Happy Valentine’s Day
February 14th, 2008 Posted in BlogThere was a heart-warming little miracle at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center today.
Dorothy is a vital 16-year-old who suffered a traumatic brain injury a month ago when the car in which she was a passenger was hit by a drunk driver.
In a coma, with both jaws broken, her collarbone and left arm fractured, she was airlifted from San Luis Obispo to VMC’s traumatic brain injury rehabilitation unit. After four days she woke up with no memory. Her mother asked for a laptop, and the VMC Foundation’s technology champion, Debbie Burdsall, gave her one of the HP laptops PRx client Dick Alexander had donated to VMC last month.
Dorothy had been an active poster at GaiaOnline.com, writing a complex novel with ten of her friends. Dorothy would write a story line, and her friends would choose one of three endings, determining how the story progressed. In the hospital, Dorothy slowly began to type again, instant messaging her friends who helped her regain memories of what they had done and seen and enjoyed together.
The more she used the computer and the hospital’s WiFi connection, the more brain function she recovered. Her fine motor skills also returned through the typing.
Month-long story short, today she was discharged, two weeks early. Her grateful mom drove her back to SLO to a happy family and school full of friends. See Scott Budman’s coverage on his NBC11 blog, Tech Notes here.
Happy Valentine’s Day, Dorothy.
