Learning life again

Before the accident, Chris Johnson was director of the Rio Grande Valley Dialysis Center in Brownsville. As an avid outdoorsman, he enjoyed hiking, biking, camping, fishing and riding his four-wheeler ATV.

You name it; if it was an outdoors activity Johnson, probably did it.

He and his wife, Aleida were also looking forward to starting a family. They had already begun saving money for an in vitro procedure in late 2006.

Life was good.

Today, Johnson walks with the assistance of a walker and struggles to make his voice heard — the result of a head injury he sustained while riding a four-wheeler ATV on Playa Bagdad in Mexico.

He is still looking for his voice and often uses sign language to communicate that he is hungry or thirsty. The fact that he is communicating at all seemed nearly unthinkable after his accident.

“The doctors rate a head trauma on a scale of one to 15,” said Cinde Johnson, Chris’ mother. “A three is brain dead and Chris is a four.”

Johnson continues his therapy in the Galveston Transitional Learning Center, but his wife and brother, Tad, credit South Texas Rehabilitation Hospital, Brownsville’s only in-patient rehab hospital, with sparking his recovery.

Tad continues to document his brother’s progress, posting videos of Chris walking or talking, simple things that were impossible for Johnson months ago.

Frankly, Johnson is fortunate to be here at all, according to Tad.

Johnson sustained his injury when he was launched from his four-wheeler, landing headfirst. It took four hours to get him back to Brownsville and into Valley Regional where he underwent two brain surgeries to remove a blood clot and a portion of his frontal lobe.

His brain was swelling so badly that it was coming out the base of his skull. A portion of his skull eventually had to be removed and inserted in his abdomen to keep it alive.

Doctors feared he wouldn’t survive the procedures.

“It pretty much looked like he wouldn’t make it,” said Tad. “Or that he would be in a chronic vegetative state.”

But Johnson did survive, still his injury and subsequent complications, including reconstructive face surgery, were considered too acute for a substantial recovery.

His eyes still don’t focus properly. One is dilated and the other constricted.

To complicate matters, Johnson’s wife found out five days after his accident that she was pregnant with twins.

Chris would spend three months in the hospital. Just as his insurance was about to run out, South Texas Rehabilitation Hospital stepped in.

At first, Tad was skeptical about the new hospital. A nurse himself, he had already sold his home in Washington D.C. and moved to Brownsville to assist in his brother’s rehabilitation.

Weeks before his accident, Johnson had a chance meeting with the STRH and his wife was decided that he go to the hospital.

The facility, which opened its doors in May 2005, took Johnson in for physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy.

Over the next two months, he made nothing short of a miraculous recovery. So impressed with the facility and the care given to his brother, Tad has joined the STRH staff as a rehabilitation specialist.

Although his injuries are still pronounced, his progress is undeniable and his accomplishments highlight National Rehabilitation Week and the efforts of STRH.

The hospital has already served 1,500 patients, though few have stories as dramatic as Johnson’s.

On Dec. 17, the Johnsons became parents. Unfortunately it would be a bittersweet event. Their daughter Brianna was born without complication, however, Kevin, their son, was a still birth.

“She’s helped me a lot through all of this,” Aleida Johnson said of Brianna, now nine months. “And, of course, I miss my baby Kevin.”

Aleida and Tad expect Johnson to spend several more months in Galveston, but they are eager for his return.

“I am convinced Chris will be walking by himself again, talking again and he’s almost getting ready for regular food again,” Tad said. “His short term memory, that’s the only thing holding him back at this point.”