Man with TBI wins award for courage after brain injury
Joseph Wyman Jr., who suffered a brain injury in 1996, builds on his successes thanks to the Horace Mann Educational Association (HEMA). Wyman, 36, is the speaker for the Brain Injury Association of Massachusetts. When he tells his story he reminds people of the importance of safe driving. For his courage and determination in overcoming the challenges of a brain injury that changed his life, Wyman received the Eric M. Rodgers Award. Wyman's story began Christmas Eve 1996. Wyman, then 25, drove from his security job at a mall to gather for holiday festivities with his family. Wyman took his eyes off the wet pavement for only a second he said before his car hydroplaned into a pole. On impact he was thrown to the passenger side of the car and suffered a traumatic brain injury. At a local hospital, doctors diagnosed a severed brain stem, according to his mother. "They told us there was nothing they could do," she said. "They transferred him to Beth Israel Hospital in Boston, re-evaluated him, and diagnosed a diffuse axonal brain injury, which means several parts of his brain were struck and injured because of the impact of the crash." Compounding Wyman's recovery, the trauma he suffered led to a condition called third nerve palsy, which caused him to have double and triple vision.
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