The Sports Life

ESPN's Peter Gammons Discusses Long Road Back From Aneurysm

East Sandwich, MA (PRWEB) December 5, 2007 -- For baseball fans, Peter Gammons is one of the country's most popular media personalities. He's a Hall of Fame baseball reporter and analyst for ESPN.

He also knows something about giving back.

Last week, Gammons was the keynote speaker at a fundraising dinner for the Rehabilitation Hospital of the Cape and Islands (RHCI). The hospital is trying to raise $2 million for its Center for NeuroRecovery. The center, created in 2005, brings sophisticated neurological rehabilitation services to residents of Cape Cod and Southeastern Massachusetts, where there is a high risk for strokes, brain injuries and other neurological illnesses.

In 2006, Gammons suffered a catastrophic, life-threatening event when he was stricken with a cerebral aneurysm near his home on the Cape.

Gammons' journey to RHCI began on the morning of June 27, 2006. He was driving to a gym to work out when he got a splitting headache. He also felt incredibly fatigued. He pulled into a grocery store parking lot, thinking he would crawl into the back seat for a nap before resuming his trip.

"I don't remember much after that," Gammons said. "It was all pretty hazy."

Since his aneurysm, Gammons strongly believes in the inherent goodness of people. Perhaps it's because of people like Agnes Rockett-Bolduc. The former nurse was heading home but noticed Gammons' car. A man's leg was awkwardly sticking out of an open car door. She tried talking with him and realized he needed immediate help. She called 911 and waited until the rescue squad arrived.

Gammons was transported to Falmouth Hospital then airlifted to Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston for surgery to treat the aneurysm.

Once Gammons' condition stabilized, he was admitted to RHCI to begin weeks of intensive physical, occupational and speech therapy.

"The physical part of it wasn't too bad," he said. "I had lost 35 pounds, but once I started getting stronger, I could do it." The bigger question was whether he would regain the high level cognitive skills needed to return to his profession as a sports journalist.

"There was a fear that you could only come back only so far. You do wonder if you will ever get back to normal," Gammons said.

Gammons found the speech therapy challenging - which was the point.

"The aneurysm had affected cognitive abilities, like attention and organization," said Janine Annis-Young, his speech and language therapist. "We started with the basics of what he needed to accomplish daily tasks, then widened the circle of his awareness to include the increasingly complex and abstract processes he needed to do his job. He was always motivated."

"It was almost like going to college," he said. "The therapists would tell me, 'this is what you need to do and this is why you need to it.' That is a really unusual skill. It helped me realize how smart they are. It really helped my rehab."

What did Gammons take away from his experience?

"I found out what 'health care' really means," he said, noting that he hadn't been in the hospital since he was a baby. "I found out that people do really care. And I saw how much effort and caring go into it. I really didn't understand that before.

"Doctors said it could take me more than a year to come back, but it only took me a couple of months. That's the result of these therapists. It was really meaningful and quite remarkable."

Gammons is a self-professed political junkie who often watches MSNBC and tunes into talk radio. Until the aneurysm, Gammons believed the mostly negative 'gotcha' chatter came with the territory.

But last Christmas, as he prepared to send out holiday notes, he realized he had undergone a profound change. He wrote to his friends about it.

"I've learned two things," he said. "First, I want to emphasize what I'm for, not what I'm against. And what I believe in, not what I fear.

"That's what a potential life-altering experience does to you."

About RHCI

RHCI is a 60-bed, not-for-profit, acute rehabilitation hospital. RHCI provides comprehensive, hospital-level rehabilitation care for residents of Cape Cod and Southeastern Massachusetts. RHCI's staff cares for 1,100 inpatients each year and provides outpatient services at five satellite centers.

In 2005, RHCI made a major commitment to further enhance rehabilitation care for patients with neurological disabilities by creating the RHCI Center for NeuroRecovery. The center's major programs are: Stroke Program, Brain Injury Program and Parkinson's Disease Program.

The center is directed by a neurologist specializing in the neurobehavioral effects of brain injury and offers treatment with some of the most advanced neuro-rehabilitation technologies available today.

RHCI is affiliated with Massachusetts General Hospital, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital. It is a member of Partners HealthCare System.

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