Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 9, 1993 TAG: 9303090158
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: MELISSA DeVAUGHN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: FLOYD LENGTH: Medium
`SURVIVORS' ON MOVE BACK FROM INJURIES
When Mary Kneisley was a student at the College of William and Mary, she suffered a minor head injury during a hockey game. She was treated, released from a hospital and thought that was the end of it.But as the weeks passed, Mary, who is from Williamsburg, had trouble concentrating. She couldn't remember what she had just studied and once she even forgot how to get home.
This was the beginning of a long road to recovery for Kneisley, now on the board of directors for Survivors on the Move, a non-profit organization providing support for survivors of traumatic brain injuries.
"That injury brought all my functioning levels down to zero," Kneisley said. "They stitched me up and I left the emergency room, but I knew something was not right."
Kneisley's problems weren't formally diagnosed until a year and a half later, when she already had recovered 22 percent of her capabilities naturally. It was then that she was able to get rehabilitation.
During that time she met Tim Redford, head counselor for the Virginia Head Injury Foundation. Redford and his wife converted their 37-acre Floyd County farm into a camp for survivors of traumatic brain injuries - TBIs. They also provide long-term care for survivors at their home.
That camp, held at Redford's farm last year, was the beginning of Survivors on the Move.
The program is a mobile camp that provides a respite for families and survivors of TBI. It is held anywhere - at the beach, in the mountains, on a farm, or even in the city. The object is to get the survivors out into the world and make them feel a part of it rather than a victim of it.
"No one had the concept of a mobile camp at first. We just put the idea together one night sitting and talking," Kneisley said. It gives everyone a break, they agreed, family, friends and survivors alike.
"We want to take care of people in a normal setting, in the most normal setting we can," Redford said.
Many survivors of TBI have become reclused, Redford said, often depending on family and friends to take care of them. The hardest part, he said, is that they once were healthy, active adults, used to a different life.
The latest Survivors on the Move camp was held in Floyd County last month. TBI survivors from all over the state participated.
Sariah White, 18, lives in Tidewater. When she was 7, she and her brother were riding their bikes when she was hit by a car. The head injuries she suffered are still with her today.
"The best part of [Survivors on the Move] is being with people who have had the same thing happen," she said.
White said it was hard growing up with a head injury because people would call her "retard or dummy."
"They didn't understand what was wrong, so they could only tease," she said. "It is other people's shortcomings that make them do that."
Anne Lacy, an occupational therapist from Richmond, and board of directors member, said "the hardest part for TBI patients is that [other] people don't know how to act, and [the survivors] just want to be treated normal. They need to be treated as a person."
Kneisley agrees. It was frustrating, she said, when people would "nod like they understand what you're saying when they have no idea."
Dwight Gilbert, 41, was at last month's camp. He was in a car accident in 1985 in Florida. Once a restaurant manager and musician, Gilbert is now partially paralyzed.
"I like the camps, because I like to sleep in tents," Gilbert said. "And it was nice to see the water and walk on the sand for the first time," he said of a camping trip last year at Virginia Beach.
Since his accident, Gilbert says, he has lost a lot - control of his family, the value of his opinions. But he has gained a lot, too, he said.
"Now I pinpoint what I want to do and make that my goal," he said. "I concentrate harder to get things done."
Gilbert still plays his keyboard, using a pencil cuff to help him hit the right keys.
Survivors on the Move is a growing operation. In fact, it will be featured on "CBS This Morning" in late April or early May.
The board of directors consists of volunteers from Williamsburg to Floyd County, but others always are needed. For information on the group, call 763-2422 or 763-3375.