The Life and Story of Jack Banbury

Jack Banbury is a tall handsome gentleman in his 70’s. He is kind, dependable, a good friend to many, a volunteer and is always helping others. He is very friendly. Jack is articulate and very knowledgeable and well versed in many subjects.

Jack describes himself as a very well-educated man. He graduated from Georgia Tech University in Atlanta, Georgia. While at Georgia Tech Jack played intercollegiate football for the legendary coach Bobby Dodd. He also participated in intercollegiate wrestling.

He attended the University of Miami Graduate School. Jack went to Medical School at the University of Florida. He was a 3rd year medical student at Florida when his accident occurred.

He has lived in Wisconsin, Florida, and Georgia. Jack drove moving trucks for years, was married for a while, and is a dad. He has always been an Atlanta Braves baseball fan.

Jack’s life has not been boring. Why is Jack writing and sharing his life’s story? Among all of the things Jack has done and accomplished, he is also a traumatic brain injury survivor. He wants others to understand that “A survivor is not stupid; they are simply brain injured. The survivor has already had so much happen to them, so try to understand them, give them time, and treat them special, and do not put them down. Try to listen. Only talk about one thing at a time. Most importantly, allow them the time to respond.”

Jack describes his qualities as having a lot of drive, being very organized, and extremely self-motivated. He adds with a laugh, that he is also “bull headed”. He believes that these are all traits to help a survivor to get better, and to overcome and compensate for their brain injury.

Jack clearly states that he has no regrets, no complaints — he has lived a wonderful life and is just glad to be alive. He is not rich but he does not care. He has helped many people since his own brain injury — and this has always been his life goal — to help others.

WHY SHARE HIS STORY WITH OTHERS?

Jack Banbury wants to share his story with others in order to help them better understand brain injury and what it is like for the survivor of a brain injury. He hopes that this story will inspire other survivors and also help caregivers better understand how to help their brain injured love one.

Jack especially wants to help the caregivers. Over the many years since his injury, Jack has learned that anyone who has not been brain injured cannot truly understand brain injury — not even the doctors and therapists. He believes that “unless you have lived it, you don’t get it.”

He hopes that the things he shares by telling his own story will help others understand more about brain injury — what it does to a person — the symptoms of brain injury — how to help the brain injured survivor — how to work together to make it through the injury.

He hopes that his story will be an aid for others to use to positively deal with a brain injured person on a day-to-day basis. There is only so much the survivor and the caregiver can get from the doctors and therapists, because they do not truly understand — “unless you personally have been brain injured, you can’t understand it”.

JACK’S BACKGROUND & LIFE

He was adopted. His adopted parents always told him that “he was chosen”. They lived in Beloit, Wisconsin. There the family were Milwaukee Braves baseball fans. At age 6, he and his family moved to Atlanta, Georgia. (His Milwaukee Braves later moved to Atlanta, GA thus Jack remained a “Braves” baseball fan.) His parents later adopted a second son, Jack’s brother, Ronnie.

Jack went to Georgia Tech, in Atlanta Georgia. There he got a degree in engineering. He went to graduate school at the University of Miami, to work on his Masters Degree in Ocean Engineering. He was a U.S. aquanaut, living underwater for 40 days, 5 days at a time, in a habitat. He did movies with the famous filmmaker and author Marlin Perkins with Wild Kingdom. In graduate school he worked with sharks and tropical fish.

Jack worked at the University of Miami, studying sharks and tropical fish. While at Miami he became a qualified scuba instructor, teaching at the University of Miami as well as conducting a number of private classes. He participated in underwater saturation diving for the F.L.A.R.E. Project.

He assisted in making a film with Marlin Perkins and “Wild Kingdom” on sharks. They utilized a submersible shark cage and a transducer to attract the sharks. The film was shot while they were utilizing saturation diving in the “hydrolab”. While in graduate school at the University of Miami, Jack also participated in a very specialized form of diving known as “cave” diving both in the fresh water springs of Florida and in the “blue” holes in the tongue of the ocean off Andros Island in the Bahamas.

During Jack’s 3rd year of Graduate School he decided to become a doctor. While he continued his graduate studies, Jack applied to Medical School. He was initially rejected. He was persistent and continued to apply to Medical Schools. He finally got into Medical School at the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida. At this point he was very close to finishing his thesis. Jack says that “every dream he ever had was to be a doctor”, so he left for Medical School.

It takes 4 years to graduate from Medical School. Jack was an excellent student. He could memorize and remember everything. His professors of medicine told Jack that he had great surgical skills. It was during year 3, Jack had his accident. (His accident will be explained in another section.) He was recovering for a long time. He tried to return to Medical School at a lower level, but there was just too much memorization.

He lived in Florida for several years. He was in a coma then rehabilitation in the hospital for months. After rehab then Jack took several college courses to get back into academics at the junior college. He took organic chemistry to get back into pre-med courses. The University of Florida still wanted to help Jack return to medical school. After his course work Jack did eventually go back to medical school. He restarted where he left off, in his 3rd year. He wore a white coat and did internships. After a time, the medical school decided that this 3rd year work was too difficult for Jack. Thus Jack was put back into Phase B, which took him back to the beginning of medical school. He did some basic science courses. Jack’s technical and surgical skills were excellent. He was often asked to show other med students how to do a surgical procedure. But alas, Jack’s brain injury just would not allow him to retain the information he needed to be a doctor, nor provide him the day-to-day memory skills required.

