Family picture taken one week before the auto accident.

The car that I totaled in my accident was my dad's Explorer. I was at my friend Aashish Garg's house on New Year's Day 1997. Shortly after midnight on January 2, 1997, I was driving on Maple Rd., a dirt road near Ann Arbor, Michigan. The car skidded on a patch of ice and spun out of control. The car hit a tree on my side. I was knocked out, but Aashish was able to go for help.

Here I am at "the low point", the afternoon after the accident. I was admitted to the University of Michigan Medical Center with collapsed lungs, broken leg, pelvic fractures, and a traumatic brain injury. They performed abdominal surgery that first afternoon, to help stabilize me.

I was in a coma for several days -- and even after I woke up, I could not talk and I could barely move. I eventually had 7 surgeries and finally left ICU after 21 days there.

Everything became even more complicated because of the major bedsore that had started during my first few hours in ICU. This became infected in February -- I'll spare you the picture on this one -- and delayed my recovery a lot. I finally did start on the Road To Recovery after this, though.

Like TBI recovery, building this web site is also a long-term process. My parents and I started it, to help me remember what has happened. Perhaps others can learn from it, too. Primary pages on the site at this time are as follows: