Two special Brevard County women, bonded by the fact they are both victims of brain injury, are working toward the goal of a new life, for themselves and others like them. Two years ago, Kathy Casey sat on her back porch in Palm Bay, distraught, yet
Published in Holmes Heartbeat newsletter by Jan Tucker
Note: This article had a dual purpose: to provide PR for Holmes Hospital and New Life Options, Inc., as well as to help New Life Options obtain funding to get 26-year-old Tara Lewis, a brain injured patient, out of the nursing home she was in for three years and into a better facility that provided improved care and rehabilitation. The article achieved its purpose. Tara was moved into a better facility, closer to home, two months after publication.
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Two special Brevard County women, bonded by the fact they are both victims of brain injury, are working toward the goal of a new life, for themselves and others like them. Two years ago, Kathy Casey sat on her back porch in Palm Bay, distraught, yet determined to find a solution to a widespread problem.
Today, Tara Lewis, 26, exercises from her wheelchair in a West Palm Beach nursing home. She wants to return home to her mother after three years of hospitalization.
Tara and her mother, Joyce Colvin, spent the first four months after Tara’s accident at Holmes Regional Medical Center.
Joyce’s eyes swell with tears as she relives her memories. Tara was in the Surgical Intensive Care Unit when Joyce first arrived. “We didn’t think she was going to make it. Tara’s brain was swelling, and the neurologist even said she may not make it through the night.”
But Tara had a reversal and spent the next four months at Holmes. Joyce recalls, “Holmes was fabulous. From day one, the nurse in SICU said, ‘Do you have high top tennis shoes?’ The shoes kept Tara’s feet in position.
“The hospital did a lot while she was there. When she moved to intensive care, we already had her answering verbal commands to move all four of her extremities and I felt like we were really going to go somewhere with it.”
Holmes worked hard to move Tara to a local facility, but the only option was a neurological rehabilitation facility in West Palm Beach.
At first, Tara received 20 to 25 hours of therapy a week. But due to a number of changes in ownership, the facility is now a nursing home where she receives only one hour of physical therapy and 30 minutes of speech therapy weekly. For brain injured patients, consistent therapy is absolutely crucial to their progress. Joyce and Tara don’t want to lose the progress they’ve worked so hard to achieve.
During this time, Kathy Casey planted the first seed for a new agency to help people like Tara and herself. After her own brain injury, Kathy was unable to return to her previous banking career—she can no longer balance her own check book. She became a social worker at Brevard Achievement Center, assisting people like herself. During her last two months at the Center, however, uncontrollable seizures made it necessary to resign.
At home, Kathy’s isolation served a purpose. She realized that there were no services in Brevard to assist her—not even public transportation. She remembers the day she discovered her mission out on that back porch. Her roommate, Melody Keeth, returned from a hard day of work at Brevard Achievement Center to meet a determined Kathy who suggested they start an agency to solve the problem.
Kathy recalls her next step, “I called the Florida Head Injury Association and seven major U.S. cities. No agency was filling all the gaps in the system.” For example, although some services are provided within facilities, no agency exists to reorient head injured patients to their new life outside the facility. “If you are severe enough like Tara to need to relearn your home life, you need to do it at home, not somewhere else.”
Kathy, Melody, Barbara Perkins, a third coworker from Brevard Achievement, and Teresa Bednar are now directors of New Life Options, Inc., a nonprofit agency founded by Kathy Casey.
The name they chose reflects their goal to help brain injured victims adjust to their new life—to become as self-sufficient as their specific injury will allow. Together, they cover all the needs of a head injured patient without duplicating services performed by other agencies.
Tara’s situation is not rare. One head injury occurs in this country every eight minutes and only one in 20 survivors receive the rehabilitation they need to recover. New Life Options has a tremendous challenge ahead of them in terms of educating the schools, health care practitioners, legislators, and community to impact this problem. Funding is a primary issue due to current legislation.
Kathy has a favorite quote by Sam Earl Roberts in his book, Exhaustion: Causes and Treatment— “The hardships of life are sent not by an unkind destiny to crush, but to challenge.” New Life Options, Tara, and her mother Joyce are ready to meet the challenges that destiny has brought them. They are anxious for the day when they can reach those who can help them offer a new life to brain injured patients.