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Life Through a Different Lens

Stories Communitas Supportive Care Society Life Through a Different Lens

Dave looks at life through a different lens these days. With his camera, he captures grand vistas and minute details whenever he’s on a hike or travels to a wilderness destination. Taking nature photos has given him a new outlook on life. But photography is not the only lens through which he looks at life; the other lens is that of acquired brain injury.

Dave remembers the exact day that his life changed forever: February 24, 2009, right after lunch. He was at work, on a construction site, putting railings on the second floor deck of a town home.

“The next thing I know, I’m on the ground and someone was cutting off my t-shirt, trying to keep me lying down, telling me I’d had a fall,” he says.

Somehow, Dave had lost his balance and fallen to the concrete below, landing on his head. He had fractured his face and neck, fractured two ribs and had a brain bleed. It is a miracle that he didn’t die.

The next few months included surgery to put a plate in his neck and physio therapy sessions but his brain injury wasn’t fully diagnosed until later in the year. His physiatrist suggested trying to do a project that would include some of the work he’d done on construction sites.

“I was doing a very simple job, helping installing an overhead garage door on a shed. Something that should have taken me an hour took three,” he remembers. “Then I was basically bed-ridden for two weeks.”

Dave explains that the exhaustion he felt was a result of his brain trying to recreate all the pathways needed to complete tasks that had once been second nature to him. Over time, things went from bad to worse with sensitivity to noise, light, or other stimulation becoming unbearable. He went through a retraining process to see if office work would be a possibility but it proved to be unsuccessful. Eventually, Dave was sent to a neuro-psychiatrist who diagnosed him with an acquired brain injury (ABI).

He was sent to the Life Mark Health Centre in Vancouver for treatment and it was here that Dave started learning about brain injury and discovered his passion for photography.

“One of the things we would do in our group therapy sessions was go for a walk around the downtown area with our cameras,” he explains. “I realized that I really enjoyed taking photos and everyone said that I took good pictures.”

He decided to take an evening photography course and upgraded his equipment. He joined the Abbotsford Photo Arts Club where he says he learned a lot. Photography has had a huge impact on his life.

It became a life-saver. If I was having a bad day, I’d take my camera and go out and take photos of nature and I’d always come back feeling better. It gave me something to learn, to help exercise my brain. It got me out of the house and helped me exercise my body. – Dave, photographer and brain injury survivor

Today, Dave lives a rich and full life. He has done a lot of traveling and always takes his camera with him. Last summer, he decided to take a course to become a Reflexologist and has started up a home business.

“I’ve always been good with my hands and I’ve always believed in holistic medicine,” he says, adding that reflexology has helped him personally on his journey towards wellness.

Dave is quick to give credit to the many people and organizations for his improvement. He is grateful for the Fraser Valley Brain Injury Association, where he attended seminars and spoke to people who helped answer many of his questions. He is grateful for his case manager, his occupational therapist and his psychiatrist, who all went the extra mile to help him find a place where he could live fully despite his injury. And Dave is grateful for Communitas, which provides a Brain Injury Drop-In that he attends weekly.

“The Drop-In is great because it’s good to be with other people who totally understand you,” he says. “There’s such great camaraderie here and it’s important for people with ABI to know that they are not alone.”

The Drop-In is a place to enjoy a cup of coffee, a meal and to socialize. The group also takes part in regularly planned activities like the upcoming Brain Injury Awareness Walk in June. Dave is looking forward to going and doing photography for the event and wants people to know that it’s important to raise awareness.

“Most people just don’t understand how exhausting or debilitating brain injury can be,” he says. “Anything that helps us talk about it is a good thing.”