Kootenai | Kootenai Health | Issue 3, 2021

This is where I removed the skull fragments from her brain, repaired the area and reconstructed the skull.” “I would have died,” Julie said. ‘Anoutstanding recovery’ It’s been a long year of recovery since that emergency surgery. “At the beginning, I couldn’t walk or talk,” Julie said, sharing that she had to use a walker and the help of physical and occupational therapists before she could do much. She missed three months of work. She still gets headaches, she can’t smell or taste, and she is on antiseizure medication. The wreck is burned into her mind as “the bike ride that never ends, or that never began,” she said. A team of Kootenai Health doctors is helping her through this: Dr. Larson; Cliff Hampton, M.D., neurologist; and her traumatic brain injury (TBI) specialist, Craig Panos, M.D. “They’ve told me that living with a TBI is like moving into a different house,” Julie said. “You’re never really the same again, you just get used to your new home. So that’s what I’m doing.” From a medical perspective, Dr. Larson said Julie has made “an outstanding recovery.” “She required extensive rehabilitation for the physical damage and for the more subtle cognitive damage to the brain,” he said. “She should be able to go on to enjoy a relatively normal life with her family.” An important lesson Although a helmet would not have prevented Julie from having the accident, it would have lessened the impact to her head and brain and would have prevented the skull fracture, Dr. Larson said. “Wearing a helmet eliminates the direct injury to the skull and helps prevent skull fractures,” he said. “It cushions the impact to the brain at the same time.” Julie is now painfully aware of how important it is to wear a helmet—as a child or an adult. “It makes such a difference. I just never thought about it. I always thought my kids need to wear a helmet, but I never did, ever, and it’s the simplest thing,” she said. “My life would be so different right now if I would have worn a helmet.” Julie praised the heroic work of Dr. Larson and the trauma team that tended to her injuries that fateful day. “Dr. Larson is the reason why my kids still have a mom,” she said. “I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for him. They saved my life.” Thanks to the neurosurgery services available at Kootenai Health, Julie was immediately treated in the community where she lives, and where she will continue to live with a grateful heart. “Overall, I’m alive. I’m thankful. I’m here, and I still get to be with my family.” Julie and her husband, Dan Wilson, with their children, from left: Camryn, 5; Kendall, 11; Jacob, 14; and Bethany, 20. Not pictured are their two other children: Kenzie, 20, and Gracie, 13. KH . ORG 7