Jack did eventually take the medical boards. If you pass you become a doctor. He did not do very well. Jack knew that most doctor students are in the upper one-half of one percent of the college classes. He rationalized that he could stay in medical school forever, but he would probably never become a doctor. Jack states that his “biggest disappointment of his life was not being able to be a doctor. He had always dreamed of becoming a doctor.”

His Melbourne, Florida roommate’s brother owned a moving truck company in Melbourne. This friend got Jack a job with his brother’s company. Jack moved back to his home town of Atlanta from Florida.

Jack drove a moving truck for over 20 years, all over Georgia and Florida. He actually drove all over the United States. This job did not pay great, but this was physical labor and Jack did all right. He had some memory lapses, but he learned to compensate. He learned very quickly and he wrote everything down. Jack was always very organized in his approach to everything so this worked well for him.

Later after his truck driving career, Jack worked at Home Depot full time. He did a good job. He worked in several departments. In the Gardening Department, he primarily watered the plants and kept them all growing. He finally retired from this job in his mid-seventies.

While in Atlanta, he met and married a girl. Jack openly explained his accident and brain injury. They adopted one daughter. This marriage did not last for numerous reasons. His brain injury and his memory issues did have a negative effect. She just never understood the issues created with an injury to the brain.

Jack still sees and visits with his grown daughter and grandson. They hold a special place in his life.

Jack states that he now cannot drive, “but I still have the dogs which give me a responsibility.
I also help water the yard and plants. I live with Leslie and her husband Steve and I have them to visit with in the evenings.”

JACK’S ACCIDENT AND REHABILITATION

In college Jack played football for Georgia Tech college. The coach at the time was the legendary Bobby Dodd. Jack was on their team. Then during Medical School he played rugby. He was on a club team. To Jack, rugby was an extension of his playing football.

Jack was always a very aggressive player. Because of his football experience, he was an incredible tackler. In rugby the players do not wear a helmet. The players can not touch you unless you have the ball – like a game of hot potato.

In the process of Jack making a tackle, a rugby player collided with Jack. Jack was knocked out on the field. He went into a coma for 2 weeks. The left side was injured thus he had brain cells die. He had a subdural hematoma due to the accident. The doctors needed to relieve pressure on that left side of his brain. They opened up his skull to drain blood off.

He remained in a coma for 2 weeks. The brain injury was to his right frontal temporal area, thus the left side of his body was affected and injured. The doctors had to relieve the pressure in his brain on the left side. They opened up his skull to drain the blood off. A subdural hematoma was created in his brain due to the accident. The loss of oxygen and the blood in his brain caused his brain to be permanently injured.

While in a coma, Jack was in the hospital in Orlando. A nurse friend brought Jack back to Gainesville, Florida to Shands Teaching Hospital at the University of Florida – the same hospital where Jack was a 3rd year medical student. He stayed there for a long while. When he was released from Shands Jack went back to his own apartment. The University of Florida sent 2 medical students over to stay with Jack and help him – 2 in the morning then 2 in the afternoon. They watched over Jack to keep him safe. He would often leave water on the stove boiling. He was a physical danger to himself with his brain injury.

Jack did Occupational Therapy, Physical Therapy, and all of the therapies that the hospital recommended.

ISSUES CAUSED BY JACK’S BRAIN INJURY

Jack’s accident and brain injury caused vascular headaches. These occurred from the very beginning of his injury and continue to this day. He takes aspirin to make these headaches go away – the only drug that will dissipate them. If he has a headache he takes several aspirin and lays down.

One of Jack’s worst issues created from his brain injury is the loss of his ability to remember things. He can never finish a novel because he can not remember one chapter to the next. He cannot watch a television series, as he cannot remember the plot. He watches movies but then does not remember what he has seen.

He compares his own brain injury to early onset Alzheimer’s. He has all of the common symptoms.

Jack is also disorientated. This began right at the beginning of his injury. He got lost all of the time. He had to retrace his steps all of the time.

During conversations Jack usually just listens. He does not participate much. The others in the conversation usually drown Jack out. Jack can not think fast enough to respond or he forgets what all of the other people have said.

Jack does not sleep well. He was born with a congenital eye issue, but the injury caused him to be half blind. He learned strategies to deal with this which allowed him to drive, read, and live his life.

VOLUNTEERING

Jack was a volunteer in the hospitals for the Brain Injury Peer Visitor Association for 11 years (from 2009 until 2020). https://braininjurypeervisitor.org/ Jack was a Brain Injury Peer Visitor in 2 hospitals. These hospitals were Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia and Emory Eastside in Snellville, Georgia. Jack Peer Visited each week in one or the other hospitals. He actually went into the patient room where he visited with the patient and/or their caregiver, or loved one(s), or friends, or anyone in the person’s life. He shared with them his own story, and provided “tips” about coping with brain injury, and information on brain injury. Today, Jack still does phone Peer Visits.

