Trauma Survivors Network - provided by ATS

Survive. Connect. Rebuild.

A Program of the ATS

Jimmy's Story

My name is Jimmy and I was the victim of multiple gun shots. In October 2015, I was admitted to University of Tennessee Medical Center and was released that next November 2016.

Throughout the course of being in the hospital, I had to deal with a lot of things: depression, anxiety, had to learn to walk again. I had multiple surgeries and my whole abdomen was reconstructed. My lower intestine was cut down to my colon. I had a hole in my abdomen about the size of a basketball. I went through a lot of emotions and wanted to give up. I went through depression, anxiety and had to learn how to walk all over again.

I still have my bouts of anxiety when I am around a lot of people I really don’t know or in my opinion trust. It’s been a journey but just being here is a great gift. It feels great to be alive. Things get hard and you want to give up, but you have to keep fighting. The time in the hospital allowed me to re-evaluate my life as a whole, and take the blinders off so to speak. Of course I can’t do all the same things I used to be able to do, but just being here is a great gift. I’ve given that to my Mama who wasn’t sure if I would make it through the night. I had given up because every day something went wrong and my reconstructive surgery kept getting delayed. I thought I would die in the hospital. Things get hard but you can’t give up. The time in the hospital allowed me to again take the blinders off and re-evaluate my life.

The thing that really has helped me is when I have met other people that have gone through the same things as me. It’s very important for me to come to the support group meetings because it keeps me from thinking about the past. It’s still a journey but I will never forget where I started.