Brain Injury Lawyer Blog

Attorney Gordon Johnson

On Jul 14, 2008, at 7:31 PM, Alina Higuera wrote:
Hello My name is Alina I come from a family of ten kids 7 girls and 3 boys It seems as if my family and I are reliving the devastation of my brothers ( 3rd born ) brain injury that occured on Dec 3, 1979. his injuries were caused by blunt force trauma to the head, he fell out of the back of a pick up truck. The part of the brain that was damaged was at the brain stem. After being in a coma for 3 mo. he returned to us, having to relearn how to do everything, unfortunatly my brother never did regain use of his legs and was able to move his right arm only. he remained very inteligent as he was before this happened. All of his sences were very much intact including pain. He could’nt move anything but he could feel everything, I remember so many many times he would yell for me to come and scratch his itch because he was unable to and we all know how irritating that is, pain was another thing that my brother could feel, it would break my heart to see the unbearable pain on his face when he would be getting therapy or just cleaning him up. My brother lived in that hell for 31 yrs and never one time did I ever hear him feeling sorry for himself, he was always smiling and without fail the first one to say “Good Morning” and nerver forgot a birthday and was the one always doing the cheering up. We lost my brother on Feb 15, 2008 although he is greatly missed I am happy that he is no longer suffering from the bondage that he lived with and through for so many years. On July 12, 2008 my older sister ( 5th born ) 51 years old went into cardiac arrest while visiting another sister over the weekend, after returning from a quick errond as she walked into the front door she found my sister face down on the ground not breathing and with no pulse, she began to administer CPR immediatly, as she called out for help a neighbor came running who happens to be a lifegaurd and assisted my sister with CPR paramedics finally arrived still with no pulse or breathing they began chest compressions and then the electric paddles to try and start the heart, finally after about 15 mins they were able to feel a faint pulse. My sister now lays in a coma on a breathing machine with no responsive reaction. She was having seizures that were coming between every 15 to 30 secs of eachother. because of the lack of oxygen to the brain they say that she does have significant brain damage now to what extent we are not at all sure. Seeing my sister hooked up to machines and just laying there is a de ja vu of 31 years ago. My heart is breaking for my mom because as before she sits along side of my sisters bed talking to her and insisting that she will be just fine as she did with my brother. I can only hope and pray that she comes out of this and returns back to normal ( as normal as possible ) for the sake of my sister she would never want to live as my brother did ( we have all discussed it many times ) and as for the sake of my mom I can only hope and pray and hope and pray that she is strong enough to handle whatever the outcome will be. Only time will tell the fate of my sister, I love her and I miss her sooo very much and God willing she will come back the way she was.

Thank You for reading my story and even more for allowing me to write about it and somewhat releasing it from inside of me.

Alina Higuera

Hello Gordon,

I was so hoping to get a reply back from you. I am very sad to say that after sending this email, we were informed that due to the lack of oxygen to the brain, that my sister was brain dead and that they could do no more for her. She was removed from the machines and to much surprize was breathing on her own for about 36 hrs. she passed away July 18. You absolutley have my permission to post this on your blog, I can only hope that it will bring some comfort to the surviving relatives that they are not alone. Thank You so much for your response.

Alina Higuera