My name is Mahlon Frankhauser and my favorite mantra is “Never give up ~ persevere!” I was a securities attorney for forty years and during that time worked for the Securities and Exchange Commission and The New York Stock Exchange. For the last 28 years, I had been a partner of a large nationwide and international law firm from which I am now retired due to my injury and inability to practice law.
I would like to share the story of my recovery from a severe traumatic brain injury that I sustained when I fell two stories from a ladder onto a concrete driveway while hanging Christmas wreaths on the windows of our home in December, 1997. My life changed totally and completely in the blink of an eye.
I had several brain operations the first two days in order to save my life. During the surgeries, a large portion of both of my frontal lobes were removed. The frontal lobes are the executive and organizational parts of the brain, they also control impulses, balance and mine were severely damaged in the accident. There has also been damage to each area of my brain. You can imagine what this has done to my chances of ever returning to the practice of law, which I have dearly loved all these years!
I was in a coma for two months, in a rehab hospital for two months and then spent the next 7.5 months in an acute care facility.
My wife, Joan decided to take me home where she believed I would have a better chance of regaining my memory and further recovery in the warmth of our loving home. Encouraged by Doctor French (my neurosurgeon) and with the help of Brain Injury Services, but against the advice of a number of my doctors and therapists, Joan had an elevator installed and redid the master bathroom to make it handicapped accessible. Joan says that the Brain Injury Services took her by the hand and guided her down the path to help her bring me home to my new life. She would have been lost without their guidance. When I was able, they took me by the hand and guided me to be the best that I can be. We often wonder where we would be without the expertise and care that we have received from Brain Injury Services.
So on Halloween, 1998, I came home! When I first came home, I was in bed for 22 hours a day, couldn’t sit up or turn over was tube fed, still had the superpubic catheter and wore diapers.
My first goal was to get out of bed and into that wheelchair fulltime. It was hard work, but the therapists worked with me 3-4 days a weeks, and I kept getting stronger. My aides and Joan would help me exercise when the therapists were not there, and before long, I was downstairs most of the day. After two years, I got out of the wheelchair and I felt overjoyed! My first steps gave me my freedom back! I was using a cane, but because of balance issues, I am back to using a rollator walker. I still have a way to go, but I’ll do it. You can believe that!
In 1999, following two back to back surgeries, I developed a very rare neurological syndrome called Capgras (Capgraph) Syndrome. This can occur to a person, generally after a brain injury, who is lucid but suffers from a misidentification of someone who is usually a close relative or loved one.
In my case, my delusion happened to be my wife, Joan. I thought she was a former co-worker. It was bizarre that I had this delusion between the two women. None of my doctors could figure out this delusion, as Joan would be my wife for a few minutes and then switch to this other woman. I even made her sleep in the another room, because I thought that “my wife, Joan Callahan”, as I called her, would be very hurt and upset to find “her” (I also called her “Joan”) in my room. I became very fond this woman, “Joan” because she was very good to me, but I was always in love with “my wife, Joan Callahan” and told everyone that she was probably in Philadelphia going to law school. None of my doctors knew anything about this bizarre delusion from which I was suffering.
Our daughter, Victoria, went on the Internet to see what she could learn and found a doctor in Australia, who is a specialist doing a study on just this subject. Victoria e-mailed her about me and a few days later the doctor spoke with “my wife, Joan Callahan” and she then spoke with the department heads at the hospital in Sydney and plans were made for her to come to the U. S. to meet, interview and work with me for a week. There has never been documentation of anyone suffering from a delusion like mine where a person would switch from one person to the other hundreds of times in a day. It has only been documented with people suffering from this type of delusion to see the person as an imposter. This delusional thinking lasted for nine months.
The daily activities of personal care that I used to take for granted have taken a great deal of effort to relearn. I still need help with showering and dressing, and I am unable to drive due to seizures, which is a result of my brain injury. I have learned to use currency so that I can make cash purchases. I have had to relearn simple addition and subtraction, and have begun learning multiplication, but have not tackled division yet. Thank heavens for calculators!
