Brain-injured athlete finds new path to independence
Cyclist rebuilds neural networks and his life after catastrophic crash
Two years after a near-fatal collision while cycling left him with a damaged body and mind, Robert Wein suffered another crash.
This one was emotional rather than physical.
“I felt basically useless,” he remembers. “I felt I couldn’t do anything.” Wein had been a federal government computer specialist, triathlete and scuba diver when a 45-year-old driver, asleep at the wheel, plowed into him and four other cyclists as they travelled down a March Road bike lane on the morning of July 19, 2009.
The most seriously injured of the group, Wein suffered a collapsed lung, broken ribs and a severe brain injury. He was kept in a medically induced coma for three weeks, and doctors were, for a time, unsure whether he would ever regain consciousness.
Wein somehow survived and spent more than six months in rehab, learning how to sit, balance and walk using newly forged brain networks to control his body. But he was unable to return to work or to many of his former athletic pursuits because his new neural networks were not as efficient as his old ones. He didn’t know what to do with himself.
Wein ultimately decided to become an advocate for other people living with acquired brain injuries (ABIs), and to raise money for their care in Ottawa. He organized a brain injury awareness walk, an event now in its sixth year, to raise money for Pathways to Independence, a non-profit agency that specializes in supporting people who live with an ABI.
“I haven’t felt useless since the walk was born,” Wein says.
Last year’s event raised $27,000 for Pathways, which provides independent living support, counselling and recreation programs for people with an ABI or a development disability in Ontario. It operates group homes in Kanata and Kemptville.
In Ottawa, Pathways helps 16 clients manage daily tasks such as meal planning, cooking, budgeting and scheduling in order to keep them in their homes.
Christie Swann, Pathway’s client services manager, said many of those with ABIs have cognitive issues that can affect their ability to solve problems and to organize their lives. Some have difficulty with planning or sequencing tasks.
“It could be something like getting up in the morning: you get up, you have your breakfast, shower, and then leave. People can get stuck in those loops and not be able to progress to the next sequential task,” she explains.
Some require verbal or visual prompts to move to the next task; others require physical help.
Wein regularly uses Pathways’ recreation program, which offers fitness classes, art therapy, music therapy, chair yoga and “community integration,” an exercise designed to connect them to local people and places.
“A lot of the individuals we support are very socially isolated,” says Swann. “After their injuries, they tend to lose friends. Divorce is common. So we try to help with that loneliness.”
Wein, 47, enjoys the recreation program’s social component since he never has to explain his cognitive deficits as he does elsewhere.
“Everyone there understands that what’s damaged in my memory is the reliability of the triggering action,” he says.
Wein’s memory works well when someone prompts him to recall a specific event or a fact, but he struggles to remember things in the absence of a trigger.
“If I hear something about it from someone else,” he says, “my memories are usually summoned.”
He has worked hard to make physical gains. Wein moves with the assistance of leg braces, and intends to walk two kilometres at this year’s fundraising event.
The Brain Injury Awareness Walk begins at the Ron Kolbus Centre at Britannia Beach on June 24 at 10 a.m. Participants can walk one, two or five kilometres.
A lot of the individuals we support are very socially isolated. After their injuries, they tend to lose friends. Divorce is common.