When the Lights Go Out: A Boy Given a Second Chance

In October 2003, I became a victim of traumatic brain injury. That’s when I was hit and dragged by a pickup truck while riding a Big Wheel trike at a friend’s party. Emergency brain surgery saved my life, but I lost a portion of the back part of my brain. At the age of ten, I had to learn how to breathe, swallow, talk, eat, stand, sit, walk—everything— all over again.

Traumatic brain injury is one of the leading causes of disability among children, yet, because of the complexity of the brai...