comprehensive outpatient rehabilitation program for people recovering from brain injury, and was soon walking with the aid of a walker. When she graduated from Pathways, she could walk independently.

Before the accident, Cassie’s life revolved around horses. She began riding and competing at a young age. She was working as a horse trainer and rider for farms in New Jersey and Florida. She competed nationally, hoping to make it to the Canadian Olympic Team.

So it’s no surprise that during her recovery, she made it her singular goal to return to horseback riding.

“All I could think about was getting back on the horse,” Cassie remembers. “I’ve done it my whole life – that’s all I knew.”

To help her achieve that goal, therapists at Pathways incorporated elements of horseback riding into her therapy. Six months later, she was indeed back on a horse.

“It was the most amazing, emotional experience,” says Cassie, who now has her sights set on returning to competition, but on a smaller scale.

She is very appreciative of how far she has come.

“The doctors tell you that they can’t predict your recovery with a brain injury because everyone is different,” Cassie says. “But I feel fortunate that after two years, I am doing better than ever.”

 Written by Sara Baxter

It’s not the first time Bill has spent a lot of time in that building. In fact, he credits SHARE for saving his life.

Bill, a retired U.S. Army staff sergeant who spent most of his time in the military as an infantryman, had been dealing with depression, anxiety, and anger management issues since his discharge in 2017 but couldn’t find help. It wasn’t until he heard about SHARE that he felt like things could change.

“I didn’t realize how hard it was to access mental health care until I tried to do it,” Bill says. “It was like I was on an island by myself, frantically searching for help. I was thinking, ‘Nobody gives a damn, so why should I care?’ I had suicidal ideations. Shepherd was my last hope.”

Bill entered SHARE in August 2020, where doctors diagnosed him with a traumatic brain injury, post-traumatic stress disorder, and clinical depression. Right away, he began cognitive, behavioral, physical, and other types of therapy to work through both his emotional and physical symptoms.

“I learned that if I don’t take care of myself, I can’t take care of anyone else,” says Bill, who is married with three children. “They give you a plethora of tools for your toolbox and teach you how to use them.”

Nearly two years later, Bill says he is a different person with a more positive outlook. He is now finding ways to make life better for his fellow veterans.

“I have a passion for helping veterans,” he says. “Because I’ve been there.”

He created an employee resource group at Choate that raises money for veterans and veteran organizations. He describes it as “veterans helping veterans.” He is also very involved in Shepherd’s Men, a volunteer group of civilians and active duty and retired service members who advocate for veterans and support SHARE.

“My story started at SHARE,” Bill says of his transformation. “Everything else was a lead-up to that. The people there care about you walking out of there better than you walked in. It’s the most amazing place in the world.”

Written by Sara Baxter

In January 2022, on his way home from work managing an Atlanta restaurant, Yusef swerved to avoid an object in the road. He then overcorrected and crashed, sustaining a traumatic brain injury (TBI).

Yusef spent a few weeks at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta before transferring to Shepherd Center. For months, Yusef worked with his care team to regain strength and relearn how to walk and talk — and eventually, as his father, Will Smith recalls, to dance.

“He had a dance session in therapy and got to dance and move and got his groove back, so to speak, with his therapy team,” says Will.

Yusef doesn’t remember much of his time at Shepherd but says he eventually started to piece things together.

“I woke up one day in June and thought, ‘Why am I here? What is this? This is just a dream. I'll go back to sleep.’ I eventually came to grips with the idea I was actually in the hospital,” he says.

“Once I became aware of what was going on, I do remember my nurses and the people taking care of me. I’m thankful for them — very thankful. And they didn't take any mess from me, which was good. I couldn't get one over on them,” he laughs.

“They were making sure that I was getting better. They were finding ways to keep me up and keep me in motion, and I appreciate that,” Yusef says.

Yusef remembers the dance session with his therapists, as well as playing games, and meeting other patients.

“The experience of going to different areas and seeing other people who have similar situations to me. That was very enlightening.”

Yusef’s mother lives in Pittsburgh, and his parents each stayed in family housing during parts of his rehabilitation.  

His father says that again and again, their experiences as family members confirmed that Yusef was in the right place.

“We were always informed of everything that went on with Yusef. And the resources offered to parents, from how to deal with TBI, the websites, the meetings, the support groups, and the perspective of parents who had similar experiences, were all great,” Will recalls.

“The therapists said, ‘Let us work with Yusef and trust the process. He does the work, and you'll see the results,’ and that's where we are now,” Will says.

After several months of therapy, Yusef walked out of Shepherd Center.

Getting Back to Work and to Life

Last fall, Yusef and Will were featured in a public service announcement (PSA) for the Buckle Up Georgia campaign. Georgia Public Broadcasting and the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety produce the PSA in collaboration with Shepherd Center. Yusef says the reason he’s here today is because of his seatbelt.

Now, he’s living with his mom in Clairton, a suburb of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and working at a pharmacy down the street. He’s also continuing to build a small business based on a product he developed before his injury, Bee Butter, a beeswax-based body butter for skin, hair, and lips.

“I was looking for something different than the products in the store because they have too many chemical components, and they irritated my skin,” he recalls.

He says that while his long-term memory is strong, he still has some difficulty with his short-term memory.

“What’s funny is my short-term memory is bad, but one of the first things I remembered — how I used to make the Bee Butter, the proportions and all that.”

He hopes to sell Bee Butter online and at the pharmacy where he works. But his bigger goal is to return to Atlanta so he can see his son more.

“I’m working and trying to figure it out right now. I can make a better life — not just for me but for my son.”

Written by Ruth Underwood

How long have you worked at Shepherd Center, and what is your role?

I’ve worked here for seven years. I am a neuropsychologist in the inpatient Brain Injury Rehabilitation Program. I work with patients to assess cognition, behavior, and emotional functioning after their brain injury. I educate patients, families, and staff about those changes. I also see one outpatient a month for general neuropsychological evaluation, including internal referrals, often from the Andrew C. Carlos Multiple Sclerosis Institute, or external referrals from primary care physicians or neurologists. I also am co-director of our Neuropsychology Fellowship training program. In that role, I help recruit, train, and supervise neuropsychology fellows.

What is the difference between a neuropsychologist and a psychologist?

Neuropsychologists are specialized in understanding the brain/behavior relationship. When most people think of a psychologist, they imagine a clinical psychologist who works with people with anxiety, depression, or trauma histories. Neuropsychologists work to understand how the brain's function impacts someone on a day-to-day basis. That includes working with people who had injuries to their brain, like strokes or traumatic brain injury, and people who have illnesses that could impact their brain function, like multiple sclerosis or dementia.

Neuropsychologists consider a holistic view of the patient, including mental health. We need to understand their medical history, any medications they're taking, and how those might impact their cognitive or behavioral functioning. We also consider things like sleep, fatigue, and pain and how those might also impact cognitive functioning. The neuropsychologist also needs a good understanding of the role of culture, educational attainment and quality, family systems, health literacy, and other factors.

How do you think your role impacts patients and their families?

As patients become more insightful, education, validation, and normalization of their experiences can be essential for coping. Educating patients and their families about what to expect, what a recovery timeline looks like, and how they can help with recovery can improve adjustment.

What's the most fulfilling part of your job?

The education piece is fulfilling — helping people have those light bulb moments of understanding how brain injury is impacting them. The teamwork—building relationships through working with the interdisciplinary team and training our fellows are also very fulfilling.

What was one of your best days at work?

When our previous inpatients come back to visit us, seeing their progress lights up the day.

Education:

Loyola University, Bachelor’s degree in Psychology

Suffolk University, Boston, Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology

University of Mississippi Medical Center-Jackson VAMC Consortium, Clinical internship

Methodist Rehabilitation Center in Jackson, Mississippi, APPCN-approved postdoctoral fellowship in neuropsychology

Fun Facts:

-       Dr. Jackson grew up in Trinidad but has lived in the United States as an adult.

-       She loves scary movies and “The Bachelor” and encourages everyone she knows to watch “The Golden Bachelor.”

-       She enjoys weightlifting and is a CrossFit Level-1 trainer. Her goal is to combine her love for weightlifting and brain injury rehab by becoming certified in Adaptive and Inclusive Training.

-       She loves spending time with her dog, Belle.

Unfortunately, those plans were derailed when a car she was riding in was t-boned by an impaired driver in March 2022 — just months before graduation. Maria sustained a broken hip, broken ribs, a fractured orbital bone, and a traumatic brain injury (TBI). She was in intensive care for two weeks at Memorial Health University Medical Center in Savannah, during which a family friend recommended that she consider Shepherd Center’s Brain Injury Rehabilitation Program.

She transferred to Shepherd Center, and her mother, who lives in Panama City, Panama, where Maria is from, accompanied her. Because of the TBI, Maria had difficulty processing what was happening. She thought she and her mother were in a hotel room. She tried to walk, not understanding that she had a broken hip.

She worked with physical, occupational, and speech therapists to regain strength, balance, memory, and executive functioning skills. After a month, Maria transitioned to Shepherd Pathways, Shepherd Center’s comprehensive outpatient rehabilitation program for people recovering from brain injury. She continued therapy with the goal of returning to school, graduating, and finding a job. As she improved, she was able to do her schoolwork from Pathways, and her graduation was delayed by only three months.

“I just wanted to get back to living my life,” Maria says. “And Shepherd Center gave me the building blocks to do that.”

After graduating from SCAD in August 2022, Maria followed through with her plan and moved to New York with a friend, eventually landing a six-month internship at a branding studio. She now lives in Brooklyn with a couple of roommates and navigates the subway system commuting to her job in Manhattan as a junior designer at a consulting firm.

Though she never lost sight of her plan, she credits Shepherd Center for helping her execute it.

“The staff at Shepherd Center helps you reach your goals realistically and practically,” Maria says. “They made me feel capable and fueled my ambition. None of them said, ‘You can’t do this.’ Instead, they said, ‘Let’s try this so you can do this.’”

 Written by Sara Baxter

On his last deployment, Scott’s team fired an estimated 4,000 120mm mortars. He believes exposure to frequent blasts over a long period led to sustaining traumatic brain injuries (TBI) and post-traumatic stress.

As a result, when he returned to the U.S. in 2017, he had trouble completing his daily runs. He began experiencing dizziness, vision and speech problems, and short-term memory issues. His balance was off, and he fell often. Army medical staff treated him with medication, but he says it was ineffective.

“I kept trying to get better on my own,” he says. “I thought if I just powered through it, it would all go away. But instead, it got worse.”

With no relief, Scott says he came to the conclusion that he was just going to have to live with his symptoms. It was his new normal.

That is until Scott learned about Shepherd Center’s SHARE Military Initiative, which provides rehabilitation for military veterans, service members, and first responders with traumatic brain injuries and mental health concerns. He joined the program in February 2022.

“It’s the best program I’ve ever been through,” he says.

For four months, he worked through his issues. Vestibular therapy improved his mobility, vision, and balance. Brain games helped with his short-term memory. Gaze therapy reduced dizziness.

“They didn’t throw medication at me – they gave me exercises that I still do today,” Scott says. “The difference has been amazing. It gave me a lot of hope.”

Today, Scott is back working at Fort Liberty in the Human Development Directorate, a unit that helps enlisted soldiers and officers prepare for the Special Forces Qualification Course. He has seen dramatic improvements and is especially happy to have the energy and stamina to keep up with his five children, four boys and a girl, ranging in age from eight months to 15 years.

