Hi, my name is Michael and this why I decided to become a peer visitor.  Life before my motorcycle accident was probably not much different than anyone else.  I had a true lust for life enjoying anything and everything outdoors and spending time with family and friends.  I have been married to my wife for 23 years and we have one son.  After college and before getting married, I went on a backpacking trip with a friend.  We backed packed Eastern and Western Europe during this trip it opened my eyes to the world.  From there I went on to backpack Australia and New Zealand and finished up one more trip to Nepal and backed packed Mount Everest.  These trips not only changed my life the opened my eyes to the world.

After my backpacking days, I got a chance for a job that took me to Colorado.  It was a temporary job, which I loved, and for a temporary job, I ended up staying over 20 years doing everything Colorado and outdoors.  This is where I met my wife and eventually the birth of my son.  We took every opportunity and enjoyed camping, hunting, fishing, snowboarding and hiking Colorado mountains.  Six weeks before my accident, I went on a 5k motorcycle trip on the Trans- Canadian highway.  After being home for a couple weeks, I took a usual trip over to my parents’ house for dinner.  This was a short 2-mile trip, on my way home is where my life as I knew it would change me forever.  I was coming around a bend in the road, a car coming from the other direction was headed into my lane.  To avoid the car, I made a defensive move my motorcycle went down, I flew some 30 to 40 feet into a concrete wall.

From there is where I started my new life journey.  My accident date was 9/18/2022, I was airlifted by helicopter to St Louis University Hospital, and this is a recap of the next 3 months and by the grace of God, given a second chance of life.

• St Louis University Hospital – 9/18/22 – 10/31/22
  • Air lifted from crash site to hospital
  • Unconscious with a breathing tube – for 3 weeks
  • Highly Medicated
  • Many hallucinations & Vivid dreams
  • Anesthesia Brain fog from my 23 surgeries
  • OT- Therapy – Very difficult – I could not move my hands or left arm
  • PT- Therapy – Very difficult – I could not move around because of external hardware on my leg & arm so my bones could begin healing
  • ST- Therapy – Very difficult – speech therapy to talk after removal of trach, memory function and cognitive thinking
• Missouri Baptist Hospital – 11/01/22 – 11/18/22
  • Moved to step down unit for recovery
  • I still had my external hardware in arm and leg
  • Very uncomfortable
  • Heavily Medicated
  • OT – Still very difficult
  • PT – Still very difficult
  • ST – Still very difficult
• DePaul Hospital – 11/19/22 – 12/23/22
  • Moved for final recovery
  • External hardware was removed
  • Pain Medication Reduced to begin recovery
  • OT – Learning how to live again
  • PT – Learning how walk again with walker
  • ST – Regaining back my memory and not having any brain damage
  • Released from DePaul Hospital Select Hospital on 12/22/2022 in time to celebrate Christmas with family and my new life.

While in the hospital I had a peer visitor, visit with me and my family once I came out of my coma.  Andrew – my peer visitor – would come and visit me a couple times a week during my stay at St Louis University Hospital.  He also spoke with my family during this time to help/talk with them.  In the very beginning, I was in a terrible place obliviously physical, but mentality.  I was struggling with the accident, what happened and how I would heal and what would become of my new life.  Andrew took me through the phases of trauma and becoming a trauma survivor.  During our discussions I truly learned a lot from Andrew.  The first obstacle that I had to overcome was, why am I even alive.  From my doctors, PT, OT, SP therapists & family everyone told me that it was a miracle that I was alive.  I had a lot of time to ponder this and discuss with Andrew.  I even had many conversations with the hospital Chaplin.  Through these conversations Andrew encouraged me to become a peer visitor.  Honestly, I’m 3+ years in my recovery and still have questions about why I am alive but have found many answers when I became a peer visitor.  I am part of a trauma survivors’ group where we have bi-weekly zoom calls with other trauma survivors, and I also volunteer as a peer visitor at the hospital meeting with trauma survivors that are just beginning their own recovery.

The biggest impacts didn’t happen for me until after couple months sole searching, talks with others and with talking with other survivors.  I went from being angry at God, to trying to understand everything and learning that there’s no quick answers.  I learn something new and different every day and know that this is ongoing search for meaning and understanding.  I would say at this point selfishly being part of the trauma survivors’ group has made fundamental changes to my new life.  Talking with others and completing visits to the hospital patients make impacts on me with each person that I am to meet with.  It has become a part of my new life moving forward.

There are many struggles I’ve had as a peer visitor.

• in the beginning gaining the confidence to talk with others
• depending on the individual trauma of others that I would be able to have a conversation
• becoming a good listener, this was not my strong point before the accident
• talking with trauma survivors and their different injuries, outcomes and feeling that I’m being helpful to them

I have been a peer visitor now for almost 2 years.  For myself this has become a huge part of my recovery both physical and mentality.  I can say for certain that being a peer visitor saved me from falling into a blackhole and not being able to dig myself out.  It has given me hope that I needed to accept my new life, being able to move forward and live out the rest of my days here on earth.