November 12, 2007 is a date that Hannah Anderson will never forget, yet may never remember.  On that date, the 16-year-old from Leeds, ND, sustained a broken clavicle, fractured pelvis, and traumatic brain injury after being broadsided by a pickup while driving to her grandmother’s house to watch movies.

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) victim Hannah Anderson and others with this invisible injury are taking advantage of a new, centralized source of TBI information in North Dakota.

After being rushed by ambulance to the Heart of America Medical Center in Rugby and transferred to Minot’s Trinity Hospital, doctors became quite concerned about the trauma she suffered to her brain.  Since North Dakota doesn’t have a level 1 trauma center, she was then airlifted to the Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis, MN.  After a four-week stay that included being placed in a medically-induced coma, she was transported yet again to the Gillette Children’s Specialty Health Care Center in St. Paul, MN, where she began a month of rigorous rehabilitation before returning home in late January.  Although her long-term memory was unaffected by the accident, Hannah doesn’t remember the accident itself or much of what happened last fall.

“She’s our miracle,” Hannah’s mother, Lisa Anderson, said.  “To watch her enter the hospital on a stretcher and see her walk out on her own is remarkable.”

Traumatic brain injuries are caused by external traumas to the head such as from a fall, car crash, being shaken or from a concussion blast – now the leading cause of traumatic brain injury for active-duty military personnel in war zones. The injury can be mild or severe and last for days, weeks or years.

A year after the accident, Hannah is back at Leeds High School trying to live the life of a normal teenager.  While her progress to recovery has been promising, it’s possible that she may have permanent brain damage.  Fortunately, recent neurological research has given the Anderson family hope about improvements and treatments.  She logs about 130 miles weekly to nearby Devils Lake for twice-a-week occupational and speech therapy sessions and has ongoing check-ups in order to ensure the best possible recovery.

“Traumatic brain injuries are unique in that there is a wide variety of long-term consequences that can result,” says Rebecca Quinn, MSW, a traumatic brain injury (TBI) project coordinator at the UND School of Medicine and Health Sciences’ Center for Rural Health.  “Beyond the acute medical stage, there are lots of problems associated with recovery.”