“Now I can do more than I ever could,” he says. “SHARE changed my outlook. It’s made me a more positive person. I am now inspired to be the best version of myself for my wife and kids. Shepherd did that for me.”

Written by Sara Baxter

Bob has experienced symptoms from the brain injury for years, especially vision and balance issues, but he did his best to ignore them. He also struggled with PTSD, which made him feel on edge and angry, what he calls “white knuckling life.”

“My body is constantly sending the signal — alert, alert, alert — and that's all you get, that’s all you feel,” he explains.

Then, after a hip injury and bouts with COVID, his symptoms started worsening.

“I couldn't balance on stairs, and at the same time, I was unable to control my emotions.

I would just start crying,” he recalls, “and the folks at SHARE told me this is not uncommon — ignored passing out, ignored balance issues, ignored headaches, ignored all that, but the moment that I couldn't stop crying, I was like, oh, something is really wrong with me. I don't cry.”

Bob attended SHARE in 2022 and says it was a reality check that has made a big difference in his life.

“One of my struggles is recognizing that I am not superhuman and can't always push through and do whatever I want. And SHARE helped me change my perspective. I've slowed down.”

Physical and occupational therapy sessions helped Bob work on his vision and balance issues. And he credits a simple office procedure called a sphenopalatine block, in which a local anesthetic is delivered through the nasal passages to block a cluster of nerves behind the face, with making his PTSD symptoms more manageable. With fewer PTSD symptoms he was able to put other tools he learned at SHARE into practice.

Knowing others have had similar experiences also helped.

“Before you go to SHARE, it feels like you're the only person on earth dealing with these issues, and you often hear that you're making it up, that you're being ridiculous,” Bob says. “And then you go there, and all these other people are dealing with the exact same things, and they relate.

They're telling their story, but it's yours. That's my story right there, coming out of someone else's mouth.”

Bob also felt the SHARE team understood him.

“There’s something about the entire staff at SHARE,” Bob says. “They give you that feeling of, ‘yeah, we know, it's real’ — and they know exactly what they need to do to make it better. They have a gift.”

Written by Ruth Underwood 

Through them all, Rachel’s husband John kept recalling Rachel’s earliest post-injury runs that seemed even more miraculous than the 26.2 miles that Rachel ran in a cold Boston rain. As John sees it, Rachel’s marathon began on an oval, indoor track lofted above the Livingston Gym at Shepherd Center in Atlanta — where she spent more than three months in inpatient and outpatient rehabilitation.

“I can’t count how many hours she spent up there,” John says. “As soon as she was able to run again, you couldn’t stop her.”

Rachel started by alternating two running and two walking laps, building up to a mile. By the time she left Shepherd Center, she was covering 10 miles at a time.

“Running was my biggest personal goal in physical therapy,” Rachel says. “Not just for the marathon, but because running has always been a joyful part of my life. And I had lost it in an instant.”

Back in November 2022, John and Rachel had snuck in a rare date, taking a break from the daily grind that comes with owning a small business. (In their case, an Italian restaurant named Moni’s, where John oversees business operations and Rachel is the chef.) The couple’s date ended prematurely when Rachel crashed on her electric scooter. She sustained a severe traumatic brain injury, broke 17 bones, and was placed on life support with a ventilator doing her breathing.

After 10 days in an unresponsive coma at the University of Oklahoma Medical Center, Rachel’s care team advised John that Rachel was unlikely to regain consciousness — and unlikely to eat or breathe again on her own even if she did. While John was considering the way forward, Rachel woke up. As she slowly but steadily improved, her neurosurgeon described her recovery as miraculous.

Rachel reached Shepherd Center in mid-December. Soon, a serious secondary complication emerged. Almost half of Rachel’s skull had to be removed during her initial emergency surgery in Oklahoma City to make room for the swelling in her brain. But without her skull in place, she developed sinking skin flap syndrome, a known complication with craniectomies. In Rachel’s case, her symptoms were severe headaches that got worse out of bed, making physical therapy nearly impossible.

Ford Vox, M.D., medical director of Shepherd Center’s Disorders of Consciousness Program, diagnosed the syndrome and brought in Gary R. Gropper, M.D., consulting neurosurgeon, to address the issue. The team mapped her skull and created a 3D-printed replica of the missing sections. Dr. Gropper then implanted the new cap to restore the structure of her skull. The operation provided the pain relief Rachel needed without interrupting her stay at Shepherd Center.

From there, she was off to the races.

"What was incredible to me was how quickly things could change with Rachel and then how quickly her doctors and care team would respond to find the next solution,” John says. “When you work together in a place with all the services and facilities Shepherd Center has, and the wealth of experience there, it’s an incredible advantage.”

Case in point: While Rachel poured herself into physical therapy, she discovered an unexpected benefit in Shepherd Center’s psychological services.

“The toughest things for me were the mental battles, just being frustrated with myself and mad that my body wasn’t able to do what I knew I could do,” Rachel says. “I’d never done [psychological] therapy before, and it made me uncomfortable at first. But once I started talking, it helped so much. Tim Riggins (her rehabilitation counselor at Shepherd Center) did such a good job of making me feel calm, comfortable, and accepted."

After six weeks of inpatient care, Rachel extended her rehabilitation through Shepherd Pathways outpatient rehabilitation while staying in an accessible Shepherd Center apartment next to campus.

And three weeks after leaving Shepherd Center, Rachel Foster crossed the Boston Marathon finish line.

Today, Rachel sees many more marathons ahead. She and John will stay busy with Moni’s, too. And the couple plans to keep sharing Rachel’s improbable comeback to give others hope.

Those storytelling plans include a book, and Rachel knows one story that will surely be included.

While at Shepherd Center, she became fast friends with one of her inpatient nurses, Bella Truong. The duo became so close that they decided to get matching tattoos. “I kind of talked her into it,” Rachel says with a laugh. “It was her first, but definitely not mine!”

When the ink was dry, each woman had a new mantra on their arms framed by a morning sun rising over the horizon. Above it, the words: And, too, I rise.

“That was so special to do with Bella,” Rachel says. “And those words are true. There is always hope. It sounds cheesy, but it’s important to hold onto that when there are so many things that can take your hope away and take your happiness away.”

“No matter what life throws at you, you still can rise.”

Written by Phillip Jordan

Pursuing Possible with Shepherd Center

To support patient stories like this one, please consider contributing to Shepherd Center's Pursuing Possible campaign.       

“Person-centered goal-directed care helps us determine what is most important to our clients so we can personalize their care and get their full investment in getting better,” said Tracey Wallace, MS, CCC-SLP, FACRM, projects and education coordinator for the SHARE Military Initiative at Shepherd Center, associate director of the mTBI Brain Health and Recovery Lab, and principal investigator of the study. “While our clients may have similar traumatic brain injuries, they all have different experiences, histories, and goals that shape how they respond to care and how we need to provide care for them. This study provides evidence that this population responds to person-centered goal-directed care.”

SHARE Military Initiative is a comprehensive rehabilitation program that delivers world-class, interdisciplinary care at no cost to veterans, service members, and first responders dealing with traumatic brain injuries (TBI) and mental health concerns through flexible programming and collaborative care, transition support, and community reintegration. 

More than 450,000 traumatic brain injuries (TBI) have been documented among U.S. service members since 2000, according to the Traumatic Brain Injury Center of Excellence. While most recover from a single mild TBI within weeks, as many as 20% of adults have a more prolonged course of recovery, negatively affecting their physical and mental health, ability to function, and participation in important roles in their families and careers – all factors that make treatment complex and challenging.

At SHARE, clients identify between one and three person-centered program goals, which the SHARE team uses to develop a comprehensive, PCG-directed plan of care. The team determines the program length of stay and the type and amount of therapy provided based on given strengths, barriers, symptoms, resources, comorbidities, and other factors unique to each patient. Treatment interventions address barriers to goal attainment, and additional services are added to match goals. 

Over the course of the study, 146 participants set 281 goals. 252 goals – or 89.68% – were met or exceeded by program discharge. Goal attainment increased at six, nine, and 12 months post-discharge from SHARE Military Initiative with transition support from a transition support specialist at SHARE.

“In this study, we also found that longer, sustained participation in treatment was the most important predictor of goal attainment,” said Russell Gore, M.D., medical director of the SHARE Military Initiative at Shepherd Center, director of the mTBI Brain Health and Recovery Lab, and co-principal investigator of the study. “Our treatment program has a flexible length of stay that is individualized based on the client’s needs and goals. We were pleased to see that the study results validated this approach to care.” 

SHARE researchers Tracey Wallace, MS, CCC-SLP, Katherine McCauley, Ph.D., April Hodge, PT, DPT, NCS, Maya Whaley, and Russell Gore, M.D., collaborated with researchers Tim Moran, Ph.D., and Stephen Porter, M.D., from Emory University School of Medicine on the study.

Learn more about mild brain injury research at Shepherd Center. https://www.shepherd.org/research/acquired-brain-injury/mtbi-lab

On the morning of July 31, 2021, John woke up ready to train. He put on his bike shoes and made his way out on the road. While on his ride, John’s life changed forever. He was injured by a hit-and-run driver, sustaining a shattered C-1 vertebra, a broken C-2 vertebra, and a traumatic brain injury.  

“I don’t remember the exact details, but I planned for a two to three-hour bike ride, and it turned into this life-changing event,” John explains.

John was admitted to Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, where he spent two weeks. While at Grady, he had surgery to fuse his C-2 vertebra to the base of his skull. From there, John transferred to Shepherd Center, where he began therapy with his team. Due to his brain injury, John says he does not remember the first six or seven weeks after his injury.

“One of my first vivid memories was hearing the therapists pushing my wheelchair say that we were turning to the left. So, I would start singing, ‘To the left, to the left,’” John laughs.

With his sense of humor and his athletic drive intact, John began to train with this care team, this time from a new starting line. After seven weeks in Shepherd Center as an inpatient in the Brain Injury Rehabilitation Program, he continued his rehabilitation with five weeks at Shepherd Pathways, Shepherd Center’s comprehensive outpatient rehabilitation program for people recovering from brain injury. Slowly, he began to swim, walk, and run again.  

“John’s perseverance and determination are remarkable,” says Lydia Schubert, John’s recreational therapist at Shepherd Center. “He got in the pool his last week on inpatient at Shepherd Center and just a few months later he was back to swimming with his master's team. He hasn’t let anything stop him; he is truly inspiring.”

In July of 2022, almost a year after his injury, John ran The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Peachtree Road Race in Atlanta, which led him right past Shepherd Center on Peachtree Road, getting back into the swing of racing. He continues to improve, working with his physical therapists to pursue more races in the future.

“I’ve run a couple of 5Ks and 10Ks since then. I even swam in a swim meet, which was fun to get up and race in the water again,” he says. “Right now, I’m shifting my activity levels a bit because of some tightness in my neck, but I’m hoping in the future to do some more sprint-style triathlons.”

While he says he only vividly remembers the last few weeks at Shepherd Center, he does remember his therapists, Shepherd staff, and all the extraordinary work they put in together.

“I give a lot of credit to the therapists, doctors, and to everybody at Shepherd Center. They pushed me in the right direction, and I think the world of them.”

Written by Lindsey Rieben

Pursuing Possible with Shepherd Center

To support patient stories like this, please consider contributing to Shepherd Center's Pursuing Possible campaign. Click here to learn more.

