Hello,
My name is Blaine Stanziana and I have a head Injury story
that i will live for the rest of my life. On May 1st, 1979 at the age of 21,
I was in an Industrial accident in which I received a head Injury. Several
months after this head Injury I began to Hallucinate ( events from my past
would appear in front of my eye's, I would even recognize them) and dry heave
terribly.
I began to see doctors who could find no explanation for these events that
now took over my life. Now on July, 1st 1988, I took a grand-mal seizure while
working up on a deck some 6 feet from the cement floor, I fell back head
first causing numerous injuries including a subdural hematoma, and a second
brain injury. Now in 1990 I finally began to get some answers, the period
between the two head injuries when I was Hallucinating and dry Heaving, I was
taking Complex Partial Seizures, doctors have estimated that I took over
35,000 of these seizures, the 1979 head injury had given me epilepsy that
went undiagnosed for 11 yrs. Not 1 doctor ever asked me if i ever had a head
injury.
I have emotional problems, mood swings, I have night mares, and a balance
problem, In July of 1998 I was walking with my wife down our street to our
home, I lost my balance and fell on my right arm. It was fractured so badly
that I was in surgery with in 12 hrs, they had to drill 4 pins into my bone
coming up thru the skin all hooking to a metal bar for some 55 days.
Now the last week of february of 1999, I thought i had developed a cold in my
neck, so I was putting hot and cold packs on it for a week or so. I began to
notice that my left arm was begging to go numb and was loosing strength.
So I went to the doctor who ordered an MRI of my neck. When he received the
results of the MRI, he immediately phoned my wife and I and said to get to
his office as soon as possible.
When we arrived he told me to sit down that he had terrible news, he pointed
out that vertebrates C-4 C-5 C-6 and the disc for C-7 had degenerated away so
badly that a sudden stop in my car could have broken my neck, this being a
result from my 2nd TBI accident 11 yrs ago, he ordered emergency surgery, he
also pointed out that without the surgery I was within weeks from a being in
a wheelchair for the rest of my life. They removed the three degenerated
vertebrates and the bad disc at vertebrate C-7 they replaced them with 3
inches of bone taken from my left leg, the operation took place in March of
1999. I had to sleep in a chair for over a month, I wore 5 different neck
brace's for 5months, then i will start two months of painful physical therapy.
The operation that took place in March of 1999 had done damage to my vocal
cords, I had been talking very hoarse for over five months. I had to have
laser surgery done on my vocal cords so my voice would return to normal, I'm
glad it worked. GOD Bless.
I have learned one thing from all of this, it is,
A Head Injury Comes With A Life Sentence.
Blaine Stanziana
Pittsburgh, Pa