Rehabilitation Surgery Program—
When the News Hits Hard

"Ultimately, Frank absorbed the strength to fight from those who fought beside him."
— Clinical Psychologist Allan Landes, PhD Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Brain Injury Rehabilitation Program

"We don't know how he'll be—or who he'll be—until he wakes up." That's what doctors told Frank's family a year ago, after his emergency brain surgery. A television news anchor, Frank had taken a fall walking down a hallway at work and fractured his skull on the carpet covered cement floor. A bone fragment severed an artery, and—as his coworkers called 911—the artery was bleeding into Frank’s brain.

Within two days after surgery, Frank was regaining consciousness in the brain injury rehabilitation unit at University Hospital— the only such unit in Central New York.

Frank immediately recognized his family—a very good sign. His motor skills were intact. Brain damage seemed likely to heal. Still, he faced a long road to recovery. "It took quite a while to convince me that what had happened had happened," remembers Frank. “I wanted out of the hospital.”

Disorientation is typical,” explains Dr. Allan Landes, Frank's psychologist at University Hospital. "Patients may lack the ability to understand what they're going through. Families are very new to this, too. There's a lot of education involved."

Frank spent close to a year in cognitive therapy at University Hospital, primarily as an outpatient. "At times, I was exhausted by the recovery process. Loss of control is a tough thing for me. I had trouble giving my brain time to heal." Ultimately, Frank absorbed the strength to fight from those who fought beside him. “Having loved ones around, and hospital staff working so hard— you owe it to yourself, and to the people fighting with you," he says.

Eleven months after his fall, Frank went back to work at WTVH-5 in Syracuse.

At the end of his first day, he appeared on air and described his journey. "You had to be there," he told his viewers. "I hope you never are. But I have learned that the quality of healthcare here is unparalleled, and I thank each and every person who played a part in my return to work and my return to life."