It was diving that stuck. After being accepted to the biomedical engineering program at Georgia Tech, she made the diving team.

“I was so grateful to make the team,” Jordyn says. “I could transfer skills I learned in gymnastics like flipping and twisting into a new sport!”

Never one to shy away from a challenge, Jordyn pursued school and sport with determination. During a diving practice in the spring semester of her sophomore year, she jumped from the diving platform and, as Jordyn puts it, “hit the water wrong.”

“I got really nauseous, had trouble with lights and sounds, and couldn’t hold a conversation,” Jordyn recalls.

Jordyn had sustained a concussion. As her symptoms persisted, she decided to sit out of competitive diving until the end of that season. A study-abroad trip that summer gave her a break and time to recover. She returned to diving in the fall of her junior year, ready to start anew, but unfortunately, she would meet a similar fate.

“It was right before Thanksgiving in 2018,” Jordyn says. “I hit the water wrong again and was not feeling well. I had some trouble with visual tracking with my eyes, some vestibular symptoms and headaches that persisted too long. This is when I decided to go to the Complex Concussion Clinic.”

Shepherd Center’s Complex Concussion Clinic (CCC) serves patients ages 12 and up who are experiencing symptoms from a concussion or mild brain injury. Typically, concussions resolve within a week or two as headaches and other symptoms subside, but about 20% of cases present a more complex scenario with complications that fall beyond the scope of primary care physicians. In Jordyn’s case, she needed specialized care to handle the lingering symptoms she experienced.

“I received therapy for about two and a half months in early 2019,” Jordyn says. “I would go twice a week every week – once for physical therapy and the other for occupational therapy. They worked on tackling both my visual tracking and balance issues.”

At first, Jordyn had doubts about whether she was overthinking her symptoms. The results from her testing helped provide clarity.

“It’s like a light bulb went off,” Jordyn says. “They printed out my testing results and talked me through them. Now, I could understand my symptoms and have a plan of action to address them. By the time my treatments were done, I was feeling good, and my symptoms subsided.”

Jordyn was able to finish out her diving career at school by slowly easing back into it.

“I took a semester off from diving to pursue a co-op working on medical devices with Johnson & Johnson for my major,” Jordyn says. “When I came back, I wasn’t sure how my diving would be, so I got back into it slowly. I ended up having the best season of my career!”

She has also funneled her experience with concussion into several worthy pursuits. For her capstone project in biomedical engineering, she was accepted to a special project for the U.S. Army Rangers.

“Broadly, the project’s goal was to help mitigate traumatic brain injury among the Rangers,” Jordyn says. “I thought, hey, I have some familiarity with mild concussions, so that inspired me. It was nice to relate to the Rangers with my experience and work on how I can help service members prevent injury.”

Jordyn also became involved with Shepherd Center again, not as a patient, but as a mentor through the hospital’s SUCCESS program. SUCCESS, or Success in College after Concussion with Effective Student Supports, is a research and development project to develop a peer mentoring program for college students recovering from concussions. The program pairs newly injured college students (mentees) with students who have sustained concussions and successfully recovered like Jordyn.

“It’s been so rewarding to turn a negative of getting two concussions into a positive by mentoring,” Jordyn says. “I know I would have enjoyed having someone to talk to during that time in my life.”

Jordyn graduated from Georgia Tech in December 2020. Now, she’s pursuing her next challenge — hiking the entire 2,190-mile Appalachian Trail for six months.

“At first, I thought, oh, maybe I’m crazy!” Jordyn says jokingly. “But the more I looked into it, the more I fell in love with the challenge. I want to take time to enjoy every moment and every day.”

Written by Damjana Alverson

The Veteran Wellness Alliance, which is an initiative of the George W. Bush Institute, is a coalition of veteran peer network and clinical provider organizations, including Shepherd Center’s SHARE Military Initiative, a comprehensive rehabilitation program that focuses on assessment and treatment for service members who have served in the U.S. military since September 11, 2001, regardless of discharge status. The program helps service members who are experiencing symptoms of or have a diagnosis of mild to moderate brain injury, or concussions and any co-occurring psychological or behavioral health concerns, including post-traumatic stress. The Alliance and other veteran-serving organizations have a common goal to improve access to high-quality care for invisible wounds, but until recently, there has been no shared definition of high-quality care to guide these improvement efforts.

“The veteran community represents a diverse group of backgrounds, interests and goals with the shared experience of military service,” says Russell Gore, M.D., medical director of Shepherd Center's SHARE Military Initiative and the director of the hospital's Complex Concussion Clinic. “When combat injuries cause invisible wounds, we sometimes struggle to define treatment success due to these differences.” 

With this in mind, researchers at RAND Corporation, a global policy think tank, recently conducted a literature review and interviews with Veteran Wellness Alliance partner organizations to identify standards for high-quality care, develop an initial definition, and make recommendations for implementing, refining and disseminating the definition and its associated metrics.

The findings of the research indicate that care should be veteran-centered, providing effective and timely treatment that addresses the unique needs, values and preferences of veterans. The study also addressed the accessibility of care, evidence-based care and outcome monitoring.

“The current effort, in collaboration with the Bush Institute, to define high-quality care and identify common outcome measures will hold all of our treatment programs to the high standards our veteran clients deserve,” Dr. Gore says. “It also established a benchmark for success both for each individual veteran and for our program.”

To read the full report, click here.

Ever since I was little, I’ve loved the arts and found great joy in my own creative process. In both painting and drawing, the arts have been an escape for me, a way to express what’s in my heart, and to understand and reflect on the world around me.

In 2017, I experienced a near-death accident that resulted in a traumatic brain injury (TBI), changing the course of the rest of my life. I spent two months at the hospital in critical care, then moved to Shepherd Center, then to Restore Neurobehavioral Center and finally, as my brain and my body healed, I was able to return home. My rehabilitation became my full-time job.

After my injury, my mom brought paint and canvases to the hospital, hoping we would paint together. Due to my injury, I wasn’t able to paint at first, but I took classes to help me regain my hobby. As my brain and body healed, I became more and more confident in my innate abilities as an artist. It’s funny how you can forget almost everything about yourself and your own life, but the instinctual, innate ability to be creative persisted.

Even though I still struggle with my memory, art is – and will always be – my passion. Not only has it been an outlet to express my feelings and thoughts, but it’s also become an important part of my healing process.

In the future, as my brain and body continue to heal, I hope to return to school and finish my education. I am so grateful to art for its power to transform, transcend and heal, and I know that the creative process will continue to inspire and enrich my life.

You can view more of Rakan's art here.

Follow Rakan’s story on his mother’s Instagram: @majdamajoda

Shepherd Center is playing a pioneering role in advancing such innovative mobile solutions through its App Factory – a tech development initiative that brings together rehabilitative medicine experts and app developers with the intended user – people living with disabilities – at the center of all efforts.

“With the advent of the iPhone and other smart devices that followed, we now have platforms to support mobile apps, and it’s opened tremendous opportunities for our patients,” says Mike Jones, Ph.D., vice president of clinical research and assistive technology at Shepherd Center. “But amid the explosive growth of mobile healthcare apps, technologies must evolve and/or be adapted so that people with disabilities can use them.”

To date, more than 35 apps have emerged from the program with more than 850,000 downloads. Early efforts by Dr. Jones and his team have focused on developing app-based technologies to make specific mobile or wearable devices more useable and accessible to a person with a disability or limited dexterity.

The success of Shepherd Center’s App Factory has garnered national attention and was recently awarded a five-year $2.375 million grant from the National Institute of Disability, Independent Living and Rehabilitation Research in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The grant will allow the App Factory to develop, test and deploy several mobile health apps per year that target high-priority needs based on patient feedback and surveys. The goal is to create apps that can meaningfully help users better manage their health, improve function and quality of life. The hope, too, is that through the App Factory model, which typically doesn’t award funds until the app is available to the public, will generate some healthy competition among leading mobile app developers to assure their technology stays current.

“With the App Factory, we’ve opened it up to the whole market of app developers in the United States and Canada – academic centers, but also private businesses and tech start-ups, too,” Dr. Jones says. “They first must validate their idea and how their particular solution might work, conduct extensive user testing to demonstrate that it works and then publish it in the App Store or Android marketplace to demonstrate efficacy – that people have downloaded the app, are using it and that it’s meeting their needs.”

There will also be a central website with information about curated apps that are suitable for people with disabilities, as well as publications documenting the effectiveness of select mobile healthcare apps in improving functional outcomes.

Tracey Wallace, MS, CCC-SLP, project director of the App Factory and a speech pathologist at Shepherd Center, led the development of the BreatheWell Wear app, an Android Wear smartwatch app that provides discrete visual, tactile and auditory guidance to pace breathing for stress management, including showing users their heart rate in real time.

Thanks to user input into the design, the app allows users to play their own calming music, set multiple reminders to practice breathing and view a progress tracking screen that allows them to set a goal and monitor progress. The team behind developing the app hopes that a future version will also anticipate periods of higher stress and prompt users to breathe deeply to stem a panic attack.

“Everyone we’ve had test the app says they want to keep using it,” Wallace says. “It’s like having a personal breathing coach, and our patients tell us it really helps them – whether it’s overcoming fears of going places, managing anger or calming their anxiety.”

For more information on assistive technology research, click here.

Here are a few of the apps developed with support from the App Factory:

BreatheWell Wear

Assists with: managing stress through diaphragmatic breathing for people with mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Available on: Google Play for Android Wear smartwatches.

When people endure stress, they experience the fight-or-flight response. Their heart rate increases and breathing becomes shallow, exacerbating anxiety. Slowing their breathing, particularly when exhaling, can help calm them. BreatheWell Wear assists the user in performing deep, slow, diaphragmatic breathing by providing visual and auditory guidance to pace breathing, including a display of the user’s heart rate in real time. It also provides the user with the option of listening to calming sounds and music or selecting a song from their own music library. BreatheWell Wear allows users to set reminders to practice during periods of low stress so they can perform the breathing technique effectively when they need it most.

BEST Suite

Assists with: energy/time management, task completion, goal setting and strategy management.

Available on: iOS devices and can be found in the App Store.

Brain Education Strategies & Technology (BEST) has developed a suite of four apps designed to help people with brain injuries and other cognitive challenges learn to optimize their energy, self-regulate behavior, set goals, track strategies, and get more done at home, school and work. The apps are integrated, allowing users to easily use the entire suite or use each app independently.

More information on the BEST Suite can be found on their website here.

SwapMyMood

Assists with: problem-solving and emotion regulation.

Available on: iOS devices and can be found in the App Store.

SwapMyMood was designed to assist people with brain injury in engaging in problem-solving and emotion regulation. The app is an electronic mobile version of evidence-based tools that were previously only available in paper format. SwapMyMood guides the user through the multiple steps involved in a problem-solving and emotion regulation intervention. Links to supportive resources and tips are integrated throughout, and effective, personalized interventions can be saved for reference in future situations.

The contents of this app are based on the Short-Term Executive Plus Intervention for Executive Dysfunction developed at the Brain Injury Research Center of Mount Sinai and funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (grant no.1R49CE001171-01).

Pow!r Mount Plus

Assists with: mobility impairments due to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), multiple sclerosis (MS), spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) or high-level spinal cord injuries.

Available on: Google Play for the Android platform and supports devices on a Wink network.

The Pow!r Mount gives users the freedom and independence to position and interact with equipment such as speech devices, laptops, phones, cameras, tablets, hydration and suction equipment.

