Would he ever walk again or entertain us with his trademark sarcasm? The thought of him waking and returning to college seemed a far-off dream.Īs I sat by his bed day after day, I found myself wondering how often this type of freak accident happens. ![]() As the days and weeks stretched on with no improvement, we began to wonder if our son was ever coming back to us. He spent the first two and a half months in a near-comatose state. In the days that followed, we were transferred from the ICU to Shepherd Center, a renowned rehab hospital in Atlanta. Within hours of surgery, we were told that Clark had suffered a hemorrhagic stroke in his cerebellum, the part of the brain that controls motor movement, balance, and speech. ![]() The next 72 hours were spent on pins and needles in the ICU with our son on a ventilator, barely conscious. Thankfully, Clark did survive brain surgery. Even if we do, he may not make it.”Ĭlark Jacobs and his mom, Mariellen, share information about safety rails at an educational event. As the surgeon spoke to us in the waiting room, the words we heard were surreal, “Your son’s brain is hemorrhaging. During the hours that followed, he developed a brain bleed that required emergency surgery. We took him to the emergency room, where a CT scan confirmed our fear that he had fractured his skull. Clark decided then that it was time to call us. After vomiting a dozen more times, he had a massive headache and was unable to turn his head. He doesn’t remember falling – just coming to while vomiting into a trash can. I also remember the laughter from Clark, his dad, and his big sister, Kelsey, as they exclaimed, “He’s not going to roll out of bed!” Remembering that he had just spent a year on the top bunk at his residence hall, I relented.įour months later, Clark rolled over in his sleep one night, plunging to the hard floor where he landed on the back of his head. ![]() I’ll never forget gazing up at the seven foot high lofted bed in Clark’s new room and thinking out loud whether he should have a safety rail. Of all the campus dangers I thought I knew about when I sent him to college, it turned out to be something that wasn’t even on my “helicopter mom” radar that almost took his life. In 2015, my son Clark’s life almost ended after a terrible accident at his fraternity house. By Mariellen Jacobs, Founder, Rail Against the DangerĪnyone who has sustained a traumatic brain injury (TBI) knows that life changes in the blink of an eye.
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