I have had 19 major surgeries and continue to keep moving forward. God isn’t finished with me yet! Joan calls me ‘Miracle Man’!
I work with a therapist twice a week in an adapted aquatics program and also exercise with my caregiver, Charlotte twice a week. With the help of Michelle Thyen, the Volunteer Coordinator at Brain Injury Services, we identified volunteer opportunities I would enjoy.
Most important is my being a member of the Speaker’Bureau. It is great for me to be out with people in the community and to reap the rewards of speaking to people who are interested in brain injury and to be able to share my story. I believe it is necessary as well as beneficial for people to learn that we are happy, caring members of society, who just happen to have sustained a brain injury.
- I read books to 14 four year-olds at the local YWCA once a week for a number of years, but have recently had to give that up because of my failing vision. I miss that terribly!
- Every month, I take a brain injury survivor to his Community Center for activities and lunch or out to an activity or pizza.
- Joan and I do volunteer work for Hospice from home. We prepare packets of information for prospective clients, stuff envelopes and label letters and pamphlets for mailing.
- We also do the same type of volunteering at the Dominican Retreat Center.
- Lastly, I help Joan make sandwiches for the homeless.
This plus 3 children, their spouses and eight grandchildren keep Joan and me very busy.
I’ve lost 90% of my hearing due to the accident, and now wear digital hearing aids and use an additional transmitter with a microphone to enhance my hearing and hope some day to be able to read lips. Even with this fancy equipment, I am unable to hear much and often feel like a captive within myself!
I also have Parkinsonian Syndrome caused by the brain injury, which causes my right hand to shake so much that I am unable to write. I am now using my left hand to eat, and am doing pretty well if I might say so myself! I now have a table top magnifying machine so that I can read regular print and my Kindle is a joy! I am not able to write with my left hand, however.
My family was told that the window of recovery for a man my age, I was 66 at the time of my accident, is 6 months to one year. WRONG! I continue to make progress and amaze all of my doctors. It is our belief that many people are left in nursing facilities and are given little or no hope of recovery. I am proof that although my life has changed dramatically, I have good quality to my life and feel I am an asset to my family and community. First and foremost, I am most grateful to be alive and that God has given me a second chance at living. For the two months I was in a coma, I hung onto life by my fingertips, so you can see why I have he attitude that I have.
I also have the distinct advantage of being married (for over 53 years) to an upbeat, positive Irish lady who will NOT take no for an answer. She is the world’s greatest cheerleader and is very encouraging to me in my recovery.
It has been a long journey, and the most devastating part of this journey is not being able to practice law. As I said previously, I LOVE THE LAW! and it has not been easy to walk away from a career I loved! For the first 4-5 years after coming home, I kept talking and boring everyone within hearing range about my one and only desire, which was to return to the practice of law.
Intellectually, I understood that one cannot practice law with most of his frontal lobes removed and with damage to every part his brain. I understood that the 90% loss of hearing that I have sustained would make litigating a case in court next to impossible, but I stubbornly hung on to this dream. Then one day, miraculously I understood that I would always be an attorney, just not a PRACTICING attorney! I stopped blaming my wife and my partners for retiring me. I have at last gained some peace and can move forward.
The other thing that I really miss is my inability to drive due to a seizure disorder, which I mentioned previously. I REALLY MISS DRIVING! Joan cheerfully carts me all over with nary a complaint and when I tell her that I feel guilty about this, her response is always the same… ”It is my pleasure. What I do for you, I do because I love you!”
Yes, my life is vastly different, but I have good quality to it. I am blessed to once again be able to read and process the written word. We enjoy concerts, musicals, movies, ballet and eating out. (Plays are out because of my hearing.) I try to live each day to the fullest and with gratitude.
Because of the tremendous need for the guidance, knowledge, and help provided by Brain Injury Services, due to the large number of brain injury survivors needing their services, they are sorely overworked, understaffed and run on a very tight budget.
The message I would like to leave with you today is “Never give up – persevere!” Things are never as bad as they seem. Ask God for help, but remember, He expects you to do the leg work!