The Pow!r Mount Plus app adds home control capabilities to the Pow!r Mount app, enabling users to control smart devices in their home using their phone or tablet. Both apps can be controlled by directly touching the screen or using accessible switches plugged into the Pow!r Mount’s End Cap.

SpeakUp: An SPL Meter

Assists with: speaking volume.

Available on: Google Play for Android operating systems.

SpeakUp is designed for people that need assistance modulating or increasing their speaking volume. The target use population are pediatric patients that have difficulty modulating the volume of their voice and children who have difficulty using a loud voice. The adjustable nature of the application allows it to be used with adults, most notably those with Parkinson’s disease.

Speech2RTT Communicator

Assists with: non-verbal communication.

Available on: Google Play for Android operating systems.

Speech2RTT® is an Android application that enables people who are deaf, hard of hearing, and non-verbal to communicate with anyone using their Android smart phone or tablet. It works over cellular networks and for Wi-Fi calling.

The app captions and then streams the text of what is being said between individuals. If a user cannot speak, or opts not to speak, they can type what they want to say in real time.

Tetra Alarm

Assists with: reminders for people with spinal cord injury or other conditions or illnesses.

Available on: Google Play for Android devices.

Many people with spinal cord injuries (SCI) often have a tough time with the built-in alarm functions of a smartphone. Unfortunately, the app versions haven’t been much better. Designed for people with full manual ability, many apps are difficult to use for someone with limited dexterity.

Tetra Alarm is designed so you just need to select a box corresponding to a particular time. Tetra Alarm is not only a useful tool for people with SCI, but also for people who have other injuries or chronic illnesses that have affected their memory and cognitive function.

Tummy Time Fun

Assists with: encouraging young children to spend time in the prone position.

Available on: iOS devices and can be found in the App Store.

Tummy Time Fun (TTF) is an iOS app that can be used to encourage children to spend more time in the prone position, improving postural control. During tummy time sessions, a baby/child wears a small, lightweight electronic sensor between the shoulder blades, which measures the angle of the upper body relative to a horizontal, prone position. This sensor communicates wirelessly with the TTF app that is installed on a smartphone or tablet. When the child pushes up from prone so that the angle of his or her upper body is above a preset threshold level, the app activates music or video to motivate the child to remain in that position. For video feedback, the smartphone or tablet can be placed directly in front of the baby to be in the line of sight when he or she pushes up from prone.

This website contains more information, including an instructional video.

AccessLyve 

Assists with: providing real-time audio streaming for people who are blind, have low vision or are hard of hearing.

Available on: iOS devices and can be found in the App Store.

AccessLyve provides real-time audio streaming for people who are blind, have low vision or are hard of hearing.

Written by Amanda Crowe, MA, MPH

1. Shepherd Center Co-Founder James Shepherd Passes Away 
Family and friends remember James as a dedicated advocate for people with disabilities.

2. Getting Back on Track After Spinal Cord Injury 
Day by day, Caroline Moore Brodmann works toward recovery from a spinal cord injury.

3. Pennsylvania Man Returns to Work, Takes on Family Life After Brain Injury Rehabilitation 
Adam Albaugh credits Shepherd Center for preparing him for life after a brain injury.

4. Shepherd Center Treats Two Patients with Chronic Spinal Cord Injury with Potential Restorative Drug in RESET Clinical Trial 
The Phase 1 study is evaluating the safety of the drug.

5. A Patient – and His Love of Music – Brings Holiday Spirit to Shepherd Center 
After sustaining a spinal cord injury, Thomas Joiner gets back to doing what he loves – conducting music.

6. From Patient to Safety Advocate 
Rachel Johnson, who sustained a brain injury in an e-scooter crash, aims to improve the safety of this new mode of transportation.

7. Just a Typical 18-Year-Old Boy 
Through teamwork, dedication and a whole lot of creative thinking, Shepherd Center therapists help Jefferey Cox get back to gaming.

8. U.S. News & World Report Once Again Ranks Shepherd Center Among Best Rehabilitation Hospitals 
The 2019 ranking marks Shepherd Center’s 11th year in the top 10.

9. Spinal Cord Injuries Lead to Shared Dreams 
Inspired by their time at Shepherd Center, two former patients are now doctors of physical medicine and rehabilitation.

10. The Patient Who Changed Me 
Shepherd Center employees talk about the bonds they form with patients and their families.

Shepherd's Men started their run on May 22 at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Chicago, Illinois, before which they placed a wreath at the Memorial. From there, they ran a half marathon (22 km) for seven consecutive days, wearing 22-pound flak vests to symbolize the average number of deaths by suicide of U.S. veterans every day. The team ran through Chicago, Illinois; Indianapolis, Indiana; Louisville, Kentucky; Nashville, Tennessee; Johnson City, Tennessee; Athens, Georgia; and Atlanta. Along their route, they met with corporate donors and supporters, firefighters and other veteran resource groups and individual donors to speak about SHARE.

On Monday, May 28, a crowd of friends and family members gathered along Peachtree Road to welcome Shepherd's Men with cheers and applause as a police escort led the way into a celebration in the plaza of the Woodruff Family Residence Center at Shepherd Center. Once at Shepherd Center, a celebration got under way as Grace Ellis, daughter of Shepherd’s Men co-founder Travis Ellis, sang the National Anthem. Sarah Batts, MBA, executive director of Shepherd Foundation served as the emcee of the event and Sarah Morrison, PT, MBA, MHA, president and CEO of Shepherd Center, offered the welcome message. Travis Ellis spoke about the SHARE Military Initiative and Shepherd’s Men while Brent Perkins of Brasfield & Gorrie gave the invocation. Jason Gallagher shared his painful experience of losing his brother, who was a veteran but not a SHARE client or graduate, to suicide. Melissa Roberts, wife of SHARE graduate Dustin Roberts spoke about how Dustin’s participation in the SHARE Military Initiative has changed their lives. Joe DeAngelo, CEO of HD Supply, which is a sponsor of Shepherd’s Men, led the coin presentation.

Shepherd’s Men will continue to raise funds for the SHARE Military Initiative throughout the year. For more information or to donate, click here. You also can support Shepherd’s Men through special events, including its upcoming sporting clays tournament, scheduled for Oct. 5 at Barnsley Resort. For more information, visit Shepherdsmen.com or follow Shepherd's Men on Facebook.

During his first tour of duty in Iraq in 2004, he witnessed his share of death and horror. Michael sustained a traumatic brain injury and developed post-traumatic stress disorder. His regiment’s medical officer prescribed him medications for depression, anxiety and insomnia. Then Michael went back to Iraq in 2006. During that tour, he ran out of his medications.

“Forced to go cold turkey in a combat zone” is how Michael describes it.

He eventually had to be medically evacuated to a combat stress center. After leaving the service, there were more rough years ahead for Michael, including personal losses, homelessness and a moped motorcycle accident that aggravated his TBI and PTSD. Michael was suicidal when he finally contacted the Semper Fi Fund, a nonprofit organization that provides support for wounded Marines and their families.

The Semper Fi Fund recommended Michael for the SHARE Military Initiative at Shepherd Center. He spent 12 weeks in the program, which focuses on assessment and treatment for service men and women who have sustained a mild to moderate traumatic brain injury, along with PTSD or other mental health concerns, from service in post-9/11 conflicts.

He called his graduation from the program, on April 28, 2016, a beginning, not an end.

“That time revitalized hope for me,” Michael recalls. “It made me realize I wasn’t alone. Before then, I was only living in the past. Now, I’m looking forward.”

Today, Michael is pursuing an associate’s degree, and he also serves as a go-to source for veterans in need through the Semper Fi Fund. In November 2016, he married his longtime fiancé, Morgan, who went through his entire SHARE recovery with him. Morgan and her parents run a veterinary clinic, and their goal is to open an equine therapy and healing center for veterans.

“I tell every veteran, ‘Don’t give up,’” Michael says. “’You’re not alone. Find somewhere to plug in. The worst thing you can be is a warrior without a cause.’”

Written by Phillip Jordan

“It feels like I’m in grade school,” he says. “I’m not playing Bach again just yet, but it’s coming. I’m getting my hands and my brain connected. I’m learning to be excited about the little things, like being able to improve a little bit on the piano every day.”

That is more than enough for Shelby, his wife Mary, their two children and their five grandchildren. In January 2016, Shelby sustained a traumatic brain injury and lost consciousness after falling from a ladder.

An ordained minister at Pinelake Church, in Brandon, Mississippi, Shelby says those most difficult days after his injury left him with a lesson.

“My faith is now deeper than it was before, and that’s because of my family and friends. During that time when I wasn’t aware enough to have faith, they had faith for me.”

That faith, he says, is what sustained him during the initial days at North Mississippi Medical Center and then again in his months of physical, occupational and speech therapy at Shepherd Center’s Brain Injury Rehabilitation Program. He calls the people at Shepherd Center “a bright spot in his memory” from that time.

“My family and I went from hearing doctors say, ‘We don’t know if he’s going to live’ and ‘We’re not sure what kind of life he’ll have,’” Shelby recalls, “to hearing the staff at Shepherd Center ask me, ‘What would you like to learn to do again?’ I wouldn’t be where I am now without that kind of optimism and support.”

These days, Mary has returned to work, and Shelby is back to his daily Bible study group of 25 years, thanks to the independence he has regained, He still wants to learn to drive and jog again. He works out at the YMCA, swims and walks around the park, alongside Mary.

“I’ve leaned an awful lot on her in the past year,” Shelby says. “Probably more than in all the other 43 years of our marriage. I know I’m a blessed man.”

Written by Phillip Jordan

Shepherd’s Men will run a half marathon (22 km) for eight consecutive days, wearing 22-pound flak jackets, symbolizing the deaths by suicide of U.S. veterans every day.

Runners are raising funds to support the Shepherd Center’s SHARE Military Initiative (SHARE), a nationally acclaimed program that has transformed lives for more than 300 veterans and families at no charge to veterans.

SHARE Military Initiative at Shepherd Center is a comprehensive rehabilitation program that focuses on assessment and treatment for service men and women who have sustained a mild to moderate traumatic brain injury, along with co-occurring PTSD or other mental health concerns (such as depression or anxiety), from service in post-9/11 conflicts. SHARE Military Initiative provides assistance, support, and education to service members and their families during their recovery treatment and beyond.

This year’s run begins at the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, honoring the courageous civilians who gave their lives on 9/11. In tribute to these heroes the team will wear 93 pounds for the first run. 

Itinerary:

• May 22 – Shanksville, Pennsylvania
• May 23 – Washington, DC
• May 24 – Lynchburg, Virginia
• May 25 – Raleigh, North Carolina
• May 26 – Asheville, North Carolina
• May 27 – Nashville, Tennessee
• May 28 – Athens, Georgia
• May 29 – Atlanta, Georgia – running into Shepherd Center

“We run to share the burden our veterans carry every day as a result of their time in combat,” said Travis Ellis, Shepherd’s Men co-founder and 2017 Citizen Heroes Award recipient. “It is our duty and privilege as Americans to fight for our heroes and their service to our country.”

Corporate Support

For the third year, HD Supply (NASDAQ:HDS) is the title sponsor for Shepherd’s Men. Company Chairman and CEO, Joe DeAngelo, is an honorary team member, running each day remotely while also wearing the 22-pound flak vest.

