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

STORIES OF AMAZING RECOVERIES

Submitted By: Mike Ladouceur
Email: mike_drums_bdi@yahoo.ca

Hello my name is Mike Ladouceur. I am writing this to let people know that there is recovery after a traumatic injury. I was in a bad accident at a factory I was working in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. I was working midnights and I went to work on January, 05, 1994. When I had gotten to work I found out a fellow employee had called in sick and I needed his job done to have my job done. So I had to do both jobs.

It was at about 2:00am when I was doing the other job, I was lifting a 10 ton steel plate with the over the head crane using L shaped clamps, I lifted the plate about waist level when one of the clamps had shot out and hit me right between the eyes and went about a half inch into my skull. It knocked me back a couple of steps and I banged the back of my head against a concrete block wall, then I fell forward and banged the front of my head against the cement floor. After that had happened it put me into a coma. I was laying there in a pool of blood.

There was only two other workers in the shop at that time, one at the front of the shop he was a laborer, and one at the back of the shop he ran the Blanchard grinder. The worker in the front of the shop had heard the steel plate fall and crash into the floor so he came to see if everything was ok. When he got to where the plate was laying on the floor he was looking around for me and couldn't see me. He walked around the steel plate and seen me lying in a pool of blood, so then he went running to the nearest phone to call an ambulance.

After the ambulance had came he led them to where I was and they had picked me up. They had brought me to Met Hospital but then transferred me to Hotel Dieu Hospital where I was born. I was in a coma for 32 days after the accident had happened. The case had gone to court when I was still in a coma so I didn't have any say into what had happened. After the accident had happened the owner of the company had gotten rid of the steel clamps so there was no evidence of faulty clamps because they were supposed to be saftied and they were not.

The owner of the company had gotten a fine for $6000 for no evidence, when I almost lost my life, my heart stopped beating for six-eight mins. I was lucky for the doctor to get it to start beating again. After the doctor had gotten my heat beating again I was on life support. I was in a coma for 32 days, after that I was transferred to Parkwood in London, Ontario where I was in a wheel chair for about 5 and a half months unable to walk steady. I was going threw a lot of therapy there also.

I was then transferred to Windsor Western Hospital in Windsor, Ontario. I was using a walker for about 1 and a half months. After my stay at Windsor Western I was able to stay at my parent's house. I was staying there and also going to therapy. I was there for a little time when I was beginning to get real depressed thinking of what had happened to me and what I had lost after that had happened. I was home there alone for a short period of time when I was depressed so I walked into the washroom and looked behind the mirror and found Tylenol Extra Strength and had taken 32 tablets drinking a beer. I was out of it when my parents had come home and my mother had seen the empty pill bottle on my night stand next to my bed and she called a ambulance. The ambulance had came and picked me up and brought me to Met hospital where they pumped my stomach and I brought all of the pills up and I was clear of the problem. I was then on the sike ward at Met Hospital for 2 weeks. After that hospital stay I was let go to go back to my parent's house.

I was there for a short period of time again and then I went to Dale Head injury in London, Ontario to get my independent living to be able to live on my own. I was at Dale for a year and 2 weeks. I was living there with a good friend that I had met in Parkwood Hospital when I was there. His name is Ron Graham. He and I are trying to start a band called BDI. He plays bass, and I play drums. My girlfriend Kathy Arigan will be singing. We are looking for a lead player. My girlfriend and I have been together for over 10 years. My girlfriend had gotten me into writing poetry. I now have a little over 100 poems I have written.

I would please like to tell all that there is recovery after a bad accident has happened. I am living proof.

Mike Ladouceur!!!