Customer Reviews

Smile and Jump High! the True Story of Overcoming a Traumatic Brain Injury

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Smile And Jump High!: The True Story Of Overcoming A Traumatic Brain Injury is the moving and compelling testimony of Shannon, a young woman who suffered a near-fatal auto accident. A devastating brain injury forces Shannon to embark on a grueling four-year journey of gradually re-learning simple physical skills, walking, talking, and coping with residual effects that drastically impair her problem-solving ability, behavioral temperament, and more. The inclusion of citations from personal journals of close friends and family members bear testimony to a long struggle culminating in triumph and rebuilding one's life from the ground up. Smile And Jump High is very highly recommended reading, especially for anyone having to come to grips with the recovering process necessitated by catastrophic injury or illness.

Lots of valuable and good advice and resources for both craniotomy patients and caretakers. But the portrayal of NYC and its boroughs is incomplete and unfair (p. 179 of the softcover.) I had brain surgery in 2005 and I live in NJ and volunteer in NYC. I find the people there compassionate, thoughtful and considerate. That's 99.99% of them. They help me on the subway, across the street and do countless other nice things! Also, it's 2006 and Donald treats his wife, Sue, like chattel. He's very patronizing. I know what Sue had to do to make Donald and Shannon comfortable. She cooked, cleaned and did everything that a hard working Aide does. And believe me it's more work and more intense for a brain injured person.

Donald goes through great pains and lots of analysis to explain the people, places, etc. that Shannon encounters. But on these matters it's a big miss.

This book proves that a person can do more than the doctors say he/she can; he can recover more fully, can have a better chance at a good, active, social life, and can eventually become independent, even if only in a few ways. Again, this is a book of hope for those of us who love and care for family members who are recovering from traumatic brain injuries. There will be a greater need for this type of book in the future as there are tremendous numbers of TBI's coming back from the Iraq/Afghanistan wars. My son is one of those survivors, with the "unseen injury".

Don Lloyd does a great job of bringing you into the journey his family endures while dealing with Shannon's accident and recovery. As someone who watched her best friend go through a similar injury, I found this book hitting close to home.

Reading Don's words and thoughts took me back to the raw emotions I felt years ago, but gaining the different perspective a parent has. I admired Don and Sue's bravery as they let Shannon live on her own in Atlanta after the accident, and wondered if I would have had the courage to do that with my own child.

I think that Don, Sue, Brian, Kelley and Shannon are all lucky to have had each other during such a trying time. Tragedies such as this can pull a family apart but they fused together and helped heal Shannon as a unit.

Thank you Don and Shannon for allowing this window into your life to be open to others. God Bless you.