“We are honored to support the Shepherd’s Men and their steadfast commitment to help our veterans re-acclimate successfully to civilian life,” said DeAngelo. “As one HD Supply Family, we proudly fight for our servicemen and women who selflessly fought for the freedoms we enjoy every day.”

More than 1,000 HD Supply associates and board of director members have committed to pushing their physical limits and completing a challenging physical activity during this year’s run.

Shepherd’s Men has raised $1.4 million for SHARE since its inception in 2014. Please visit www.shepherdsmen.com for more information and to donate.

About Shepherd’s Men
For the fourth year, Shepherd’s Men will run to raise awareness about the SHARE Military Initiative at Shepherd Center and to raise funds. Private funding is needed to make SHARE’s life-saving program available to veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars who suffer from traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress. The 2017 goal is $2.2 million, to facilitate program expansion; donations can be made via Shepherdsmen.com. The 2017 runners are active, medically retired and honorably discharged servicemen and civilian patriots who are committed to helping those who have sacrificed so much for this country and all who enjoy the freedoms they volunteered to protect.

Shepherd Center’s adolescent rehabilitation program needs donor funding to enhance its therapeutic, academic and return-to-school programs for teens with a spinal cord and/or brain injury. So, four years ago, adolescent treatment team members started an annual fundraising fashion show called Project Rollway. The event features fashion modeling by staff members and former patients, providing a fun, confidence-building experience for patients while garnering financial support through purchased tickets and sponsorships.

Project Rollway 2017 promises to another great year for the annual tradition. Modeling in this year’s show are some former patients whose stories attracted news media coverage. Those participants include Emily Bowman, Clark Jacobs, Agnes Kim and Pierre St. Brice of metro Atlanta, Grant Brunson of Albany, Georgia, and Michael Doherty of the New Orleans, Louisiana, area.

The event is scheduled for 6 to 9 p.m. Friday, June 23, in Shepherd Center’s Livingston Gym. More details and tickets are available at shepherd.org/project-rollway.

The annual event began in 2012 and raised $3,000 in its inaugural year. As it gained popularity, proceeds increased to around $15,000 in 2016. Purchased tickets and sponsorship packages for Project Rollway have helped enhance rehabilitation programs for Shepherd Center’s adolescent patients since the event’s inception, organizers said.

Also, the fashion show helps spread awareness on the effects of spinal cord and brain injuries amongst teens and the role of specialized rehabilitation in helping them successfully return to their homes, schools and communities, organizers said.

There are approximately 12,000 new cases of spinal cord injury (SCI) annually in the United States, and of those cases, between 1,500 and 2,000 affect children and adolescents. Each year, more than 3.5 million Americans will sustain a traumatic brain injury (TBI), and of that number, 250,000 to 400,000 affect adolescents. After sustaining a SCI and/or a TBI, individuals (adolescents and adults) have to learn how to adjust or learn new methods of living to be comfortable, independent and able to transition back into their community.

Learn more about Shepherd Center’s rehabilitation programs for adolescents with spinal cord and brain injuries:

• Spinal Cord Injury Rehabilitation for Adolescents
• Brain Injury Rehabilitation for Adolescents

By Alaina Case

Now, Shepherd Center’s new Complex Concussion Clinic is bringing together an interdisciplinary team of specialists to address complications and provide a streamlined path to full recovery.

This isn’t the first time Shepherd Center has forayed into care for people with complex concussions. For nearly 10 years, Shepherd Center has treated complicated concussions among service men and women through its SHARE Military Initiative.

Like SHARE, the Complex Concussion Clinic offers a comprehensive approach to evaluation and treatment, so patients no longer have to seek out multiple clinicians for their range of symptoms. The clinic, the only one of its kind in the Atlanta region, provides a one-stop resource with specialists in neurology, vestibular and balance disorders, athletic training, rehabilitation medicine, neuropsychology and neurosurgery. Assessments include cognitive, ocular-motor, vestibular and balance testing, and, when needed, advanced imaging using three-dimensional and high-resolution technology.

“Every injury is different, and the injury can affect different parts of the brain,” said Russell Gore, M.D., a vestibular neurologist who is medical director of Shepherd Center’s SHARE Military Initiative and director of the new Complex Concussion Clinic. “Impairments in specific areas tend to respond best to certain types of treatment.”

For example, a concussion may affect the vestibular system, causing dizziness and balance problems. Patients may have difficulty concentrating, sensitivity to light or noise, trouble going to sleep or staying asleep, headaches and mood changes. The ocular-motor system encompasses a large portion of the brain, and impairment there also can cause balance problems.

Concussions pose unique issues for athletes in youth, collegiate and professional sports, and the Complex Concussion Clinic provides expertise, including telemedicine symptom checks and advice about how to engage in light activity before making a full return to a sport or activity.

“The return-to-play protocol is very complicated for parents and coaches,” said Cheryl Appleberry, lead athletic trainer for the Complex Concussion Clinic. “We’ll guide them through their recovery program.”

To be evaluated by the Complex Concussion Clinic, potential patients should seek a referral through their frontline provider, which could be a sports medicine, emergency room or primary care physician or athletic trainer. Referral is appropriate for patients who have dizziness, balance problems and nausea lasting more than a few days after the injury, or symptoms such as headaches, dizziness, difficulty sleeping or concentrating that persist two to three weeks after injury.

People with a history of migraines, learning challenges, or a previous concussion that required an extended recovery should obtain a comprehensive assessment soon after their injury, Dr. Gore said.

Based on their needs, patients receive recreational therapy, cognitive therapy, occupational therapy, counseling, vestibular therapy and athletic training. The treatment duration varies but typically involves outpatient visits for eight to 12 weeks, and it is usually covered by insurance.

The Complex Concussion Clinic treats patients in the first-floor multispecialty clinic at Shepherd Center’s main campus at 2020 Peachtree Road Northwest in Atlanta. In the first half of 2017, it will move into a new center nearby at 80 Peachtree Park Drive, which will include a 4,000-square-foot therapy space with state-of-the-art equipment and technology. Patients who need rehabilitation for moderate to severe traumatic brain injury will continue to be seen at Shepherd Pathways in Decatur.

The Complex Concussion Clinic’s focused treatment plans minimize the use of medication while speeding recovery.

“As a rehabilitation center, we’re very goal-directed,” Dr. Gore said. “We want to maximize the performance and recovery of every patient.”

Bu Michele Cohen Marill
 

At the urging of a family member, Dustin enrolled in Shepherd Center's SHARE Military Initiative, a comprehensive rehabilitation program that focuses on assessment and treatment for service men and women who have sustained a mild to moderate TBI and PTSD from combat in post-9/11 conflicts.

During his four months at Shepherd Center, Dustin worked on his balance, speech and hearing, as well as learned strategies to improve his memory and reading comprehension. He also attended counseling to help heal his emotional scars. When he left the program in January 2016, he felt confident in his new skills, but was still nervous about returning home.

“What we went through is a pretty big deal,” Dustin says. “It can be easy to fall back into that hole.”

To extend that continuum of support to clients after they graduate from SHARE, Shepherd Center is now providing a life coach to each client to follow them a year after graduation. Erin Garland, CTRS, who worked as a recreation therapist at Shepherd Pathways, Shepherd Center’s post-acute brain injury program, started as a SHARE life coach in 2015. The position is funded through a grant from the Bob Woodruff Foundation.

“It can be a hard transition back home,” says Jackie Breitenstein, MS, CTRS, CCM, manager of SHARE. “Isolation is common within this group, and even after the improvements they’ve made here, they could go back to feeling isolated.”

Garland meets with clients weekly starting three weeks prior to graduation to discuss a transition plan that includes memory and communication strategies, as well as a plan on how to handle medications. Critical to this is also identifying and educating what Garland calls their circle of support – the people at home who can provide help when they return.

“Knowing I will be there after they graduate reduces the stress and worry of going home,” Garland says. “They have SHARE in their back pocket, and can sustain the gains they made at Shepherd Center and continue to improve. It’s like an exhale.”

Once clients return home, Garland checks in with them 72 hours after graduation, a week after graduation, then weekly for the first month, monthly until six months and then at nine and 12 months. Garland documents each client’s progress at those intervals. She checks in on them both by phone and in person, travelling to anywhere a SHARE client is. She will make home visits up to eight times within a year based on client needs, the SHARE team’s recommendation, and family support.

“Home visits are really the key part of life coaching,” Breitenstein says. “Erin will fly or drive to client’s home to provide continued education support to client and family so the strategies learned at SHARE can be implemented at home.”

Aside from general support, Garland helps clients reintegrate into the community, problem-solve and even help with things like figuring out insurance. The phone calls or visits also provide a level of accountability for following through on the strategies that support their success, she says.

The program is only a year old, however Jackie says preliminary data indicates life coaching is a valuable part of the success of the service member reintegrating back into the community. “We see continued success after they leave,” she says. “There’s a connectedness of not feeling left behind.”

Dustin agrees, noting that Garland will sometimes help him get back on track, if necessary, and he likes knowing she is there.

“I have somewhere to turn if something happens,” he says. “It gives me some reassurance. It’s like having a lifeline.”

For more information, visit shepherd.org/share.

Written by Sara Baxter
Photos by Louie Favorite

“We talk about Aaron all the time,” Steven says. “His memory drives all of us, and we definitely feel his presence. So we tell friends and family to do the same. We don’t want people to feel uncomfortable or feel scared to talk about him around us.”

The accident happened Aug. 13, 2012. After several weeks in a Roanoke, Va., trauma center, Steven was transferred for a three-month stay at Shepherd Center.

“It was kind of like a therapy boot camp,” he recalls. “When I got there, I was unable to even sit up in my bed. By the time I left, I was walking on my own.”

During his time at Shepherd Center, Steven also began to grasp what had happened to him – and to Aaron – and began receiving the resources he needed to sort through his emotions.

Steven and Aaron, separated by four years, had formed their strongest bonds outdoors. Aaron was an enthusiastic outdoorsman who loved to hunt and fish. Steven wasn’t too keen on hunting, but the two found a compromise activity in hiking. Today, Steven and his parents relish the long walks they take with Aaron’s dog, Rusty.

Steven feels his brother’s encouragement in other ways, too. At the time of the accident, Steven says he wasn’t focused on the important things in life, including school. But now, he’s taking classes toward his associate’s degree, something Steven envisions as a first step toward a career in human services. He’s also begun opening himself up, sharing his story with support groups in his hometown.

“This is the beginning of the next big chapter in my life,” Steven says. “I want to get a job where I can share my story and help others who are facing similar situations. This is all to honor Aaron. His spirit is what pushes me today.”

By Phillip Jordan
 

Then, things started to change. He couldn’t sleep. He had trouble reading and comprehending his schoolwork. He forgot appointments and assignments. He lost his appetite and stopped eating. Eventually, he isolated himself and rarely left the house.

Dustin, who had five combat deployments in Iraq and had been injured in 2006 when a mortar detonated close by, had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), as well as a traumatic brain injury (TBI). Although he sought treatment, nothing seemed to alleviate his symptoms.

“He was scared and miserable,” says his sister, Heather Boyd. “He lost so much weight that he was a shell of himself.”

Even Dustin admits that he was withering away – both physically and mentally.

Heather was desperate to help her brother and was pursuing every avenue she could. Finally, one of her military contacts told her about Shepherd Center’s SHARE Military Initiative (which stands for Shaping Hope and Recovering Excellence). She sent a letter to Shepherd Center asking them to please “save my brother.”

