GRAND RAPIDS, Mich — What started as a student with a promising future, turned to a patient barely able to move on her own. It only took a split second for a head-on collision to completely change 17-year-old Emmalee Hirst's life. But now, after a six-week recovery at Mary Free Bed, Hirst is back on her feet.
Hirst says after suffering from a severe traumatic brain injury, it’s her love of softball that sped up her healing process far beyond expectation. “I can do this and I will keep doing it,” Hirst said.
Kate Armstrong, Pediatric Speech Language Pathologist, says Hirst's growth in six weeks takes most patients three months.
“Essentially she came in, almost emerging from a coma state, and now, six weeks later, she's doing softball drills, working on modified school work with me, and it's an incredible, amazing thing to watch,” Armstrong said. “I could tell that when she started coming to consciousness, that she was trying so hard to fight against her physical body limitations.”
At first, Hirst couldn’t hold her body up on her own. She relied on a feeding tube to eat and couldn’t even speak. “She was what we call a disordered levels of consciousness patient," Armstrong said. "So she was in a disordered consciousness state, meaning she kind of would come in and out.”
Now, Hirst is talking, and even throwing around a softball. “I would just be a silent fighter," Hirst said.
Hirst says softball is what’s given her purpose in her recovery. “I wanted to play softball, and that was, like, one of my goals was to play softball and get better,” Hirst said.
Hirst's mom, Jennifer Hirst, says the six-week journey has shown her a new sense of strength. "I’m truly thinking and just watching her every day of her battle of fighting and being that warrior of like, I am not gonna let this take me down,” Jennifer Hirst said.
Hirst graduated from Mary Free Bed's recovery program Friday, so she can head back to high school to finish out her senior year. “I am going to help out with, like, the softball team, and be an assistant coach, kind of,” Hirst said.
Although Hirst's support system is solid, it’s her internal drive that keeps her going. Every day, Hirst tells herself: “Keep up the good work, and then keep thinking about your mental status. And then you've got this. And I can, I will.”
Before her accident, Hirst had a scholarship to play softball at Spring Arbor University. Hirst says she’s in touch with her coaches almost every day, and is still hopeful to be involved with the team in some way.
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