Eric Lavigne's Story

Eric Lavigne:

I was in the Navy. I was on the USS George Washington. It was an aircraft carrier. It was on Norfolk, Virginia. That’s where we were stationed at. I was driving by myself, and I was just getting off of work. And that’s when there was an overpass, and I crashed right under the overpass, and then I passed out. I was in a coma for a month. I had brain injury. I had surgeries. Actually, when I came from the hospital, I was sent here to Nevada Community Enrichment Program. I didn’t remember I was here. I don’t remember. I didn’t know I was in a car accident because I was thinking, like, what happened to me? Why is this mark here, this wheelchair, this leg brace?

And I even asked my mom that same question. I said, why is everything here? Why are you feeding me oatmeal? Why are you even feeding me? What happened? What’s going on? How old am I? Am I married? I didn’t know anything. Sometimes it happens and you actually make it through it and everything. And these people here are great. Some of the services that I’ve got is, a couple of them with speech. And I was actually in a wheelchair and a leg brace. And now I don’t have either one of those and I don’t need them or anything. I’m doing really good now. And I’m here with a lot of people that they’ve been in serious injuries and everything. And I started thinking, I really care about people that actually went through this and made it.

It’s like I’ve been there. I’ve been around a lot of people that were in a serious incident and everything. So it’s kind of like it changed me, you know.