Fatal accident left veteran with brain injury

Life altering day….

On March 21, 2022 my mother, Linda 72, was driving her car. She was coming back from doing a favor for a family friend whom she still had in the vehicle with her. My brother, Eric, and another friend was also in the car, along with my mother’s two small dogs whom she always allowed to ride with her everywhere. They had stopped at the 7-eleven to get gas and was just pulling back out on the road when an empty flatbed semi truck T-boned the vehicle on the drivers side, never really hitting his brakes, killing her instantly. They had to use the jaws of life to remove the entire roof of her car before they could get to the people inside. My mom was pronounced dead at the scene and the other three passengers were airlifted to the nearest hospital where Eric would spend the next 4 months. That morning I received a call from my niece informing me that a friend of hers had seen a bad accident and thought maybe it was her grandmothers car involved. I spoke with her at 11am we then contacted the local sheriffs office and asked about said accident and we were told that an officer would be out to speak with us shortly if in fact it was our loved ones. But I had seen the pic that my nieces friend sent her and knew it was my mom car! The officer finally made it to my other nieces home where my sister and I and her daughters all waited to hear word. It wasn’t until 7pm and several calls later that an officer finally came to inform us that my mom had passed away and my brother was in critical condition. Altering my life forever.           

Eric then began his long journey to recovery, we soon realized that the report was that my mother had run a red light and was the one at fault and her insurance didn’t cover but a small potion of the hospital bills that were piling up so with no help from the legal department and no insurance of his own except the VA benefits he receives I quickly learned that Eric wasn’t going to get any help from anyone but myself. The doctors and nurses had deemed him unresponsive even though he had come out of the coma he was in. They informed me of his head bleed and told me we would just have to wait to see. He slowly came out of the coma but couldn’t move his whole left side. Didn’t feel anything at all. He was awake but at first he just looked in a haze. But praise God I had my brother and my moms two small dogs who both faired just fine through the semi accident and are still with us today!! But all the rehabs that Eric should have been taken too rejected him do to payment issues or because the medical team deemed him still unresponsive. 

I, at the time of the accident, was renting a room from a friend of mine out of her home. I had just sold my home, due to my husband moving out of the state to live with his new girl friend. . I was quickly realizing that my once self sufficient older brother, was gonna need some place to go because the hospital had found not one rehab to take him they were then looking to move him to a nursing home to spend the remainder of his days. I knew at that moment if that happened he wouldn’t ever make it back to who he was before this tragic day happened. He would waste away and I couldn’t let that happen if I could help it. The VA couldn’t take him but had offered to pay a portion of the bill to the rehab if he was placed in one. But that never occurred. Then finally the nurse asked me to take him home with me. I lived in a bedroom in a friends home. Eric needs help learning to walk and talk and everything a person knows how to do he had forgotten! He hadn’t at the point even been allowed to eat real food. I began looking for a place to take him and advised the nurse of my situation. They told me they would supply the wheel chair and shower seat, and also a walker incase he ever needed it. I’m glad to say he never used it. I loved to a small single trailer where I could bring him home to and the first thing we did was get a Big Mac each. He ate his so fast then he took what was left of mine! He hasn’t stopped eating and drinking since! The VA did he eval and set him up with physical therapy but Eric taught himself how to walk again without a walker and has since regained all his left side use except his hand! Which is sad cause before he would play his guitar everyday! He loves music and he plays well and has since 15 hi years old! Now he doesn’t but my goal is to get him back on that guitar! 

He now walks well and talks a little. Communication is tough for him. Once he learned to walk it became all he ever does! He walks up and down our hallway for hours! He even walks while getting his hair cut. He just doesn’t wanna stop but the doctors say that makes it difficult to teach him much else cause he won’t sit and focus. But I allow him to walk cause he enjoys it! He can’t be left alone and I work because I have no one but myself to pay the bills. We finally got him SSI but he only receives 450 a month and he receives less from the VA for his 10 years he served in the army, but its a minimum $80 a day for a sitter. I have since stopped working because I can’t pay a sitter but he can’t be left alone he could hurt himself. He needs help in everything we do. Which I don’t mind but the bills piled up so fast that I’m about to lose my car. All I wanted to do was give him a better chance at a life after this tragic accident! But now we cant make ends meet and  I would like to just pay off the car so we don’t lose it. Or even pay some of it. We also have had to move a few times and spent 9months in a hotel room before my friend I was living with when the accident happened allowed us to move to her home while she is away but  our lease ends soon and we will need another place to go but I can’t afford a down payment not the kind they want nowadays. He has almost a million dollars in hospital bills. I have had a few people help us out but I owe them the money back. I have asked the SSI office to reconsider his amount that he receives but now we are back to the waiting process with them and could lose the car before they even make a decision. I know I am doing the right thing and it will eventually all be ok and in the past but I really could use help to just get us over this part!  Thank you so much for your kindness and prayers because even though we are living day by day at he is living!!!!