Assimilating The Invisible

Bringing Awareness To A Surreptitious Disability Through Photography

This project is intended to illustrate my battle with a Traumatic Brain Injury using black and white photographs. These images portray only a few of the individuals that were important to my recovery.

A Short Narrative

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On December 21, 2012 I was struck by an SUV while walking my dog in Covington, Kentucky. I sustained severe head trauma including subdural and epidural hematomas. Surgeons removed a plate-sized piece from the skull to help release pressure and remove the hematoma's that had grown on my brain. Afterward, it was determined that a medically induced coma was instrumental to “ensure the protection and control of the pressure dynamics of the brain." Two weeks later I awakened and only days later I was transferred to Daniel Drake Center to begin recovery. Two more weeks of minor physical therapy and challenging speech therapy sessions occurred until my release. After six months living with my parents, attending speech therapy at Dearborn County Hospital 2-3 days a week, and other TBI recovery tasks, I finally began to take the steps needed to get back into my "normal life". Things like driving, working, moving back to my own home, being self sufficient, and attending college.

Statistics & Information

Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) In The United States

Information provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

You can see all TBI stats here

·   An estimated 1.7 million people sustain a TBI annually

·   Of those 1.7 Million…

·   52,000 die

·   275,000 are hospitalized, and

·   1.365 million, nearly 80%, are treated and released from the emergency department

·   TBI is a contributing factor to a third (30.5%) of all injury-related deaths in the United States

·   About 75% of TBI’s that occur each year are concussions or other forms of mild brain injury (MTBI)

·   Direct medical costs and indirect costs of TBI, such as lost productivity, totaled an estimated $60 billion in the United States in 2000.

·   There was an increase in TBI-related emergency department visits (14.4%) and hospitalizations (19.5%) from 2002 to 2006.

·   There was a 62% increase in fall-related TBI seen in emergency departments among children aged 14 years and younger from 2002 to 2006.

·   There was an increase in fall-related TBI among adults aged 65 and older; 46% increase in emergency department visits, 34% increase in

·   hospitalizations, and 27% increase in TBI-related deaths from 2002 to 2006.

*Estimates based on one year of data can produce varied results.