A medical, legal, and
informational resource
for persons dealing with
traumatic brain injury.

STORIES OF AMAZING RECOVERIES

Lisa Fink
Contact via email: lisa.fink@law.duke.edu
North Carolina
Submitted: March 24, 2004
Date of Injury: July 5, 1997

An automobile accident the summer before my junior year of high school left me with multiple injuries, including a severe closed head injury. Beyond the immediate physical trauma (internal injuries requiring surgery, broken bones, weakness/lack of mobility on the left side of my body, and a coma extended to nearly six weeks by medication), I struggled with memory loss - almost all of the previous six months was gone- as well as the mental and physical rehabilitation process that continued well after my release from the hospital.

My family was first told that there was a very real possibility I might not make it through the night, then that I may never walk or talk the same again. To make a long story short, the God of the universe used the support of family and friends, the skill of a taented medical staff, and His divine encouragement to bring me through that time of recovery to begin to grow in my personal relationship with Him. I was enabled to letter in three varsity sports, to graduate on time as valedictorian of my high school class, to receive a full tuition scholarship and graduate summa cum laude with a double major from my undergraduate institution of choice, and to now have finished my first year at Duke School of Law.

The experience has forever altered my perspective on this life in general, as well as my role in it. The time surrounding any critical injury will unavoidably test and challenge both the patent and his or her family-but it will be used to form the person you are meant to be.