Raising awareness about brain injuries

Approximately 1,700,000 Americans suffer a traumatic brain injury each year, according to the National Library of Medicine.

A New Yorker who suffered debilitating brain injuries is now raising awareness.

Lisa Sibley went to the hospital in March 2012 for what would become the first of seven brain surgeries.

“Sometimes people with brain injuries look like they’re OK, but sometimes they’re not inside,” Sibley said.

Sibley was born with a condition called Chiari malformation, which occurs when the skull is too small for the brain. She said it never caused her any problems during her life until she fell in 2012. She needed surgery to put her brain back in place.

“The doctors told me it was going to be excruciatingly painful, but that I would only be in the hospital for four days, and that part of the surgery went well,” Sibley said.

What was supposed to be a four-day hospital stay turned into eight months, three of which were in intensive care because Sibley had contracted bacterial meningitis.

“It just started eating away at my brain,” Sibley said. “They didn’t know if I was going to make it in the next 12 hours, but I did. I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t walk. I couldn’t function. I couldn’t think. I had to relearn how to do everything.

Sibley also said she never regained her memory of the first 40 years of her life.

“I have four children. I didn’t remember having these four children. I don’t remember giving birth. I don’t remember them growing up. So it made life very difficult in many ways. I lost a lot of the connections I had. They just weren’t there,” Sibley said. “It was a very difficult time, but I was given a second chance.”

“Second Chances” will stay with Sibley to become the name of a support group she founded for people dealing with the effects of brain injuries. It is open to anyone who has suffered a traumatic brain injury and meets twice a month in Highland Falls.

“I was just struggling with everything I was dealing with and trying to find a support group to talk to,” Sibley said. “It’s just a really heartwarming, comforting group.”

She recently started hosting “Happy Brain Days” to raise awareness about brain injuries through activities, such as arts and crafts, aimed at keeping the brain happy. Sibley also donates bike helmets after seeing others in the hospital suffering brain injuries from riding bikes.

“When I got out of the hospital, I wanted to make it my mission to give out as many free bike helmets as possible, just to try to protect any kid from having to go through what I went through,” Sibley says .

Sibley takes care of the children every day and babysits her friends’ children. She said it was difficult for her to maintain steady employment because of the lasting effects of her brain damage.

“They gave me a purpose,” Sibley said. “They give me a reason some days to wake up when it’s hard to wake up.”