Ann Bolton and Jacob Samples
It was Jacob Samples’ freshman year of college, and it was off to a great start.
Pursuing a degree in education with an emphasis in history, Mr. Samples also managed to get selected for the Middle Tennessee State University soccer team. His education, and his athletic future, seemed rock-solid.
Until Aug. 27.
Due to some transportation difficulties, the team had been forced to car pool to Alabama for their first game of the season. Most of the members had been to Alabama before, so the small road trip was no major concern.
That is, until the tire on the vehicle Mr. Samples was riding in exploded.
The driver of the vehicle, a teammate of Mr. Samples’, lost control and dropped speed dramatically, causing another driver behind to strike the vehicle at roughly 75 mph. Of the four passengers, Samples received the worst of the injuries.
“I suffered a traumatic brain injury,” said bright-eyed, 17-year-old Mr. Samples. “Broken ribs, a broken pelvis and lacerations to kidneys, liver and spleen… a lot of my internal organs.”
Mr. Samples suffered from what is called a frontal lobe sheer, meaning the majority of the impact was concentrated on the frontal lobe of his brain. The whiplash effect of the car caused recoil, slamming his brain into the front of his skull first, damaging his memory and cognitive thinking skills, then ricocheting to the back of his skull and damaging his coordination center.
“He was pretty beat up,” said Ann Bolton, physical therapist at Life Care Center of Cleveland. “He had a major pelvis fracture and had to get a giant screw in his hip.”
“I just remember waking up,” said Mr. Samples. “One second I was in a car; the next second I was in the hospital.”
Mr. Samples underwent his initial rehabilitation at the Vanderbilt Stallworth Rehabilitation Hospital in Nashville. Because of the blood thinners Mr. Samples was prescribed, he continued to have complications with reoccurring internal bleeding until the organs were cauterized, prolonging his stay.
In early October, Samples moved to Cleveland, his hometown, to begin physical and speech therapies at Life Care Center of Cleveland.
When he arrived, Mr. Samples was on a strict no-weight bearing regimen. Limited to table and mat exercises, he met with the rehab team three times a week and focused on strengthening the muscles around his pelvis. As his strength progressed, Mr. Samples began using the LiteGait, a weight-decreasing treadmill. Using harnesses, Mr. Samples was able to gradually walk and run for longer distances without increasing the pain in his hip.
“When I first got here, running was really a big struggle,” said Mr. Samples. “I was only able to do it for 30 seconds. That was the most I could do before I was totally exhausted. Lying in that hospital bed made me lose all my muscle. I would get fatigued incredibly fast.”
Because of his memory and cognitive injuries, Mr. Samples also attended speech and language therapy sessions three times a week to improve his word finding and memory skills.
“He was a college student, and his goal was to go back to college,” said Ms. Bolton. “We worked with him on memory, word finding and reading comprehension to make sure he understood the things he was studying.”
Mr. Samples graduated from rehab on Jan. 2, 2017.
“His motivation was amazing,” said Ms. Bolton. “When he was here, his attention was here, his motivation was here and he worked until he was exhausted. Then he’d take a break, and then he’d work again. It was highly inspiring. It’s why we do what we do.”
“One second you’re a college student, invincible and playing soccer,” said Mr. Samples. “The next second you’re lying in a hospital bed and you can’t move, walk or even eat by yourself. But my family, especially my mom, was a big help for me emotionally and physically. Sometimes it was really hard to get through, but, at the end of the day, it happened. I wouldn’t want to change it necessarily, if I could.”
Mr. Samples returned to school spring 2017, as well as beginning his retraining to rejoin the soccer team.
When asked what advice he could give to those in a similar situation, he said, “Stop focusing on the situation that happened, and commit to putting in the work that is necessary, because it takes a lot of work. You’ll learn a lot about yourself.”