NOTE: (Due to COVID all of the hospitals suspended all volunteer programs on March 20, 2020, including the Brain Injury Peer Visitor Association. They did not allow a volunteer into a patient room, nor inside of the hospital.)

Jack says, “Volunteering was the major bonus of my life since my injury. The Brain Injury Peer Visitor Assn. and Program was a great gift to me, because I was helping the survivor, and helping especially their friends and family understand brain injury and what they were going through.” “Becoming a Brain Injury Peer Visitor made me an active member of society, because I was helping others; I was contributing to my fellow human beings – like if I had become a doctor.”

He states that “Ann Boriskie and her Brain Injury Peer Visitor Association saved me. Ann was a ‘God send’. I was lost. My life was ‘blah’. I was working a physical job which passed the time but this volunteer program gave me a way to do what I have always wanted to do in the first place in my life – help people.” “I was able to be with brain injured patients and was able to help the family understand what the injured person was going through.” “It helped me fulfill my purpose. With my own brain injury, I had lost so much.” “The program provided me with the ability to feel worthy once again.”

Jack was also a member of the Emory Brain Injury Support Group. He went almost every month to their meetings. Here he continued to help both survivors and their caregivers by sharing his own story, and sharing his own “tips” of dealing with a brain injury.

TIPS FOR CAREGIVERS OF A BRAIN INJURED INDIVIDUAL

The following are some important things for every caregiver, loved one, and friend of a person who is brain injured to remember:

1. A survivor is not stupid – they are simply brain injured
2. Brain injured survivors are not worthless
3. Having a brain injury is like having Alzheimer’s
4. A survivor has already had so much happen to them. Try to understand. Give them time. Treat them as special and do not put them down.
5. Be patient with the survivor
6. Every brain injury is different – the brain injury is unique only to the person who has one
7. The brain injury survivor must develop ways to help others understand what they are going through and experiencing with their brain injury
8. You must strive to get inside a brain injured person’s brain to help them
9. During a conversation:
   1. Talk about just 1 thing at a time – not 2 or 3 things
   2. Let the survivor talk
   3. Allow the survivor to interject their thoughts
   4. Allow the survivor time to finish their thought or to finish their sentence or word
   5. Listen to the survivor
   6. The survivor wants to participate in a group conversation, but the survivor often has to interrupt the person talking because if they do not interrupt, the survivor will have forgotten what they were going to say
10. It often takes a very long time before a brain injury survivor gets better.
11. The survivor may never be back to “normal” or our prior self
12. The survivor is usually a different person now, but life goes on and both the survivor and caregiver need to accept this if they can
13. Do not get frustrated with the survivor.
14. Do not “write the survivor off”
15. Realize that the survivor (or their loved one) is a viable human being and still has many traits that are good
16. Try to understand
17. When talking with a survivor, be yourself. Discuss normal everyday issues. Do not really talk about their accident.

For memory issues:

1. Carry a daytimer
2. Make a list of each day’s “to dos” – and check each item off as they do it. What does not get done for a day — move it to the new list for the next day
3. Write everything down
4. Getting lost – write down the directions; use your iphone’s GPS type system
5. Remember that having a brain injury is like having Alzheimer’s

SUMMARY & CONCLUSION

In Jack’s Own Words

If I were to summarize my makeup it would be with two words: bull headed. This has been both a blessing and a curse.

The blessing is that being bull headed has allowed me to accomplish many things that others thought were unobtainable or impossible. These things are well documented earlier in my story.

The curse is that I have a tendency to change direction before actually completing a task. This part of my personality has caused me to change course many times without completing the project. Again, this is documented in the body of this publication.

In the end, one must look at the whole picture in which our failures are offset by our many accomplishments. I sincerely hope that anyone who reads this story can honestly evaluate their own lives as well.

“Try to remember that a brain injury is just a detour not a roadblock.”

There are many things that one can do to have a rich and rewarding life, co-existing with family and friends. Hopefully the family and friends of a brain injured person will read my story as well as the brain injured survivor, thus allowing them to assist the brain injured person. Doing this will allow all those involved to have rich and full lives.

“Life sometimes gives you lemons; it’s your job to make the lemonade.”

Brain injury is a single event in one’s life. Hopefully anyone who reads this story can acquire an understanding of brain injury and its effects on both the patient (brain injured survivor) as well as their support group (family and friends).

DEPARTING THOUGHTS

Jack stated: “Yes I have a brain injury, but I am still here.” “It’s ok to have a brain injury. Look at me – I was dead.”

“I am NOT stupid – I have a brain injury.” “I am NOT worthless – I just have a brain injury.”

“No, I did not become a doctor, but I have had a good life. I have helped a lot of people along the way living my life and volunteering, which was always my life’s goal. I survived to help thousands of survivors and caregivers.”

If I could do my life over – would I? “No, I would not change a thing. I really do not regret anything that I have done. I have lived a wonderful life.”

Written by Ann Boriskie, Director of the Brain Injury Peer Visitor Association, as told to her by Jack Banbury.