Once he was accepted, Heather prepared a script and was ready with any arguments or obstacles Dustin might throw her way when she suggested he enroll in the program. But he didn’t argue.

“He just said, ‘OK,’” Heather says. “I was shocked.”

“I wasn’t sure what to expect,” Dustin recalls, “but I was willing to give it a try.”

Shepherd’s SHARE Military Initiative is a comprehensive rehabilitation program that focuses on assessment and treatment for service men and women who have sustained a mild to moderate traumatic brain injury and PTSD from combat in post-9/11 conflicts. The program is largely donor funded.

A month into the program, Heather came to Atlanta to visit her brother. The difference she saw in him was amazing.

“As soon as I arrived, I noticed Dustin laughing and joking with everyone,” Heather recalls. “He had gained weight and was looking healthier. He had life in his face. It gave me hope for the possibility of a recovery.”

Dustin was at Shepherd Center from Sept. 7, 2015 until Jan. 6, 2016. Through a customized therapy program, he worked on his balance, speech and hearing, as well as learned strategies to help his memory and reading comprehension. He also attended counseling to help heal his emotional scars.

Now back home in North Carolina, Dustin focuses on continuing to get better; he wants to go back to school at some point. He still returns to Shepherd Center to see his friends graduate from the SHARE program.

“I care now about myself and others,” Dustin says. “That’s a huge shift for me. It’s the best thing I’ve done to help myself. I’m in a better place now.”

For that, his sister is grateful. “Our service members so deserve a second shot at life, and that’s what the SHARE program does,” Heather says. “I am forever grateful to them for giving my brother back his life.”

In an effort to raise funds and awareness for SHARE, on March 25, a 14-member team of men will be running 1,300 miles from Boston to Atlanta. Each runner will cover 22 kilometers – a distance just over a half-marathon – every day, while wearing a 22-pound military flak jacket. The 22-pound flak jackets and 22-kilometer daily segments have significance.

“There are 22 veteran suicides every day, with over 300,000 of our heroes having been diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury,” says Travis Ellis, organizer of Shepherd’s Men and the team’s only civilian. “Those numbers are still very real, and should not be accepted as the status quo. We want everyone to know that in SHARE, there is a lifesaving program that can help.”

For more information or to support Shepherd's Men, click here.

By Sara Baxter
 

“Going to sleep was just better than dealing with my problems,” Pete recalls.

His problems – chronic headaches, frequent dizziness, balance issues, depression and anxiety – most likely stemmed from multiple concussions sustained while deployed in Iraq in 2003 and 2004.

“All of these things were signs I needed help, but I didn’t know where to get it.” Pete says.

Until April 2015, Pete, who had joined the Army National Guard in 1995, was still on active duty, working as a recruiter. His symptoms mounted over the years. He’d sought help from both the Veterans Affairs (VA) hospital and civilian doctors. He also tried various medications and treatment options, including counseling. Nothing seemed to work.

“I tried everything over the years, but no one could figure out what was going on, and I felt like the doctors weren’t talking to each other,” Pete says. “It was very frustrating.”

He finally had to take leave from the Army because his chronic symptoms prevented him from working. He spent the next five months drifting until the wife of a veteran told him about Shepherd Center’s SHARE Military Initiative, a comprehensive rehabilitation program that focuses on assessment and treatment for service men and women who have sustained a mild to moderate traumatic brain injury and PTSD from combat in post-9/11 conflicts. The program is largely donor-funded.Pete came to Shepherd Center in September 2015. Right away, he began working with occupational and physical therapists to address his balance and dizziness, as well as the pain in his back and joints. A speech therapist helped him work on his organizational and decision-making challenges that had been caused by an auditory processing disorder. He also learned general coping strategies.

“It was hard work,” Pete acknowledges. “It became well worth it as I started to see gradual improvements. The dizziness and balance issues improved, my headaches went away and I was in a much better mood.”

Pete also enjoyed the camaraderie and support he received from the other SHARE clients.

“We all share the same problems,” Pete says. “At home, no one understands. At Shepherd, everyone knows exactly what you are talking about. You don’t have to explain it.”

After 14 weeks at Shepherd Center, Pete returned home to South Carolina with a much better outlook on life. With guidance from SHARE, he is continuing counseling and therapy. Though his future is uncertain as he officially retires from the military, he knows he will no longer be sleeping his days away.

“SHARE got me interested in doing things again, like going to the gym or riding a bike,” Pete says. “I’m extremely happy I found the program. There is nothing like SHARE anywhere.”

In an effort to raise funds and awareness for SHARE, on March 25, a 14-member team of men will be running 1,300 miles from Boston to Atlanta. Each runner will cover 22 kilometers – a distance just over a half-marathon – every day, while wearing a 22-pound military flak jacket. The 22-pound flak jackets and 22-kilometer daily segments have significance.

“There are 22 veteran suicides every day, with over 300,000 of our heroes having been diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury,” says Travis Ellis, organizer of Shepherd’s Men and the team’s only civilian. “Those numbers are still very real, and should not be accepted as the status quo. We want everyone to know that in SHARE, there is a lifesaving program that can help.”

For more information or to support Shepherd's Men, click here.

Written by Sara Baxter

After brain injury, many couples go through dramatic relationship changes. Some of these changes can be in responsibilities, roles, communication, personality, and physical or sexual intimacy. Because of the role changes and the added stress from these changes, it is important to learn new ways of connecting after brain injury. So let’s take this Valentine’s Day and think about how to reconnect.

Communication is key.

• Set aside a time. it can be as little as five to 10 minutes to an hour – where you and your partner can take a break from responsibility to connect as a couple. Depending on the severity of the brain injury, this time may be spent sitting quietly and touching a shoulder, hand and face.
• Listen patiently to one another. The listening may be non-verbal. Perhaps a gesture, nod, eye contact or touch.
• Compliment rather than criticize. This can range from “Your eyes are so pretty” to complimenting your partner either verbally or non-verbally on the changing roles and responsibilities your partner has taken on.
• Show appreciation. Thank one another for all that your partner does. It can be as simple as making you smile or as difficult as making a meal.
• Laugh together. See the humor in the most outrageous situation and join together in laughter.
• Acknowledge role changes. Be respectful of how your partner does the role differently or ask your partner’s advice on how they performed the role. Compliment your partner to adapting to changing roles.
• Connect. Physical connection can range from a gentle kiss, lying next to one another, touching and sex. Both partners need to be in agreement how much physical connection he/she finds comfortable or comforting. Be respectful of your partner’s comfort level.

Now that you have some connection suggestions, try taking at least five minutes a day to try one of these reconnection tips so every day can be Valentine’s Day!

TERRI KOHN, LPC, is a counselor in Shepherd Center’s Brain Injury Rehabilitation Program. She has practiced counseling at Shepherd Center for 18 years. Terri has a master’s degree in rehabilitation counseling.

Doors open at 5 p.m. March 12 for a silent auction, fundraising games and, for children, an exciting pirate show performed by Bounty of the Bones stuntmen and acrobats. Kids ages 12 and under are free with each paid adult. Pizza and selections from Chick-fil-A will be available to purchase for dinner. The basketball game begins at 7 p.m.

Shepherd Center has supported Side by Side Clubhouse since its inception in 1999 when the hospital helped start the nonprofit organization. Side by Side Clubhouse offers patients a supportive community to continue their recovery from brain injury after they have been discharged from the hospital.

“Many Shepherd Center patients are referred to Side by Side,” says Gary Ulicny, Ph.D., president and CEO of Shepherd Center. “We see Side by Side as an important part of the community’s long-term care options for Georgians with brain injuries.”

Tickets for the basketball game are $10 and available online at www.sidebysideclubhouse.org or at the door.

If you are interested in joining presenting sponsor Shepherd Center, along with MVP Sponsors Long & Holder LLP, and Cash, Krugler, Fredericks LLC, as sponsors of this event, contact Chris Pearson at chris@sidebysideclubhouse.org for more information.

The U.S. Army veteran was directionless and depressed. Pain in his legs made it hard to walk. He tried to hold down a job and finish college courses, but he had a hard time focusing on either. His wife, Kateri Peterson, was losing hope that her husband would ever be the same.

Much has changed since those chain-smoking days.

On March 25, James will be part of a 14-member team running 1,300 miles in nine days from Boston to Atlanta, all to raise awareness and funds for the very program that James credits for saving his life – Shepherd Center’s SHARE Military Initiative. Each runner will cover 22 kilometers – a distance just over a half-marathon – every day, while wearing a 22-pound military flak jacket.

SHARE, which stands for Shaping Hope and Recovery Excellence, is a comprehensive rehabilitation program that focuses on assessment and treatment for service men and women who have sustained a mild to moderate traumatic brain injury and PTSD from combat in post-9/11 conflicts.

James spent three months at SHARE last year, graduating in May 2015. Both he and his wife say he is a changed man.

“They gave me what I needed to get my life back, such as the tools to problem solve,” James says. “I’m not perfect, but I’m so much better.”

This year marks the third year the team of dedicated men have given up a week of their lives to run for SHARE. The group, calling themselves Shepherd’s Men, started in 2014 with a 684-mile run from Atlanta to Washington, D.C., raising $130,000. Last year, they departed from Engine 10 Firehouse just steps from the 9/11 Memorial in New York City and ran 911 miles back to Shepherd Center, raising $280,000.

For the 2016 trek, they’ve added another 400 miles to their run – and set the fundraising goal at a whopping $1 million.

The 22-pound. flak jackets and 22-kilometer daily segments have special relevance.

“There are 22 veteran suicides every day, with over 300,000 of our heroes having been diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury,” says Travis Ellis, organizer of Shepherd’s Men and the team’s only civilian. “Those numbers are still very real, and should not be accepted as the status quo. We want everyone to know that in SHARE, there is a lifesaving program that can help.”

Established through a generous 2008 donation from Atlanta philanthropist Bernie Marcus, the SHARE Military Initiative is sustained through private contributions and is provided at no cost to service members. Shepherd Center must raise $1.2 million per year to operate the program.

“We felt the need to go further, endure more and raise more,” Travis says. “We want to raise awareness, as well as money. The true victory is reaching someone who needs Shepherd Center.”

At stops along the way, the group plans to speak to audiences – such as Rotary clubs, VFWs, American Legion posts and Marine Corps League Detachments – about SHARE.

“There are a lot of men and women who are living the way I did before coming to SHARE,” James says. “I want to show those veterans what Shepherd Center and SHARE can do for them. There’s hope out there. They don’t need to be stuck in their houses or in pain.”

And his wife, Kateri has witnessed James’ transformation firsthand.

“I am so proud,” Kateri says. “He went from sitting in the garage to working out every day to take part in this run. It’s a thrilling, exciting way to raise money for such a great program.”

For more information, visit shepherdsmen.com or to donate to the program, visit shepherd.org/SHARE.

By Sara Baxter
 

Q: What is distinctive to you about Shepherd Center’s nurses?

A: They’re motivated. They are very nurturing people. They love developing relationships with patients and families. Our nurses have a unique opportunity to help take someone from a very difficult place in their lives and feel they’ve made a difference in helping them heal and return to a level of independence.

And it’s rewarding when those patients come back on their own terms. I know when I’m in my office and I hear one of our nurses shout, “Look at you! Look at you!” that means a patient has come back to see us! We love those visits.

Q: What do you tell families when you first meet them?

