Speech made at the 2017 convention for the International Society for Gene & Cell Therapy [slide 1] Welcome and Introduction [slide 2] My son's name is Courtland Damien Brown. Courtland is very liberal and never missed a chance to vote in local, state, and national elections. As a member if the Chickasaw tribe, [slide 3] Courtland studied the Chickasaw language. He named his pet pug Chuk Masi - which translates to "pretty lady". He was also well-versed in

The recent passing of the actress Patti Duke from sepsis triggered sad and almost tragic memories of Damien's experience with sepsis. In August of 2012, we traveled to La Jolla, California for an intense week of physical therapy. A doctor in Florida had put us in contact with a physical therapist in California. We had also spoken with a former patient of his who had published a book about her treatment. She had made remarkable recovery from her head injury and was a physical

I am angry! To use a saying of my mother's "I am so mad I could bite a 16-penny nail in half". Learning that Damien has Hepatitis C does make my jaws tight. The AMA personnel usually do a very good job, other times not so much. 1. Damien suffered a major hematoma on the left side of his brain while in ICU. They were replacing a brain pressure monitor and ruptured a vessel. They said that this sometimes happens but is an unusual event. The doctor that did the proce

Taste/Smell The first week of ICU, Damien was in a coma. Twice during Damien's ICU stay the doctors placed him in a medical coma. I did some research and found a few articles on how to revive a comatose person. The articles suggested using taste, smell, sound, and touch stimuli as means to revive the person. One of the suggestions was HORRIBLE. They suggested placing drops of Tabasco Sauce on the comatose person's tongue! Can you imagine a comatose person, aware of the envir

For the past 18 years, Damien has had 24-hour nursing care. We hired 2 caregivers when we first brought Damien home. We wanted Damien to be as independent as possible. Therefore, he lived in his own home with a day-caregiver and a night-caregiver. These caregivers had worked with Damien at a nursing home. We hired them when we brought Damien home from his first stay in Florida. The caregivers had a scheduled routine. We had a nursing supervisor visit to inspect Damien's healt

We were very naive during Damien's initial period of recovery. The hospital had used a Foley so we thought that we should too. The Foley (non-catheter) was unsightly, unhealthy, unsanitary and unnecessary. It leaked constantly, it caused skin irritation, it was odiferous (even when using a new Foley every day). Then one day the home nurse suggested we stop using the Foley and just change the brief often. We did and it was great! No oder, no mess, no irritation. We are most pl

We were lucky to find a home for Damien. Paula found a nice two-story home in Fair Oaks Ranch, TX. It was a foreclosure that was handled by Fanny Mae. The home was 20 years old. It is very open, with wide doorways. It is very well suited for wheelchair mobility. Paula had to be firm with the real-estate agent to get this house. The agent was pushing new garden homes that were small, narrow and cramped. Paula was not interested in his commission; she knew what was best for Dam

14 Dec 1998, 6:15 PM to 15 Dec 1998, 10:00 AM. I had just been told by EMS that Damien had been airlifted to the trauma center. Paula had run an errand and I had no way to contact her. My son Merrill, had been stopped by the high school principal, Sam Champion, and told of the accident. Mr. Champion had visited the crash site and was returning home. Merrill and his aunt, Melody McGowan, stopped by the driver ed school and told me they were on the way to the hospital. I remain

The incident is referred to as a "crash" rather than an "accident" per changes made by TXDOT (Texas Department of Transportation). An accident is an event that could not be avoided (a car damaged by a tree during a thunder storm). A crash (collision of two vehicles) can be avoided if the drivers are operating the vehicles in a proper manner. Monday, 14 December 1998 3:42:00 PM I met the driver's education car (a 1995 Ford Taurus) on my way to meet Officer Jones at the office