About the Author
Mark Kerrigan, a head injury survivor, has come almost full-circle since his brain trauma. Since April 1989, he has finished high school, graduated with a 3.3 GPA from Belmont University, and has founded his own business called On the Mark Writing.
Mark has relearned how to walk, talk, hold his head upright, and has learned how precious this life really is. He loves flyfishing and spending time with his wife and son, has a great sense of humor and a firm grasp on the benefits of social networking.
Having lived in Nashville, Tenn. since 1985, he is a self-professed grammarian, which is only fitting since he graduated with a degree in English and Journalism.
Mark spent four weeks–most of April, 1989–in a coma, during which time the doctors didn’t know if he’d ever be able to take care of himself. (At least that’s what they told his parents.) After being comatose for a month, his muscles had begun to atrophy (get smaller from inactivity), and he’d gone from a lean 125 lbs. to an emaciated 80 lbs.
Mark’s closed head injury left him with two epidural hematomas (blood clots) on the left side of his brain. The surgeons removed part of his skull on the left side of his head to relieve the pressure and hopefully prevent any brain damage.
As a result of his motor vehicle crash, Mark lost the ability to walk, talk, swallow, and even to hold his urine. As he emerged from his long “sleep,” he quickly realized he couldn’t do what he had, only weeks earlier, been able to do without even a second thought.
It was the grace of God, the loving support, unwavering patience and the kindness of Mark’s family that brought him through and now allows him to serve as a beacon of hope for others who are in a similar situation or have family members who have suffered some sort of head trauma, either from an accident, multiple concussions, stroke or hypoxia.
What Mark plans to relay to readers in this blog, are stories of pain—some of which still make him wonder, “What the Hell was I thinking?”—and stories of triumph and hope. From years in neuro rehab, he feels that though there isn’t an M.D., a Ph.D., or other letters following his name, he’s an expert about what Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) survivors commonly experience.
We welcome whatever comments, questions, and personal experiences you’d like to share.
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Mark, glad you’ve waded through the shadows and made it out the other side…
As for me , I hope to get there and say hey!
Maybe some day…
Hi Mark,
Congrats on your accomplishments and this great blog.
I first found you on Twitter and was wondering if you could send a tweet about my research on handwriting and written expression after brain injury? I’m interested in learning more about people’s post-injury experiences.
[text deleted]
My contact info can also be found there if you have any questions or want to get in touch. I apologize for the public post. I was looking for a way to send a private email but was unsuccessful. (Feel free to delete this message from public view.)
Thanks for your time and consideration.
Mark,
Great site. My wife is recover from a brain injury received two years. We can relate to the struggles. Keep up the good work.
Jim – I’m glad that you can relate to the struggles I experience since my head injury. (Well, I didn’t mean it the way it sounds.) I’m sorry that you and your wife have sustained brain trauma — and that’s exactly what it is — You both are dealing with the injury.
One reason I started writing this blog was to provide encouragement to other people who, like your wife, have sustained brain injury AND their families.
I relate the stories, many of which I’m not proud, to let people know that their “survivor” is not the only person in the world who takes inappropriate actions.
How is your wife doing? Let me know if you have any questions or concerns about her recovery or if you just need someone to talk to.
Thanks for your comment,
Mark
Mark,
I sustained a severe TBI 6 years ago. I have four children 18 and under to rear. My family didn’t know if I’d live or die. I’ve written a book FORGOTTEN which covers those terrifying years in fiction form. I believe God spared my life so that I can relate to and be here for all other TBI victims. God bless you for sharing your story with the world.
Kathy
13 yrs ago I fell 38 ft.,and spent 28 days in a coma. I was at that time married 7months. My wife kept telling me, “we both had experienced this injury”. That was not a good thing to try and get me to understand,less that 2 years post injury.Do you think I should take resposibility for my behavior during those years.I know this sounds like I am crying. I now see this as another one of those troubles that this world hands out to see what kind of metal this brothers made of…
Greetings. You people seem fresh out of the isolation of disability. It is good to find you now that some glimmer of brain science is starting to show that your brain is not an impossible machine to understand. I have never been much of a reader but I have read a few books on neurology. I started with Eric Kandel’s “In Search Of Memory” which I thought was a the best, most readable brain book around. He gave human feeling to it with his stories of being a Jew in the war but his biggest discovery was that you use proteins to connect neurons that make long term memories. Then I went back to Julian Jaynes’s “The Origin Of Consciousness In The Breakdown Of The Bicameral Mind” which I tried to read in high school. I know it now as a great romp through ancient history but quite naive and to a large part neurologicly wrong. Then I read Joseph LeDoux’s “Synaptic Self”. Half of his book was a list of what books and research reports he has read. In the end he comes to the blindingly obvious conclusion: your brain is what it is. He left out the chemistry of how it gets there.
