Sean Carter

Sean looks so much like the boy he used to be. Or should I say he is now the Man he is to be?

Sean asked me to update his Walking Goal to Christmas Day, 2008

www.whenseanspeaks.com

What do you do when your brain no longer tells your body how to walk or talk? When even the simple act of swallowing your saliva is forgotten and when you concentrate on something the drool runs out of your mouth? When you can no longer control your body and tell it to take a deep breath?

What do you do when you are totally aware of everything you cannot do, and you are trapped in your body. When just over three years ago you could do all of these things, but now you can do no more than use the index finger on your left hand to type into a computer?

If you are Sean Carter, you take the opportunity to tell others about the dangers of risky behavior. You tell others that there is Life after Brain Injury. You tell others, never, ever, ever, give up!

Sean's journey into his new life started at the crash site in Wichita Falls, Texas, during the wee hours of Sunday, March 27, 2005. At the time of his motor vehicle crash, he was an MSU student majoring in Business Administration. He was the passenger in a truck, driven by a friend who lost control at the wheel. As the truck spun and slammed into a tree, Sean's journey began. Sean suffered multiple fractures, internal injuries, but worst of all a traumatic brain injury. Sean is now well down the path of his new life. Although he has forgotten how to walk and talk, Sean is making progress.

He suffers very few cognitive deficits, and returned to college to work on completing his Bachelor's Degree at The University of Texas at Dallas in January 2007. His first semester back, he earned an "A"in Entreprenuership, and a "B" in Management Information Systems. This is a huge accomplishment for someone diagnosed initially with a severe diffuse axonal injury.

Sean has had Hippotherapy (therapy on horseback) at Stajduhar Stables in Colleyville, Texas, for the second time.

His good humor and courage are infectious. We are so thankful that he is able to communicate with us via an alphabet board and his "life line", an electronic communication device called RollTalk. It actually speaks the sentences that he types.

He is now taking advantage of his ability to communicate and tell his story by speaking to groups about the experience that placed him in his wheelchair. He has spoken at the following Texas venues:
L.D. Bell High School in Hurst
S&S High School and Middle School in Sadler
Dallas Christian Academy
Texas High School in Texarkana
The Senior Class of Hillcrest H.S. in Dallas
The Student Athletes of Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls.
Students at North Texas State Hospital in Vernon.

He has spoken at Victim's Impact Panels for M.A.D.D. He has spoken for the organization "Think First", an organization sponsored by BIR, that reaches out to young people in an effort to prevent Spinal Cord and Brain Injuries.

He has also spoken before the Texas EMS, Trauma, and Acute Care Services Advisory Foundation (TETAF)and the Governor's EMS, Trauma and Acute Care Advisory Council (GETAC), Injury Prevention Council.

He is now on the Texas Traumatic Brain Injury Advisory Council

Sean works occasionally as Account Liaison for Mobility Medical Equipment, Inc. His job is to do inservices (presentations) at hospitals and Rehab Centers informing staff about the products they sell/rent: wheelchairs, walkers, etc., He and his MoM have also begun work as consultants for Comation, the company that distributes RollTalk in the United States. How's that for someone unable to walk or talk?

He has been featured in print and video by the Dallas Morning News, appeared in a segment on Dallas' TV Channel 4, and on the local Arklatex TV station, as well as KFDX Channel 3 in Wichita Falls. He has been featured in print in "Pulse" magazine, in BIR's 2007 Annual Report, in the July 2008 issue of Info Magazine of Grayson County and will be featured in a Parkland Hospital Publication.

Sean took a 23 day road trip with MoM in June of 2008, and drove up to Pasco, Washington, for a visit with his identical twin brother, Todd. They returned via Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks.

Sean has now embarked on a weekly commute to Austin, Texas, so that he can participate in Brain Therapy at the Crossroads Institute. He is also doing Rehab at St. David's Hospital in Austin. St. David's has a Neuromuscular Retraining program not available anywhere else in this part of the United States.

Always present throughout this journey, have been our faithful “Army of Angels”. A group of individuals brought together by the pages of Sean's story, to follow his journey and to lift him up with thoughts and prayers. I believe they have played and continue to play a huge part in the victories that Sean continues to achieve.

Thank you for joining us, and Please sign into the guestbook and let us know that you checked in!

Journal

Thursday, November 13, 2008 10:21 PM CST

This has probably been the longest I have ever gone without updating the journal and I apologize. Sean and I have been running like crazy every day for the past two weeks.

We are now back home after a wonderful camp weekend last weekend, and then our weekly trip to Austin this week. Austin was a little different this week because our house host, Nancy Reed, had a really bad respiratory illness and she felt that we should not stay with her this week.

Because we didn't want to have Sean miss his therapy, we ended up having to stay in a motel. I had made a reservation at a Days Inn in Austin. In many towns they are upgrading this hotel chain, but in Austin they are not my favorite place, but they are cheap. They also normally have roll-in showers in them, so they work out fine. This time, though, the shower was not really accessible so after I checked out the room and before I unloaded Sean, I decided we needed to stay elsewhere.

Everything worked out okay though, because we were able to qualify for a government discount since Sean is on the Texas Brain Injury Advisory Council. The desk clerk told me that sounded like a government agency to him so he would apply that discount.

We stayed in a Hyatt Place, which is comparable in price to a Hampton or Comfort Inn, but to us was far nicer. It had a great roll-in shower and the room felt luxurious.

Nancy has decided that she is going to move to L.A. in January and finally pursue her comedy career, so we are going to have to find a new place to live while we are there. Can you believe this? Sean e-mailed a friend that we have made through the TBIAC and she passed the e-mail on. Before a week was over, we already had an offer of a new home. This house is in Wimberly which is about 35 miles southwest of Austin. We drove out there Wednesday night and found it to be a beautiful white stone house with a metal roof. It is in a very rural area and Joanne, told us that a herd of deer runs along the side of the house in the morning and again in the evening.

The little addition where the house is located is very secluded without being isolated and is just tucked into the Hill Country. Sean and I fell in love with it immediately. He was able to roll easily through the entire house and even into the bathroom.

Joanne lives alone with her two big fuzzy cats. She is a psychologist at a residential rehab in San Marcos and swears that she really wants us to live with her while in Austin. God has truly blessed us. Although we don't really know how long Sean will continue to have therapy at Crossroads Institute at least until the Spring of 2009. Knowing that we have another "home away from home" is so wonderful. We have truly been blessed to have Nancy's home opened to us, and now we have another one.

Friday morning Sean and I will be meeting the Executive Director of M.A.D.D. at Dr. Carlile's office (Sean's former Inpatient Physician at Baylor Rehab) for a conference call about the Sobriety Checkpoints bill we are hoping to have passed by this next year's legislature.

We have had new inquiries about speaking, so perhaps we will soon have new opportunities scheduled.

Oh, the most important thing of all.......Sean can actually now move his walker forward on his own and then step up to it and move it again!!!!! That sounds and looks like WALKING to me!!!!!!

Thank you for sharing and Thank you for caring,
Sean's MoM, Jenny Carter

Read Journal History

Hospital Information:

Sean is Home!

Dallas, TX 75218

Links:

E-mail Author: jenny@whenseanspeaks.com

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