Despite head injury, SMU student is able to join Dallas Marathon
Recovering from a severe head injury, SMU's Audrey Self will be in a marathon on Sunday.
From Running Blog at The Dallas Morning News
By Debbie Fetterman
Audrey Self is not supposed to be alive, let alone participating in a marathon relay.
Self, 21, continues an unlikely recovery from severe brain trauma after surviving a T-bone collision with a speeding truck near White Rock Lake before class the morning of Nov. 21, 2013.
More than 90 percent of patients with her diagnosis — severe diffuse axonal injury — never regain consciousness, according to a 2004 study in The Journal of Neuroscience.
Slowly and steadily, Self beat the odds, awakening from a vegetative state. Through impeccable care, extraordinary patience and intensive therapy, she defied science, said Dr. Thomas Cox, a clinical psychologist with Baylor University Medical Center.
“She’s a miracle and an anomaly,” he said.
On Dec. 14, Audrey and her mom, Julie, will anchor one of three Team Audrey relays at the MetroPCS Dallas Marathon. Julie will push her daughter in a wheelchair the majority of the 5.7-mile leg. Audrey plans to walk across the finish line, flanked by her mom and her longtime teacher, friend and mentor, Cynthia Anway.
“It’s not a question of if,” Audrey said. “This is happening.”
Team Audrey has 26 members running: four marathoners, six half marathoners and three relay teams. The members include neighbors, relatives, longtime family friends, work colleagues and friends of friends.
From Scrubbing In - Hands-On Health Care Discussions
Dallas Marathon’s Team Audrey to feature ‘miracle’ Baylor patient
Audrey Self’s recovery since a Dallas car accident that nearly killed her in November 2013 has been a marathon, not a sprint.
That’s the message that the 21-year-old’s longtime teacher, friend and mentor, Cynthia Anway, recalls Self sharing with her at one point during her treatment at the Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas Intensive Care Unit. And that’s the motto that Anway and the rest of the Team Audrey relay runners are sticking to as they prepare for the MetroPCS Dallas Marathon later this month, reports The Dallas Morning News.
Audrey’s mother, Julie Self, plans to push her daughter in a wheelchair for the majority of their 5.7-mile leg of the annual race. But Audrey, an SMU student who suffered a severe head injury and was once in a vegetative state, told The News she plans to walk across the finish line.
“It’s not a question of if,” Audrey said in the article, penned by Debbie Fetterman. “This is happening.”
This year’s marathon route includes the Baylor Dallas campus.
Also quoted in the piece is Thomas Cox, Psy.D., the director of the division of surgical education at Baylor Dallas. Dr. Cox said Audrey has defied science.
“She’s a miracle and an anomaly,” he said.
Through months of complications and therapy that continues daily, Audrey is now able to eat and talk on her own and walk with a rolling walker, according to The News. Her goal is a complete recovery.
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