Brett Harrison

My life changed forever on Sunday, January 26, 2014.

I was driving my car, a car my ailing grandfather gifted to me, back home. I live in New England where the weather at this time was frigid and there was snow on the ground. I thought I would be fine since I had snow tires on my car and it was a short drive. I was wrong.

A minivan was in my lane headed right for me on a back road home. To avoid the collision, I swerved right, but was headed towards a lake, so I swerved back hard left, putting my car in the wrong lane. I was trying to swerve back in to my lane, but it was too late. I was hit with an offset frontal impact.

I can barely remember being pinned in the car. I was in a medically induced coma for 2 weeks, had around 7 surgeries and was in the hospital for 8 weeks. These hospital stays are documented in the pictures below.

Ever since the car accident, I have been dreaming to walk again. Every day has been a struggle to get around and be "mobile." I understand now what it feels like to be in constant pain, every day. I understand what it is like to be challenged now by a task so simple as going somewhere. I took for granted how easy and wonderful it was to walk. When you lose that and you constantly feel pain, everything changes.

I am praying every night that I can get better and that my surgeries will help me walk without pain and hopefully (praying hard) that maybe, just maybe, I can do more than that. I used to play tennis, go bowling, run, and now I expend a great deal of energy just to get up in the morning.

So far, and I have 2 more procedures to complete at HSS, has been absolutely phenomenal. Where doctors just wanted to fuse my bones in my ankle and be over with it. Not at HSS. They have the vision to make me walk again and play sports and live life like I used to. Just being 23, I knew I had much more to live with freedom that people much older than me are already having. I know at HSS, they truly go above and beyond to help me reach my goals and to someday be able to walk and run again and live life pain free.

I want to thank you in advance for reading my story. Have a wonderful day and please, cherish life. Cherish everything that you have. Never take anything for granted.