Mind Over Matter: Torrance Man Finds New Path After Traumatic Brain Injury
Originally published on July 19, 2010
July 08, 2010. Photo by Steve McCrank.
Three years ago, Francisco Sanchez of Torrance was working as a train welder at the Port of Los Angeles when he inexplicably passed out and fell backwards into the empty boxcar six feet below.
His head slammed into a metal bar on his way down and banged against the floor of the train. His brain began to bleed. He was rushed to St. Mary Medical Center in Long Beach, where, despite an emergency craniotomy, doctors expected him to die.
When Sanchez awoke from his coma nearly three weeks later, surrounded by friends and family in the hospital, he struggled to speak, and was blind in his left eye. He tried to write his family a note, but it came out as gibberish.
Although his speech soon returned, Sanchez had to relearn a slew of frustratingly simple words, like “knife” and the number “three.”
And how far he’s come.
Earlier this month, the 36-year-old Torrance native graduated from ITT Tech in Torrance, where he specialized in computer drafting and design. Sanchez enrolled two years ago against the advice of his doctor, who feared he wasn’t cognitively ready for such a rigorous mental workload.
He finished second in his class of about 40 students with a 3.9 GPA. At the graduation ceremony on July 8, Sanchez picked up not only his AA degree but also a salutatorian certificate. Now he’s going for his bachelor’s in the engineering division of ITT’s computer drafting program.
“I was knocking on the door of the Grim Reaper,” said Sanchez, whose closely cropped hair reveals the line from a question-mark-shaped scar covering the left side of his head , tracing the path of the incision made on that fateful day – May 21, 2007 – to release the pressure from the gathering blood.
“But I was positive from the beginning. I had hope – I didn’t look at the negative side. As soon as you become negative you become just a blob, sitting there.”
Sanchez is among about 700,000 Americans who suffer traumatic brain injury every year, according to the Brain Injury Association of America. The victims tend to be young; most are 15 to 30 years old. Many cases are the result of blunt trauma, such as car accidents, hard falls or acts of violence.
But sometimes the tragedy creeps up quietly in the form of an aneurysm, stroke or even the occasional sinus infection gone awry.
Almost always, the damage and resulting debilitation is largely permanent. But, as Sanchez has proved, that doesn’t preclude the injured from making significant accomplishments.
His story demonstrates how a person’s life can come crashing down in an instant, but also underscores the power of determination and the strong support network of a loving family.
“I personally don’t let him say he can’t do something,” said Andrea Sanchez, his wife of nearly 12 years, with whom he has had two girls, ages 4 and 10. “I won’t let him say, ‘I can’t or I won’t or I shouldn’t.’ I’m like, ‘If you’re not fine, then I’m not fine.”‘
As for Francisco, the injury fueled his determination to not only heal, but grow. Until now, he’d never obtained any formal schooling after graduating from Narbonne High School.
New skill needed
In a sense, his hand was forced. Shortly after Sanchez returned home from the hospital, he suffered two massive seizures. This disqualified him from ever again plying his trade, which required working from tall heights. He needed to find a more suitable skill.
Sanchez, the son of an aerospace engineer, recalled excelling in a high school drafting class. This led him to enroll in the computer drafting and design program.
Meanwhile, he still needed rehab. Many who suffer head trauma opt to first rehabilitate and then move on to rebuild their professional lives. Sanchez chose to do both simultaneously.
About 21/2 years ago, he enrolled in the Acquired Brain Injury program at Coastline Community College in Costa Mesa. He concurrently enrolled at ITT. For two years, he attended the former by day and the latter by night.
Progress didn’t come without a struggle.
For starters, the accident seems to have altered Sanchez’s personality.
An outgoing man with an average build, amused eyes and a ready laugh, Sanchez said he’s always been the kind of guy to chat up a stranger in line at the grocery store. But ever since the incident, he and Andrea said, Sanchez has occasionally exhibited the tendency to grow overly excited. Not in an angry way, but sometimes in a manner that suggests he is anxious or frustrated.
