In Photos: A Military Family Overcomes TBI
4-minute read
In Photos: A Military Family Overcomes TBI
4-minute read
Brad served in the U.S. Army in Iraq, where he encountered numerous IED blasts. At first, he didn’t realize he had a traumatic brain injury (TBI), which made his eventual transition from being a soldier in a combat zone to “caring, loving husband” challenging for him and his family. Learn how he and his wife, Dani, reached out for support and worked together to overcome the effects of TBI and strengthen their family.
“I was in the Army. I was 11B, Infantry. I joined in 1998 and left in 2006. The theaters of operation were [in] Iraq.” — Brad
“I’ve gone through at least 12 IEDs. How many times was I unconscious? I couldn’t tell you. I didn’t really recognize that I had a TBI.” — Brad
“I got home [from Iraq] and things were different. … There was a fairly quick change going from literally absolute … destruction to the caring, loving husband.” — Brad
“He was … extremely hypervigilant, constantly looking for the dangers in every situation.” — Dani, Brad’s wife
“We went to mental health [at VA] together. We went in for counseling services. … He got placed with a pretty amazing counselor. She saw him individually for a while. He had me go with him until he felt comfortable seeing her alone. And then she’s also done some couples counseling with us.” — Dani
“The counseling … was really helpful to him. He was learning a lot of skills that he didn’t have before. He was learning a lot of different ways to deal with living in a family, basically. It’s all about communication and the way that you deal with each other.” — Dani
“The VA put him through a brain training program, and that program was actually pretty tremendous for him. He used to have a stutter all the time, and that has gone away. He used to do a thing where his eyes darted back and forth really fast when he was trying to have word recall, and his brain wasn’t getting the word out to his mouth, and that has almost gone away.” — Dani
“They helped me with my word recall. You know, eight months ago, I wouldn’t be this good with my word recall.” — Brad
“I love my wife — I’m in love with my wife. My wife and kids are the only things that keep me running on that straight and narrow.” — Brad
