Connor Martin's brother, veteran Kevin Ash, fell into a coma after receiving a traumatic brain injury (TBI). After he woke up, though, his family discovered he had lost his sight and hearing. Combined with the other symptoms of his TBI, Kevin lost a lot of independence. But his family fought to keep him active and engaged with life. A major partner in this goal was the Wounded Warrior Project®, a charity organization that supports veterans and service members who incurred a physical or mental injury, illness, or wound while serving in the military.
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I know my mom was very passionate about trying to figure out what else could be done and she was very frustrated with the lack of effort that she felt was being done for Kevin. Personally you know I was 18, 19 years old, it’s hard to see much past yourself, admittedly. And I know I was, I was frustrated a little bit too but not to the extent that my mom was. She was advocating for him to go on you know, activities or adventures just to keep him from sitting in his room all the time. And you know I definitely saw the value in that because you know anybody who sits in their room for a long period of time it can be depressing and disheartening. Let alone a person who is already experiencing blindness, deafness, confusion as to why they’re in the position they’re in and then you just leave them in a room it’s tough to expect that person to grow or develop in a positive way any further without any exposure to you know human interaction or any tactile interaction. He was, he was involved with the Wounded Warrior Project was a big one that he did a lot of activities through I think. He did some horse riding activities through that, so I think that was the biggest one that he was involved in. Was just that Wounded Warrior Project, he definitely got a lot of apparel from it and was I guess the biggest help for my mom in that point in time too. The people that were taking care of him would drive him up to our church, our home. They, we did one vacation up in Brainerd, Minnesota that they actually had a person with him 24/7. So he still got to be a part of the family to an extent, we had him over for family dinners or movie nights or whatever but he never got to spend the night at home or officially live at home after, after the accident. This video was produced by BrainLine thanks to generous support from the Infinite Hero Foundation.
This video was produced by BrainLine thanks to generous support from the Infinite Hero Foundation.
About the author: Connor Martin
