TABITHA CLARK My daughter Tabitha was a very active, healthy, outdoorsy type of person. She loved hunting and fishing. She was the top female junior bowler in our areawith her highest score being a 300. Tabitha graduated high school in 2015, ready to start her freshman year in college. She wanted to be a veterinarian. She loved animals and also loved taking care of babies and toddlers. Tabitha had her Certified Nursing Assistant license and was traveling to people’s houses to take care of them. She was a very caring and giving person.
By Yvonne Clark
the right side and has limited use of her right hand. She sees double and is having more problems seeing distance as well. Tabitha has had 3 surgeries on her throat and is now able tovocalizewithus –althoughnot always understandablebut it is ahuge improvement over no sounds coming out. She still has swallowing issues and is a silent aspiration so she still has and probably always will have a feeding tube. Tabitha’s offender was sentenced to 5 years in jail – of which he served only 34 months and is already out on probation. To this day, her offender has never apologized for his actions. He states, “Ya, I did it!” Two years ago, I purchased a handicap accessible house to help give Tabithamore freedom and be able to move around in her chair more independently. The biggest change however is that Tabitha has a Service-Dog-in-Training named Bear. He is a full-blooded black lab. We have had him since he was 8 weeks old and have been involved with raising him and training him along with a professional Service Dog trainer. Bear already helps Tabitha in many ways but our main goal is that Bear will help Tabitha to be able to walk. Through all of this, Tabitha remains pretty positive. Yes, we have thegoodandbaddays still but that’s life for us now. Life drastically changed that day 5 years ago and it will always be a challenge for Tabitha (andmyself as well as I am her fulltime caregiver). We still live by the motto – ONE DAY AT A TIME and IF IT’S OUT OF OUR CONTROL, LET IT GO. Tabitha and I pray people don’t drink and drive! NO MORE VICTIMS ® !! Tabitha and I pray people don’t drink and drive! NO MORE VICTIMS ® !!
That all changed the morning of December 5, 2015. Tabitha was coming home from bowling with her boyfriend and another friend, around 1:45 a.m. A drunk driver ran a red light and t-boned her car. Tabitha was in the passenger seat and took the full force of the impact. She never saw it coming. The doctor at the hospital told us she required immediate surgery. She ruptured her bladder and spleen, broke her right clavicle, three right ribs and her pelvis in four areas. “That’s not theworst of it,” said the doctor. “She also sustained a basal line skull fractureand therewas evidenceof damage to the part of the brain that will allow her to wake up. She has significant brain damage throughout her brain, but primarily on the left.” I remember asking, “What’s her chance for survival?” His response, “She’ll live, she may just not have a life.” Fast forward a bit… we spent 19 days in ICU and then about four months in a rehabilitation hospital. Now just after the 5 year mark - Tabitha can now sit up by herself, she can stand unassisted for about a minute and has started walking with the help of a hemi-walker by herself. Her first unassisted steps happened in July of 2020. Yes, this momcried. Medically, Tabitha has more issues all due to her traumatic brain injury. She now has stage two liver damage, osteopenia (which means her bones are thinning), Vitamin D deficiency, just to name a few of the major ones. She still has high tone on
Mothers Against Drunk Driving ® 27
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