E.B. Writers of Dallas

Esther M. Bauer |Dallas Morning News PULSE

Two years have passed since Sean Carter was brought by ambulance to Parkland Memorial Hospital’s trauma center after a night of partying with friends, who long since have resumed life’s normal routines.

For Mr. Carter, 24, life will never be the same.

Using RollTalkTM, an electronic communication device on his power wheelchair, Mr. Carter recently typed text the machine converted into speech: “I want to be able to walk and talk again.”

He was responding by telephone to a question about his goals, which have changed dramatically since the rainy night when he was a passenger in a pick-up truck that collided with a tree. A male model and a student at Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls at the time, his long-term plan was to practice real estate law.

Recovering from multiple fractures, a shattered pelvis and other traumas took awhile, but “severe diffuse axonal injury” … “may make my outpatient rehabilitation indefinite,” wrote Mr. Carter, who is now completely dependent upon his mother and knows well the technical term and prognosis for his traumatic brain injury.

“I was brought into the hospital with a Glasgow Coma Scale of 3. Of course I remember none of this. Mom has told me over and over, so I know what happened,” Mr. Carter wrote in an email. (His mom, Jenny Carter, says email is his preferred way of communicating as RollTalkTM takes too long to convert large amounts of text.)

“I think our prayer for Sean’s mind was answered,” Mrs. Carter says of her son’s ability to explain in explicit medical terms what happened to him.

Due to hand tremors and his zeal for accuracy, he uses one finger to type perfectly spelled responses to inquiries about his lingering physical problems:

 Quadriparesis: muscle weakness affecting all four limbs;
 Spasticity: involuntary muscle spasms, due to damaged neurons sending signals from the brain to muscles;
 Intrathecal Baclofen pump: an implanted medication system to reduce spasticity. (It continuously delivers small doses of a baclofen directly into his spinal fluid.)

He cannot move his right side and has limited use of his left hand but still plans on completing college, although his hopes of becoming a lawyer are dimming.

With his mother as his attendant, Mr. Carter enrolled at the University of Texas at Dallas in January 2007. He is taking three courses – Entrepreneurship, Management Information Systems, and “Bones, Bodies and Disease” a forensic anthropology course.

“They would be hard courses for anyone, but they are extremely challenging to me,” he says. (Until returning to college, he didn’t realize he had memory problems common to traumatic brain injury.)

“Part of that might be because my eyes don't focus together. When I read, it is a constant struggle to see. I understand everything; it just doesn't seem to get implanted in my memory, so, tests are really hard for me,” he says and has decided to let time determine his career.

“Emotionally, this certainly isn't the life I chose, but I do choose to live it as happy as I can. … Spiritually, I would like to think I have become closer to God.”

He urges people who know brain injured individuals to encourage them and help celebrate their victories. “Treat us like people. Yes, we have a brain injury, and yes we have varying – sometimes extreme deficits – but we still think, though.”


Mr. Carter’s journey through hospitalization and rehabilitation:
 March 27, 2005, date accident occurred. Stabilized at United Regional Hospital, Wichita Falls, then transported to Parkland Memorial Hospital by ground ambulance, due to poor weather conditions;
 April 14, 2005, discharged from Parkland to Baylor Institute of Rehabilitation (BIR);
 May 31, 2005, discharged to Baylor Specialty Hospital;
 July 1, 2005, readmitted to BIR;
 Aug. 22, 2005, transferred to Pate Rehabilitation in Anna, Texas;
 Jan. 23, 2006, moved into an apartment with his mother in Dallas;
 January 2006 to present, receives twice weekly rehab at BIR and depends on his mother for all care.