Janie fuller loved being a paramedic. It was her job, and her passion.
"First time I rode on an ambulance was summer of ‘81 so I've been doing this for over 30 years so I was hooked after the first ride."Â
But nearly three years ago she needed paramedics to save her.Â
"I was riding my motorcycle and a pickup truck pulled out in front of me. I hit him at 35 miles an hour."
She suffered traumatic brain injury or TBI. Her life changed.
"For the first probably 6 months I sat on my sofa with my head against the back of the sofa and like even eye movement would make the room feel like it was spinning at 90 miles an hour."Â
Besides dizziness, she lost her balance and would fall, her memory was gone. She was unable to read or cook without forgetting a burning pot on the stove....or go anywhere without forgetting where she was going. Â
She became a homebody until she joined a free study by LSU Health Sciences Emergency Medicine Expert Dr. Paul Harch. For decades he's been using hyperbaric oxygen treatments to help after brain injury. He's done many studies including ones on veterans with TBI and PTSD. Â
“It's surprising that even many years out we're having patients with substantial improvement."
Using his methods, Israeli researchers were able to duplicate his results.
"They got improvements in brain blood flow just like we have."Â
Janie is finished with her 40 treatments.
"I have a life again like my memory is 1000 times better. I don't have the adequate words to make you understand how amazing this has been for me."
