Pathways- From brain injury to hope, meet the subjects

September 15th, 2009

V2 Content, in association with Madonna Rehabilitation Hospital, is producing a documentary about rehabilitation from severe brain injuries, which will premiere in Lincoln, Nebraska on October 13, 2009 at the Madonna GOAL Awards Banquet.

Producers Brandon & Tiffany Verzal have documented their two-year-old daughter Alexis since April 3, 2008, after she suffered a traumatic brain injury, from what authorities believe was shaken baby syndrome.  Alexis was injured while at  a daycare in College Station, Texas.  Alexis was 14-months-old when she was injured, and was a normal functioning and healthy child.  The swelling and bleeding in her brain caused permanent and severe brain damage.  After 22 days in a Texas hospital, she was transferred to Madonna Rehabilitation Hospital in Lincoln, Nebraska, where she has been undergoing intensive therapy since April 28, 2008.  Alexis is still recovering physically and cognitively to this day.

Alexis working on standing in Physical Therapy

Alexis working on standing in Physical Therapy

 

In February, V2 Content and Madonna joined forces to tell the story of rehabilitation after suffering a brain injury.  In addition to following Alexis’ progress, three other patients are being documented as well. 

Derek Ruth is a 13-year old who suffered a TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury) in September of 2008 while playing in a youth football game.  Derek underwent emergency surgery and both sides of his skull were removed to let his brain swell without pressuring against his skull.  “D” is a tremendous athlete and an excellent student.  He attacks each day of therapy as he would a sports competition.  What Derek has accomplished is less than a year of recovery is truly a miracle.  In May, he was able to walk the last few blocks of the Lincoln Marathon, and he is still going to therapy full-time, five days a week.  He will be featured in a nationally published Parade Magazine article in the second week of July.

Derek working with Occupational Therapy

Derek working with Occupational Therapy

 

Amanda Kay, 17, from Kansas City, Missouri, spent nearly thirty minutes under freezing cold water in January 2009 after her car veered off the interstate.  When the rescue team pulled “Mandy” out, they saw a flicker in her eye, and they were miraculously able to revive her.  Without oxygen flowing to her brain, anoxic brain damage occurred. Mandy arrived at Madonna in February on a ventilator, and by April she was walking with assistance.   She spent time at an assisted living facility, and has now returned home to Kansas City. 

Mandy in physical therapy

Mandy in physical therapy

 

Christian Stokes is 28-years-old.  An Iraq war veteran, he was injured in a motorcycle accident in Kansas City, Missouri in April of 2009.  After fifteen days in a coma, he was transferred to Madonna Rehabilitation Hospital.  Christian has had a remarkably fast recovery.  On April 30, he was unable to walk, but by June he had been completely cleared by his physical therapists.  He continues therapy to improve his cognitive skills, but will return home on July 3.

Christian in-patient recovery

Christian in-patient recovery

 

Viewers will be taken into the depths of brain injury and the approach of recovery through rehabilitation.  The documentary will include comments from family members, therapists, neurosurgeons, and doctors, and will also feature two nationally recognized brain injury advocates. 

Lee Woodruff is the wife of ABC News Anchor Bob Woodruff, who suffered a TBI while working in Iraq in 2006.  The author of the New York Times Best Seller In An Instant and Perfectly Imperfect, Lee is the founder of the Bob Woodruff Foundation and Remind.org, and speaks across the nation about brain injuries and wounded veterans.

Trisha Meili is known to the world as “The Central Park Jogger”.  After surviving a brutal attack in 1989, she has spent 20 years living with a TBI, and gives viewers insight as to what it is like to live as a highly functional brain injury survivor.  Trisha is the author of the New York Times best seller I am the Central Park Jogger: A Story of Hope and Possibility.

