More than five million Americans alive today have experienced a traumatic brain injury.

Four of those survivors living in our area wanted a way to share their recovery and support with others going through the same trauma.

With the help of Tallahassee Memorial hospital, the brain injury advocacy group was able to launch a website, posting blogs about their experiences.

Sheree Porter, TMH Rehab Center Program Manager said "One of the members suggested that we start a blog page, so we investigated and found it didn't exist anywhere else in the nation."

Two of the survivors recall how difficult it was to get back to their lives.

Chas Wheeler, TBI Survivor, Rehab Counseling Intern, said "I was in an intro to psych class and not able to get above a 50 percent on a multiple choice test in intro to psych, and I was in clinical for my masters. It was difficult."

Jake Vanlandingham, FSU Asst. Prof. of Biomedical Science, said "I was starting physical therapy school at that time, and my mother had to drive me to school everyday. I was sort of an adolescent again, but it really taught me how to study."

Both men know how lucky they are to be alive and how important it is to have support.

Wheeler said "No one thought I'd ever be able to regain abilities to learn, but I did because I had the support of rehab and from my close friends and family."

The group hopes the website will bring greater awareness to their issue.

Visit:
http://www.tmh.org/neuroscience.cfm?id=511