moshquerade
No Lifer
- Nov 1, 2001
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Here's an update on Aaron Stidd two years later.
http://www.collegian.psu.edu/a...remains_optimisti.aspxPosted on October 28, 2008 4:56 AM
Stidd family remains optimistic during recovery
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Aaron Stidd enjoys a walk with his family. He lives in his parents' house, but has his own living areas, and receives around the clock medical attention.
J. Stidd said his son is "trapped."
Aaron, now 22, was struck by a drunken driver in the early morning hours of Oct. 28, 2006 while crossing Atherton Street at Beaver Avenue. The other victim of the crash, Richard Smith, was killed, and Aaron sustained traumatic brain injury.
Two years later, J. said Aaron is not where he and his wife, Connie, had hoped he would be. Physically, he is still fully dependent on others for his day-to-day activities, J. said.
But he has made progress.
"That right arm's starting to move a little more than it did when we first brought him home," J. said.
Trips to Geisinger Medical Center in Danville, where Aaron was first treated, haven't been particularly productive or positive, but J. and Connie hope for the best.
"The physical things, we're still hoping and praying that we can get those fixed at some point in time," Connie said.
Aaron is still non-verbal, but he has ways to communicate.
"He does the thumbs up and thumbs down for yes and no," J. said.
"Do you miss your classes?" J. asked Aaron.
Thumbs up.
"Do you miss the [Delta Upsilon fraternity] house?" J. asked.
Thumbs up.
"If you ask him a question and make eye contact with him while you ask the question, he'll give you a quick nod of the head, but it's real quick ... , " J. said.
J. said Aaron on occasion, will give a slight affirmative "uh huh" or a negative "uh uh."
Other times, J. said, Aaron will just give "that look," and his parents know what he thinks.
"That's how he does it," J. said.
Those are the basics, but J. and Connie said Aaron has come up with some other, more inventive ways to communicate.
"If we're in the other room and he wants our attention, he's found ways that he can do that," Connie said.
There's a storage bin in Aaron's "pad" -- his own part of the house, complete with his own living room, bedroom, computer area, bathroom and screened-in porch -- filled with various items, and Aaron will open that up with his left hand and throw things on the floor, Connie said.
"He'll take his own cell phone and call our house number," J. added. "You hear this laughing, and you know it's him. He's found ways to deal with and solve some of his problems that are fairly ingenious and innovative."
And that's why J. and Connie say cognitively, Aaron is "sharp," just one thing they call a blessing.
"He is quite aware of his surroundings," J. said. "But that may be tougher for him -- knowing he's just trapped in there."
J. and Connie hope Aaron will someday gain some degree of independence, but for now, they said, he's already beaten the odds.
"They said he'd be a vegetable, and he wouldn't understand anything," Connie said.
But he reads the newspaper and Sports Illustrated. And he still has his pre-injury sense of humor, his parents said.
"He could've been, you know, just a wet dish rag type of personality, but he's got more than that going for him," J. said. "He still does some of the same shit he pulled before."
And he still picks his own clothes.
This day, he chose first a navy blue Penn State shirt, navy blue and light blue shorts, white Penn State socks and white Nikes.
After lunch, the former Delta Upsilon fraternity rush chairman chose his second outfit of the day --a navy blue and yellow Delta Upsilon Intramural shirt and yellow shorts.
Aaron is still very much a Penn State fan, J. and Connie said.
He attended the Sept. 27 football game against Illinois with his older brother, Mark, Connie said.
"He did more tailgating than watching the game," she added with a laugh. "But at least he was there for the white out. He was excited. He got to watch the players run onto the field. And the band. And Mark said you could just tell that he was elated that he was there and part of that.
"You could see him saying 'I'm back home.' You could see it all over his face."
But J. and Connie said those reminders of Penn State can get them down.
"That's bittersweet for all of us," Connie said.
J. said this December would have most likely been Aaron's graduation date, but he won't make that. Connie also said Aaron would have danced for Thon last spring.
"Those are the kinds of things that you see and you think about, and it starts all over again," Connie said. "The heartbreak starts all over again. No matter how hard you try to fight that. When you see those kinds of things, it does break your heart."
But J. and Connie try to focus on the positives.
"When you look at the early days in the ICU, we're a whole lot better off," J. said. "But when you compare it to what he should've been like at this point without this incident, it's discouraging that way.
"You know, he [is] cheated, and he won't do things that, normally, we would have had him do. That's what's tough."
But optimism gets them through.
"So we pick up the pieces," Connie said. "We celebrate all of the positive things that he's accomplishing, regardless of how small they may be."
And through it all, no one maintains a positive attitude more than Aaron does.
"He wakes up every morning with a smile on his face," Connie said. "It's amazing. It really is amazing that with everything he's been through, he can still wake up every morning with a smile on his face to greet a new day."