“I get excited for whatever we’re going to do, so I start talking fast or start talking loud,” he said. “And my wife’s like ‘Hey, don’t yell at me!’ I’m like ‘I’m not yelling at you.’ I can’t sense myself when I’m being loud to them until they tell me. So I tell my kids: tell me. Don’t just walk away – I need the information from them to help me.”
Personality changes aren’t unusual among victims of brain injury .
Posted on the website for the program at Coastline Community College is a good-natured essay by recent graduate Scott Newbry, who, after a devastating motorcycle accident, came to with a newly acquired Southern accent.
Another major issue is money. Sanchez’s accident had the effect of cutting the family’s income in half, even though Andrea Sanchez says their insurance company has been very cooperative. One of their cars was repossessed and the family had to move into a smaller apartment.
Andrea Sanchez, an office supervisor at South Bay Orthopaedic Specialists Medical Center in Torrance, started working six days a week instead of five. And while workers’ comp paid $10,000 towards his education, tuition ran $20,000 a year.
Scariest of all are the eerie health complications that can accompany a serious brain injury .
One night, Sanchez was studying for a test when he noticed a numbness in his hand. It slowly spread to his fingertips, then crawled up his arm and into his neck.
“Then I started feeling half of my face. Numbness,” he said. “And then all of a sudden, I started feeling it in my tongue, and in my mouth and I was like, you know what, it doesn’t look right.”
To be safe, they went to the hospital. Doctors figured he’d had a stroke, and increased his seizure medication. He hasn’t had another episode since, though the heavy dosage makes him tired.
But Sanchez – who regained the sight in his left eye after surgery – persevered and plowed through, in spite of the splitting headaches and the stress of studying in a house with two small children.
“He was a very pleasant student,” said Frederick Poblete, the dean at ITT. “He did very, very well academically. And he had very good attendance.”
Survivor program grows
Celeste Ryan, co-chair of the Acquired Brain Injury program at Coastline, said advancements in treating aneurysms, strokes and brain tumors – as well as victims of car crashes – have had the unintended effect of boosting the number of survivors who suffer from severe brain injuries .
When the Coastline program first opened in 1978, it served 19 students. Last year, it accommodated 230.
The idea of the program isn’t to heal the brain – oftentimes, Ryan said, the damage can’t be undone. Instead, the goal is to help students cope with their newfound disabilities. Students are taught to use personal digital assistants (PDAs) to keep track of appointments, for instance.
“They forget all the things you and I do, but the incidence is much higher,” she said.
Sometimes, the impairments are tragically severe. A person, for instance, might lose track of time and spend hours in the bathroom getting ready for work. The program might then encourage him or her to equip the room with a timer.
Usually, victims of traumatic brain injury have no trouble remembering skills acquired long ago, Ryan said. But forming new memories can prove daunting.
For this reason, she said, Sanchez’s case is remarkable.
“Francisco is an extremely hard worker,” she said. “He also has a very exceptional support network – there’s a high incidence of divorce after a brain injury .”
The bond between Francisco and Andrea Sanchez runs deep. Both attended Narbonne High, though Andrea – whose maiden name is Waack – is six years his junior. They married when she was 19 and he was 25.
She still remembers the fateful day all too vividly.
She’d prepared his lunch – leftover stir fry – and called to say hello while he was eating it. Not long after, during her own lunch hour, she got a call from his boss, saying there had been an accident.
For his part, Sanchez has no memory of that day or the day before. Andrea Sanchez jokes that this a good thing, because it was the first batch of stir fry she’d ever made, and it turned out terrible. The day before the accident, he tried to reassure her at the dinner table.
“He said, ‘No, it’s really good.’ I said, ‘No it’s not, but I’ll make you lunch tomorrow.’ That’s what he ate for lunch.”
rob . kuznia @dailybreeze.com