Like I said I don’t read a lot of books. I got a degree in chemical engineering without reading the books – I listened well to the lectures. We are so close to knowing how the whole brain system works. From what I have read it seems obvious that your brain is a coincidence machine. Things have to come together at the same time to have an effect on your brain. But there is all the details. How short a time is the “same time”? How big a thing is a “thing”? And how big is an “effect”? There is an electrical wave that travels across your brain. Does that push a few things coming together to enough to cause a reaction? And how big is the reaction? Big enough to move a muscle (or two) to make you talk or run or blink?
This is more than I would usually take time to read so I will stop my two-finger typing with the thought of my mugging and the lymphatic system.
Hi, Do you know if you’re able to break down your RSS feed by post cateegory. I would like to include it to my rss reader but I’m not sure if you have a dedicated rss url to acommplish this or if it’s just a sytanx that can be added in order to make this happen?
I’m pretty sure I cannot break rss feed down to post categories. I’ll check with a programmer I know and see if I can do it. Thanks.
Hi Mark,
I hope you are doing well and having fun with life. I wanted to let you know that in my most recent article, Traumatic Brain Injury and Creating Community Part 7 I introduced your web site Sir with several other web sites. Keep up the great work Mark. You are helping our brothers and sister who are living with brain injuries to create community. Thank you Mark!
God bless you as you continue in your work and on your journey. You are doing a marvelous job my friend.
Craig
Craig J. Phillips MRC, BA
Second Chance to Live
http://secondchancetolive.wordpress.com/
Our circumstances are not meant to keep us down, but they are meant to build us up!
Greetings. You people seem fresh out of the isolation of disability. It is good to find you now that some glimmer of brain science is starting to show that your brain is not an impossible machine to understand. I have never been much of a reader but I have read a few books on neurology. I started with Eric Kandel’s “In Search Of Memory” which I thought was a the best, most readable brain book around. He gave human feeling to it with his stories of being a Jew in the war but his biggest discovery was that you use proteins to connect neurons that make long term memories. Then I went back to Julian Jaynes’s “The Origin Of Consciousness In The Breakdown Of The Bicameral Mind” which I tried to read in high school. I know it now as a great romp through ancient history but quite naive and to a large part neurologicly wrong. Then I read Joseph LeDoux’s “Synaptic Self”. Half of his book was a list of what books and research reports he has read. In the end he comes to the blindingly obvious conclusion: your brain is what it is. He left out the chemistry of how it gets there. Like I said I don’t read a lot of books. I got a degree in chemical engineering without reading the books – I listened well to the lectures. We are so close to knowing how the whole brain system works. From what I have read it seems obvious that your brain is a coincidence machine. Things have to come together at the same time to have an effect on your brain. But there is all the details. How short a time is the “same time”? How big a thing is a “thing”? And how big is an “effect”? There is an electrical wave that travels across your brain. Does that push a few things coming together to enough to cause a reaction? And how big is the reaction? Big enough to move a muscle (or two) to make you talk or run or blink? This is more than I would usually take time to read so I will stop my two-finger typing with the thought of my mugging and the lymphatic system.
+1
Hello Mark,
It’s nice reading your website. I’m in the process of creating one, as I am a chiropractor who specializes in TBI’s. (I listed my general site, but am in the process of making a specific one for the unique specialty work we do for post head-injuries.) I had one 25 years ago (I was walking in Belize, Central Am. in the Peace Corps) when I was crashed into by a tortilla truck. How many people do you know who can say that? I was in the hospital for nearly 2 years (a head injury facility for long-term “hopeless cases”). I finally wrote to the Pres. of the US (G. Ford) and demanded to be let out of the hosp. to continue with my life. I returned to Belize, and met the one Chiropractor in the country. Right then, I decided to go to Chiro school when I returned to the US. While in post-grad school, I met my husband, who had a TBI about 30 years before. (He has a nice dent in his skull.) We stumbled into some specific upper cervical work which made a night and day difference for us both. My business coach pointed me at your website as we are trying to develop a site to drag head-injuried folks and other disabilities into our office. You know, the people who most need to come here, but don’t realize it. While on the subject, I suggest you look at http://www.upcspine.com . It’s impossible to bash your head and not damage the relationship of the skull & spine. This site is written by a patient and lists all the upper cervical DC’s in the country.
Anyway, I’d like to talk to you, as we’re doing the same thing on different levels. Please write back. Dorrin Rosenfeld.
Dorrin–Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment, and you are the only person I know who has been hit by a tortilla truck!
Congratulations on your recovery–that shows you are a fighter who doesn’t give up easily.
I will send you a direct email a little later today…
Tight lines,
Mark
Hi Mark
Best wishes on your recovery and I hope you find the use of social media to be really beneficial, it really opens out a world of communication with others.
