My name is Veronica Hernandez.
I suffered a TBI at a very young age in the 9th grade. I was on the ROTC rifle team. I had gotten hit in the face and it fractured my nose. I landed on the back of my head on concrete. Nothing split open but when I went to the hospital I was told that it was a small fracture and I'll be fine to go back to physical activity in a couple weeks.
Soon I began having migraines and my balance was off my eyesight would come and go but I thought it was cause of my nose. Weeks later when I went back to physical activity April 12 2013 I had my first seizure.
Since then I've had multiple seizures triggered by heat, high pitch noises, very bad pain, strobe lights blood sugar etc. they came to the conclusion soon after that I have right hemisphere dysfunction with cognitive impairment. but I let that be my motivation to inspire other people to reach for their goals and to know that no matter what they are just as worthy as any other person.
I became an advocate and spoke at NAM the beauty pageant to raise awareness of this silent epidemic. Recently I've been put into induced comas to stop them, that last bad one happened November 6. I went 4 days in trauma having seizures and I ended up with a long lasting Todd’s paralysis.
Which is a one sided weakness. But I've been ambitious and I've been gaining my strength back and and now I'm walking with a cane and proud to say I'm a TBI survivor.