A: I try to make sure they know everyone here cares and that we want what’s best for them and the patient. It’s important to let families know that we’re here to listen. And that we’re going to do as much as we possibly can to support them. It’s not just about the patient. We take care of everybody here.

Q: What’s the most important thing you have learned directly from patients?

A: There is always hope. That’s said a lot here, but it’s said because it’s true. Things can happen down the road that totally surprise you. People have incredibly strong spirits, and we should never give up hope.

I learned that directly from one young man who was a patient here years ago. He sustained a brain injury after a car accident, and when he first got here, he was in as bad a shape as anyone I’ve seen. Today, he’s a nurse. He invited me to his nursing school graduation, and it was such a moving experience. When he visits, he represents hope walking in the door.

Q: What drew you to a career in healthcare?

A: My mother told me that from the age of three, I told everyone I was going to be a singing nurse. Who knows what I meant? I do sing at church and I’ve been a nurse my whole career. So I guess you can say I have lived my 3-year-old self’s dream!

INTERESTING FACTS

Education:

University of Pittsburg
B.S. in Nursing

Professional Experience:

Member, Association of Rehabilitation Nursing

Parish Nurse, American Nurses Association

Fun Facts:

• Skiing is a Greene family tradition. Gail’s Vermont-born, ski-crazy husband taught her to ski. Together, they served on the National Ski Patrol. Their kids began skiing as soon as they could walk.

• Greene has three sons and three grandsons. “We can’t seem to make anything but boys in this family!”

• Her father was an active-duty U.S. Army soldier. Growing up, Greene attended 13 different schools, including stints in Germany and Hawaii.

• Her favorite place to be: “Wherever my grandchildren are…or hiking in the woods. That’s nice, too!”

Interviewed by Phillip Jordan
Photos by Louie Favorite
 

She and her husband, Gary, are also happy to call their son, “an absolute miracle.” When Brock arrived at Shepherd Center five weeks after his injury, he was conscious but non-communicative – and in need of total assistance.

Brock’s family credits his physician, Anna Elmers, M.D., and Brock’s Shepherd Center treatment team for his rapid recovery. They also credit the endless stream of friends and family who visited. Recently, a friend from Brock’s church made a video (below) about Brock’s recovery, seen through the eyes of his support crew.

“I love watching it,” Brock says. “It shows what everyone went through. Everything went so fast to me because I was out of it for so long. But it was so helpful knowing I had people who would stay with me no matter what.”

Now, Brock is back to activities he much prefers doing with his friends. This past summer involved a lot of soccer, church camps and driving lessons. Now, Brock is back in school full time. “The first day back was awesome,” he says. “It felt like years that I hadn’t been there. Just being able to feel like a normal human being again.”

Brock’s parents have noticed differences in their son, post-injury. “He used to be more argumentative and strong-willed. Now, there’s a lot more joy coming from him,” Monica says. “He’s very funny and quick-witted. Seeing how he keeps healing is mind-boggling.”

Brock is focused on more changes to come. A soccer fanatic, his dream is to play college soccer and then join his favorite club, Chelsea, an elite professional soccer team in London. “You can see his injury didn’t affect his confidence,” his mom teases.

As for a backup plan: “Maybe becoming a physical therapist,” Brock says. “They can be really cool people.”

Written By Phillip Jordan
 

“Most of these events are preventable, so we need be able to anticipate and plan for potential risks after patients leave the rehabilitation setting,” said Ron Seel, Ph.D., the O. Wayne Rollins Director of Acquired Brain Injury Research at Shepherd Center.

Under Dr. Seel’s leadership, Shepherd Center has developed a dynamic assessment tool to gauge and predict the risk of someone having unsafe events after returning home. The Safety Assessment Measure (SAM) has been developed with input from caregivers and patients for more than a year, and researchers have studied its use with 155 patients with TBI.

SAM asks caregivers 99 items about how well the person with TBI performs everyday activities to predict the overall risk of unsafe events especially related to: 1) carrying out activities; 2) walking mobility; 3) wheelchair mobility; 4) judgment; 5) health decision-making; and 6) self-control. The research team is still testing scales that assess safe operation of a motor vehicle and taking care of children.

Higher scores on SAM scales indicate a greater likelihood of an unsafe event; lower scores are associated with lower risk. But this assessment goes beyond simply assigning a score or likelihood of something happening. The SAM scales and items flag areas of concern to guide decisions about additional rehabilitation, logical next steps as goals, if home or behavioral modifications are needed, how much supervision is needed and what activities are deemed safe.

While other scales are available, Dr. Seel says they don’t provide as complete a picture of someone’s risk for harm after TBI.

“It’s important because this tool not only tells us the likelihood that something unsafe could happen, but based on a person’s severity of risk, it also gives very specific information for what activities should be the focus of therapy and what activities might be beyond their reach currently,” Dr. Seel explaied. “It’s a great example of personalized medicine, and it’s grounded in patients’ and families’ real-world experiences.”

Improvements have been made to make the report more user-friendly – in part, to help save time and maximize any therapy patients might receive after discharge.

“It means therapists and coaches have much more information at their disposal from the beginning,” Dr. Seel said. “Instead of spending lots of time on assessments, they can walk in with a feel for what the person can do, their challenges, what kind of assistive devices they use and the like.”

Other institutions are taking note. In 2014, Shepherd Center was awarded a grant from the Emory Center for Injury Control to translate the paper-and-pen research version of SAM into a Web-based program that can be completed online. The new electronic version will reduce the number of items respondents need to answer for each safety scale. It will also be center stage in an upcoming randomized controlled clinical trial called Safe@Home – made possible by a $600,000 grant from the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living and Rehabilitation Research.

This study will enroll up to 130 dyads of patients and family members to evaluate whether using the SAM – coupled with 10 in-home visits for prevention education and skills training – compared to usual care can improve a person’s independence in activities, while also reducing the number of unsafe events.

“Families want their loved one to be safer, and patients want to do more activities,” Dr. Seel said. “It’s their mindset, so we’ve included two outcomes. If effective, we will consider whether this type of program can eventually be delivered remotely and to individuals living alone.”

The goal is to expand SAM to help predict risk for injury in people with spinal cord injury, stroke and neurologic diseases, Dr. Seel noted.

Common Unsafe Events

Some of the more common unsafe events experienced by people recovering from TBI include:

• Falls while walking or doing a wheelchair transfer
• Inappropriate behavior or judgment in social situations
• Incidents using motorized equipment
• Property loss due to mismanaging money or other valuables

How the Safety Assessment Measure Works

Someone with a moderate level of risk has a 30 percent chance of an unsafe event, such as a fall. If that person is sleeping well, the risk of falling goes down, but if they consume any alcohol, the risk goes up. At this level of risk, it might be reasonably safe for the person to walk on even surfaces, but he or she might need to take extra care walking up and down stairs – making sure to hold the railing or having someone walk behind them – and avoid carrying things while walking. In this case, the individual might benefit from balance and endurance training, Dr. Seel noted.

Written by Amanda Crowe, MA, MPH

On July 31, 2011, Billy and his best friend of 20 years had just left a friendly card game in Decatur, Ga., when their car was hit by a drunk driver, leaving both Billy and his friend Ron with severe traumatic brain injuries. The impact crushed Billy’s face, snapped his forearm and thrust him into a coma for the next seven days. He spent 16 days in the Intensive Care Unit at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta before transferring to Shepherd Center, where for the next month he underwent intensive rehabilitation.

“When I arrived, I couldn’t remember my son, couldn’t remember any songs, what day it was, how I had gotten there,” says Billy, a songwriter for the past 16 years.

Then one day, at Jill’s urging, Billy started singing, retrieving from some jumbled space in his muddled brain a single song – Amazing Grace. He sang every stanza. Completely. Clearly. Perfectly. And through wired jaws – so began Billy’s path to recovery.

Thanks to an intensive 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily rehabilitation regimen – physical therapy, speech therapy and occupational therapy – he progressed. But it wasn’t only his body and mind that improved, he says. His spirit improved, as well.

“Shepherd Center actually helped design that part of me – that desire to create a new normal, the desire to keep pushing,” he says, “The energy there was just so different. I knew I was in a place that truly cared about the patient.”

That level of care extended beyond Billy’s hospital room and into Shepherd Center’s on-campus housing, where his family stayed so they could be close. “It brought so much peace knowing our family could be together,” Jill says. “Billy was a stay-at-home Dad for three years before the accident, so it was really important for the kids to see him.”

Since Billy’s discharge from Shepherd Center in 2011, Evie and Dawson have watched their Dad return – physically, to be sure, but mentally and emotionally, as well, Billy says.

“In some ways, the accident was a good reset button,” he says. “The whole experience has been an evolution of watching my brain reconstruct and re-perceive what is and isn’t important in life. Every day, I go outside and say ‘thanks’ for waking me up. It’s interesting how you start to see everything fitting together in new ways. It’s definitely helped me be a better husband and a better dad.”

Billy has gone so far as to share coffee with the man whose drunken driving caused his pain in the first place. He has written parole letters on behalf of the still-incarcerated man and harbors no ill will. “He was a kid who made a bad decision,” Billy says. “Maybe his BMW even knocked some sense into me!”

“Billy’s always been the peacemaker in the family,” says Jill, who met her husband in grade school and marked their sixth wedding anniversary watching doctors take him off the ventilator. “He easily could’ve hated the driver, but investing all that energy just takes away from your own life, so what’s the use?”

Billy hasn’t completely returned to life before the accident. He doesn’t tour with a band or perform at venues like Nashville’s historic Ryman Auditorium the way he did before. He doesn’t drive with his kids in the car and takes several naps a day, which he attributes to the chronic fatigue stemming from the injury. He also has navigated a choppy emotional sea coping with the loss of his best friend, who remains in a persistent vegetative state only a couple of miles from Billy.

But Billy has recovered far beyond expectations, says Jill, who pushed him early on to resume his singing and songwriting – even with a tracheostomy still firmly in place – because “songs are what you do.”

Billy is glad to be where he is – present for his family, mentally strong and in the best physical shape of his life. And he’s grateful for the path that has led him home.

He and Jill have stayed in touch with Shepherd Center, participating in a program that links them with area middle schools, where they talk with students about brain injuries.

“The first time we did it was two years after the accident,” Jill says of their involvement. “And we knew immediately it was something we’d continue doing.”

“I enjoy telling my story – encouraging kids to do anything, even with a brain injury – to live life,” Billy says.

“I want to show them that it’s not so much the conflict in life, but how you react to the conflict that makes the difference.”

One-half of the duo called The Brothers Bright, Billy writes and sings for Buford, Ga.-based Whitestone Motion Pictures. The Brothers Bright’s songs are available on iTunes, and one, “Blood on My Name,” was recently featured in the post-Super Bowl episode of NBC’s “The Blacklist.”

Written by Shawn Reeves
Photos and Video by Brandon McCormick, Whitestone Motion Pictures

Jordan sustained a traumatic brain injury in the accident. At times during his stay at Shepherd Center, Jordan remembers sitting up in his bed, yelling:  “I don’t have time for this! I have work to do!”

He eventually came to embrace his situation with newfound patience. “It surprised me,” Jordan says. “The emotional and intellectual development that has come with this has been priceless. I wouldn’t be living as wholly or happily as I am without the perspective this experience has brought.”

Rapid improvement with occupational, physical and speech therapies allowed Jordan to go home in mid-March 2014, three months earlier than estimated.

“I had the most incredible and encouraging rehabilitation staff,” he says. “I owe them my ability to speak and walk as well as I do. My daily function is a direct result of the successes they made possible.”