My son has dravet syndrome a severe epilepsy which has meant he has global developmental delay. My wife also uses a wheelchair. She has developed a new product that has been very helpful to people with disabilities, it is a new light weight lap tray or wheelchair tray. http://www.trabasack.co.uk
Best wishes
Duncan
Hello, My name is James Diviney and on Jan 1 2009 i Suffered a Traumatic brain injury, I was hit in the head with a crowbar, I also had a blood alcohol of .36. I was in a Coma for 21 days. Woke up laying in the hospital with a head full of staples. I had to learn how to walk talk and eat all over again. I guess i just learned how to adapt I finally came to terms with the fact that I also have a traumatic brain Injury. I can’t smell, and I have limited hearing in my right ear. And of course i have cognitive issues, But I would like to know how I can help others. If you have any suggestions just let me know!!!!
James – I’m so sorry to hear about your unfortunate accident, but it’s good to see that you have relearned how to walk and eat again. Could you maybe go speak to a high school about the dangers of alcohol? Maybe a group of other TBI survivors?
Personally, I’m trying to help as many people who have acquired, personally or someone in their family has, a traumatic brain injury. I want to show them that they are not alone, and although they feel like this is the end of their lives, it’s not. And “This too shall pass.”
I applaud you for your decision to help others! It took me nearly 20 years before I got to that point.
Good luck, and may God bless you and your endeavors.
Mark
Sometimes we feel as parents of a brain-damaged teen, that we’re at the end of our rope. This helped. Thanks.
Its been 30 yrs since my TBI and I’m still finding out things I can’t do- so frustrating!
Congratulations Mark – Namaste – the spirit in me honours and recognizes the spirit in you.
I, too, sustained a traumatic brain injury and have written about my experiences in the 3 books I have published. Check them out on my website:
http://www.anthonyaquan-assee.com
You and I may not have an academic Ph.D. but we have the other kind of Ph.D. – Personal Health Diploma
All the best.
Anthony Aquan-Assee
Dear Mark,
I would really like to be able to use some of your website’s information and pictures as I make some workbooks and presentations for teens and adults in the inpatient psychiatric unit I work in. The pictures I like are at http://lifewithheadinjury.wordpress.com/.
Please let me know if they are copyrighted to you and whether or not I have permission to use them. The recovery education materials I am developing may be published someday online or in print. Thanks for considering this.
Mary Knutson, RN
Hi Mark,
Congrats! you are doing what so many people could not achieve spreading the word around. You are living my dream. I sustained TBI two ago in MVA and it wad devastating I live in canada and very little knowledge and awareness is spread is here regarding brain injury it has been a struggle and I know how other TBI patients feel. Keep up the good work.
Reema
Hi, Mark,
I am contacting you from the Brainline.org team. I am interested in interviewing you about your blog for an article for our website. Please contact me via e-mail and I will send you the details.
Best,
Katherine
Katherine, thanks for connecting with me about my blog. I’d love to be featured on Brainline.org. Feel free to contact me via email, but I’m out of pocket the rest of this week.
Thanks, Mark
Thank you, Mark for your interest. If you could pass along your contact information (your e-mail address) I will get in touch with you today. I have listed my e-mail address within the comment.
Best,
Katherine
Dear Mark,
I, too, am a traumatic brain injury survivor. I was in a severe car-accident just before I was about to be a freshman in high school. Also, I was supposed to play varsity soccer there. But the accident changed my life forever. I was in a coma for two-weeks, which I don’t remember. And I had to relearn how to talk, read, and write again. I had intense therapy for about a year, but I recovered quickly. I still graduated from high school a year later, then went to college. I have two college degrees: an Associate’s degree and a Bachelor of Science degree. But I will never be that same person before that accident. It is still difficult for me to bare. I have written a book about my life and experiences before and after the accident. Maybe a publisher will be interested to publish it? I wish you well Mark. Thank you for sharing your life. Kristin
Hi Mark, Hope you’re doing well! I’d like to ask you a few questions about TBI. Would you please email me at sladue@rlapr.com? Thanks,
Stephanie
Awsome blog! I am loving it!! Will be back later to read some more. I am bookmarking your feeds also
Hello Mark! I am working on a project for Traumatic Brain Injury Awareness month in March and we are asking people to share their stories in video form for our YouTube Channel as well as join us on Facebook for discussion. Would this be something you are willing to do? If so, please email me!
Thank you,
Michele
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I agree completely with what you said. Excellent Stuff. Keep it going..
Hi. I had a severe traumatic brain injury 20 years ago. People would say I am “normal” but are unaware of the difficulties I live with. i live in nashville, too, and wondered if you know of any support (group?) In nashville for people like me. Thanks.
Laurance B. — Congratulations on your recovery. I know what you mean about being considered “normal” but feeling that there is something drastically wrong. There are some support groups for survivors of brain injury in Nashville.
Contact: Lisa Howser Phone: (615) 248-2541 E-mail: Coordinator@BrainInjuryTN.org
Nashville
Vanderbilt Stallwork Rehalilitaion Hospital 1st Tuesday of the month from 6-7:30 pm.
Madison
Skyline Madison Campus 3rd Monday of the month from 6-7:30.
Hope this helps, and I hope to see you there!
Mark