 

Find out more about the documentary

Madonna Rehabilitation Hospital

www.madonna.org

 

V2 Content

www.v2content.com

 

Alexis Verzal

http://www.carepages.com/carepages/AlexisLinn

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FX6l8_iKNUw

http://www.kbtx.com/home/headlines/22016329.html (you can see arrest statement on this page) http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=1200&u_sid=10600984

http://s709.photobucket.com/albums/ww97/bverzal/?action=view&current=BeautifulRide2.flv

 

Derek Ruth

http://www.ketv.com/news/18727868/detail.html (video on the side)

http://www.madonna.org/madonna_experience/success_stories.html

http://www.ketv.com/news/19363175/detail.html?taf=oma (video on the side)

http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/dereksplace

 

Amanda ”Mandy” Kaye

http://www.kctv5.com/traffic/18482857/detail.html

http://www.kctv5.com/news/18491524/detail.html

 

 

 

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V2 Content and the brain injury documentary…The path we took to here

May 26th, 2009
If you would have asked me what a brain injury was two years ago, my response would have been a shrug of the shoulders and a comment such as, “it doesn’t sound good.”  Today, my husband and I are slowly becoming experts in this very subject.  On April 3, 2008 our 14 month-old daughter, Alexis, was diagnosed with Shaken Baby Syndrome.  She has a severe traumatic brain injury (TBI), which doctors have told us is due to a violent shaking by her daycare provider.  The morning that my husband Brandon & I dropped Alexis off, she was a walking, talking little ball of fire.  Only a few hours later, she lay in an induced coma in a pediatric intensive care unit with retinal hemorrhages and bleeding on the brain.  Other than the fact that she was lucky to be alive, we had no idea what was in store for us.
Alexis 3 days after injury

Alexis 3 days after injury

Now, over a year later, we have more knowledge about TBI’s and rehabilitation than we could have ever imagined.  Alexis spent almost a month in a Texas hospital, and then the journey of rehabilitation began.  We chose Madonna Rehabilitation Hospital in Lincoln, Nebraska  for her care.  Madonna is one of the leading pediatric rehab hospitals in the United States.  They are able to take children from in-patient, and also have out-patient services.  Alexis was in-patient for 8-weeks, and then moved into their rehab-day program.  When we arrived, Alexis couldn’t hold her head up, walk, talk, she was blind, she could barely swallow food.  From May 2008 to February 2009, she participated in almost 5 hours of therapy a day.  She gets speech, physical therapy, occupational therapy, and pool therapy.  Since February, we’ve backed off to one session of each discipline 5 days a week.  However, what happened in between all of the therapy, CT scans, doctor visits and hospital stays is where we are today.

Alexis with Madonna Therapists 1 year after injury

Alexis with Madonna Therapists 1 year after injury

 

 

I started shooting 3 days into her injury.  Not on my video camera, but on my small still picture camera.  We all questioned why I was doing this- but I figured if she made a recovery, I wanted her to see where she started from.  We posted some of the videos on Youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FX6l8_iKNUw and the rest is history.  We moved from College Station, Texas to Lincoln, Nebraska in June of 2008 and my husband and I started our video production company called V2 Content.  In January 2009 we were hired by Madonna Rehabilitation Hospital to produce a documentary about brain injuries, with Alexis being the main subject.

v2 Content documents Occupational Therapy

v2 Content documents Occupational Therapy

 
We have shot most of the documentary in High Definition.  Some of the early video will be from our consumer based equipment.  We have over 10 hours of interviews, including an interview with Lee Woodruff http://leewoodruff.com/.  In two weeks, we will fly to New York City to interview Trisha Meili, http://www.centralparkjogger.com/ whom most of you know as the Central Park Jogger.  The documentary (yet to be named) will be a story of hope, a story of determination, a story about the triumphs and difficulties when rehabbing from a traumatic brain injury.  The documentary will be shown this fall in Lincoln, Nebraska in correspondence with the Madonna Rehabilitation Hospital Goal Awards.  Over the next few weeks, we will introduce our subjects and continue to update the progress.

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