Back home in Charlotte, Jordan incrementally worked his way back to full-time employment at his job. He discovered he enjoyed the rest of his life more, too. Jordan credits that to his new approach to life, developed at Shepherd Center, as well as the support of his family, his partner Chris and his best friend Jo.

“The endless support I felt from Jo – who drove from Charlotte to Atlanta on a weekly basis – and the emotional and physical encouragement of my family were critical to my recovery,” Jordan says. “Without them, I’m not sure I would have been able to meet, much less fall in love with, the man of my dreams.”

His continued growth includes volunteer projects and work with the Charlotte chapter of the Brain Injury Association of North Carolina. “I have a simple mantra now: ‘Be kind, be honest, be compassionate,’” Jordan says. “I don’t have the time or tolerance to be otherwise!”

Written by Phillip Jordan

It would be a destination wedding, on a beach. Besides daydreaming about her future groom, the beach location was the most important part of Lauren’s early dreams. And she carried that romantic vision in her mind for years.

“I had envisioned getting married at the beach ever since I started thinking about weddings,” Lauren says. “I couldn’t imagine it happening anywhere else.”

But on a busy Friday afternoon in July 2011, Lauren was shot as she crossed a street in Midtown Atlanta, sustaining a T-10 spinal cord injury. The act of random violence changed her life in a way that could have shattered her oceanside wedding dream, were she not so strong and determined.

Lauren spent months at Shepherd Center learning to adjust to life with a spinal cord injury. It was during those months that the boyfriend she had been dating since high school asked her to marry him.

The answer, of course, was yes. Suddenly, Lauren found herself planning a wedding and thinking about that idyllic beach setting again. But this time she was thinking about how to make that dream come true amid new physical realities.

“The beach is probably the least accessible place for a person in a wheelchair, but I couldn’t imagine it happening anywhere else. I was pretty determined. Luckily, we were able to pull it off,” she says. “Compromises are inevitable, but do not give up your dreams.”

Lauren’s wedding involved a specially built ramp that led from the beach’s entry point down to where she and fiancé Anel exchanged vows, allowing her to comfortably navigate sandy terrain.

The message and moral of Lauren’s story is an important one. Many of Shepherd Center’s patients are faced with the challenge of planning a wedding that includes some kind of special accommodations for accessibility.

Finding a comfortable venue can be one of the most significant and obvious challenges.

Is all of the terrain at a facility accessible, or just small portions of it? Where will the reception be held? Are dining tables tall enough to allow wheelchairs to slide under them?

Scott Keithley and his new wife Jean Manki looked at numerous venues, including historical homes, gardens and restaurants. Though he has C-7 quadriplegia that imposes accessibility requirements, Scott did not get discouraged during the search, but instead learned a great deal.

“Many venues say they’re accessible on their websites or in their advertisements. But don’t take them at their word. It’s important to go see for yourself,” he says. “A lot of places figure if they don’t have a lot of stairs, then they are accessible, but they’re not thinking it all the way through.”

When it comes to historical properties, there are often architectural challenges, Scott says. Because such sites often seek to preserve their original look, guests in wheelchairs are less likely to be able to access the entire property.

Scott and his fiancée were also adamant about having tables that could comfortably be wheeled under, allowing guests to eat without having to balance a plate on their lap.

Scott paid special attention to the seating arrangements, ensuring there was plenty of space between tables to circulate around the room.

“You want to be able to get around and spend time with all of your guests,” he says.

Ultimately, Scott and Jean chose a restaurant in a mixed-use office complex that had both indoor and outdoor seating, and an extensive courtyard.

About 55 people attended. The entire affair lasted about five hours, with a DJ spinning tunes and music from Scott’s iPod. At one point, Scott’s new wife surprised him by singing “Make You Feel My Love” by Adele.

“My vision was to be able to put together all of her friends and all of my friends – people who did not know each other, but knew of each other – and to have a relaxed celebration of our love, with really great food. And I really felt we achieved that,” he says.

For Kelley Simoneaux, who has a T-12 spinal cord injury, it was important that the day not be centered around her wheelchair. Achieving that goal required several thoughtful adjustments.

“I didn’t want my husband to have to bend to give me our first kiss, those kinds of things,” she says.

During the ceremony, Kelley’s groom, Bradlee, sat in a chair across from his bride, able to look her in the eye and lean over easily to kiss her.

The couple also selected a very small wedding cake, so it would not tower over Kelley while the couple cut the first slice.

“For us, it was about: ‘How can we make subtle adaptations to the structure of the wedding so no one is really focused on my wheelchair?’ And we were able to accomplish that. I enjoyed the day and everyone else did, too,” Kelley says.

A fastidious planner, Liz Ouligian of Gainesville, Fla., had her wedding date and all its important details finalized. And then destiny intervened.

During a drive home from Jacksonville, Fla., she and her fiancé were involved in a car accident that left Liz with a T-12 incomplete spinal cord injury.

The wedding had to be set aside – at least temporarily.

“My first thought was I still wanted to keep my wedding date. I will be sitting down but still able to go to my wedding,” she says. “But about one month before my wedding date, I realized it just wasn’t going to happen. I was so upset. I was so big on wedding planning and getting everything done. I had this date and all of the favors engraved with the date.”

Canceling that original date, however, has given Liz time to address some important new questions – such as how to shop for a wedding dress in a wheelchair and how to make the dress look its best when being worn in a sitting position.

There are experts at bridal shops who can help alter a dress, allowing it to look the way it should, Liz says. There are also changes that can be made to the wheelchair to protect the wedding gown.

Liz has not yet rescheduled her wedding date. She is working to clear one last hurdle before she will allow herself to finalize a date again.

Holding tight to her original wedding dreams, Liz wants to be able to walk down the aisle and to also share a first dance with her husband, as well as a dance with her father.

Making that happen has required her to work tirelessly to regain enough strength in her legs to walk with forearm crutches.

“Once I complete one walk down the aisle on my own, then I will set a new date,” she says. “I’m just waiting to get to that point.”

Written by Mia Taylor

That’s why clinicians at Shepherd Pathways, Shepherd Center’s post-acute brain injury rehabilitation program, often teach patients how to use tools and techniques for aiding memory. These tools include common consumer devices such as cell phones and tablets.

Building on these clinical practices, a research and development team at Shepherd Center has recently developed its own memory application (“app”) called EyeRemember, which runs on a wearable device called Google Glass. Researchers have begun testing the app, gathering helpful feedback from patients with brain injury, as well as their caregivers and therapists.

The research team’s three members are part of the Glass Explorer program, and include clinical research scientist John Morris, Ph.D., speech-language pathologist Tracey Wallace, MA, CCC-SLP, and Android developer Scott Bradshaw, BSCS. The project is being funded by a Glass Accessibility Award the team received from Google in 2014.

EyeRemember helps people with memory difficulties keep track of people in their circle – family, friends, therapy team members and possibly others with whom the user interacts on a regular basis. The EyeRemember app works in conjunction with Bluetooth low-energy (BLE) beacons – small transmitters about the size of a car key fob – that must be worn or carried by friends, family, therapists and others in the user’s community. The app uses the Bluetooth capabilities built into Glass to regularly scan for other BLE beacons in the vicinity.

The user, or user’s caregiver, must first assign a beacon to individuals in the user’s circle. When the user gives the command for EyeRemember to create a new contact, the app initiates a scan of BLE beacons in the vicinity. When one is detected, it offers the user the opportunity to attach contact information to the beacon by entering a name, relationship information and a photo. After the user creates the contact, he or she can add notes about that person, or possibly things the user wants to tell that person.

The next time the beacon for an individual contact enters the vicinity of the Glass wearer, the beacon will be identified by the EyeRemember app. The contact information “card” for that individual will appear automatically on Glass, showing a photo, name and relationship for the contact. The user can then select that card to view existing notes or add new ones.

“EyeRemember is still in the testing phase. So far, clinicians and patients have been very receptive to the prototype. But, we’re still assessing the app’s effectiveness as a memory aid,” says Wallace, who is leading the clinical evaluation of the app.

Google announced in January 2015 that it was closing the Explorer program and moving the Glass program from the experimental Google X Lab to become its own Google team. At that time, Google promised future versions of Glass. The current version of Glass is still being sold to certified partners – companies in healthcare, manufacturing and other industries whose workers need hands-free access to information – in the Glass at Work program.

“We’re committed to going forward with our research and development efforts on Glass,” Dr. Morris says. “We are beginning to gather important data on app interfaces for wearable displays – whether on Glass or watches or wrist bands – for people with brain injury and their clinicians, especially for memory remediation. And, we think that Glass-like wearable hardware worn on the head is likely to mature rapidly into a robust consumer technology.”

The Bob Woodruff Foundation works to ensure injured veterans and their families thrive long after they return home. The team at BWF navigates the maze of more than 46,000 nonprofit organizations to find and fund innovative programs in communities where veterans, their families, and caregivers live and work.

The grant will help fund, in part, a new life coach, who will engage with SHARE Military Initiative clients once they return home to ensure they are able to fully integrate the techniques they learned in therapy into their daily life.

“We are honored to receive recognition from such a prestigious organization as the Bob Woodruff Foundation,” said Susan Johnson, program director of the Shepherd Center Brain Injury Program. “At SHARE, we strive to provide the best possible care for service members and veterans. With this grant, we will be able to expand our program and continue to help these men and women make a successful transition back to the community.”

As a grant recipient, the SHARE Military Initiative joins the BWF grantee network, a collaboration of top-tier programs and advocates working to help our heroes on the homefront.

“Receiving a grant from BWF is an honor that recognizes the dedication, focus and effectiveness of SHARE’s staff, volunteers and supporters,” said Anne Marie Dougherty, executive director of BWF.

To find out more about the Bob Woodruff Foundation, visit bobwoodrufffoundation.org, follow @Stand4Heroes on Twitter and like BFW’s page on Facebook at facebook.com/Stand4Heroes.

“I just remember arriving at Shepherd Center and wanting nothing more than to go straight back home,” Sara says. “By the end, I didn’t even want to come home!”

She cites her mother’s steady encouragement as the reason she was able to stick with Shepherd Center's intensive rehabilitation program. “Lots of people at Shepherd Center still remember us as a pair,” Sara says. “My mom is my angel. There’s no way I’m here without her. Our family has always been a huge part of my life, and there’s nothing we wouldn’t do for each other.”

After completing inpatient and day program rehabilitation, Sara eventually spent an extra six months living by herself in Atlanta while participating in an intensive walking program at Shepherd Center. By the time she returned home, she could walk using crutches or canes.

“Shepherd Center has so many resources, obviously, but what I liked most was that you always had people helping you who weren’t judgmental,” Sara says. “It’s a big thing to have an unconditional support group surrounding you at all times.”

Returning home, she admits, proved an even bigger challenge than leaving home had been. She cherished having her independence again. “But it was hard to have the same sense of purpose I’d had at Shepherd Center,” Sara says. “It was like, ‘Now what?’”

She found the answer in a return to school. This past August, Sara earned a bachelor’s degree in human services. She’d always thought about being a counselor; her time at Shepherd Center crystalized what kind of counselor she wanted to be.

“My goal now is to be a rehabilitation counselor in a hospital setting like Shepherd Center,” she says. “It changed me. I can’t imagine a life in which I’m not helping people in some way. That’s my passion now.”

Written by Phillip Jordan