Overcoming Brain Injury to Live the Good Life

Seven years ago, Diana Palumbo read the heartbreaking and grim prognosis for her 16 year-old daughter, Samantha.

As Samantha, or Sami as everyone called her, laid still and unresponsive, the notes on her CT scan read, “not compatible with life.”

Sami was a vivacious cheerleader and a former pageant queen. She excelled in school and at sports, including swimming and volleyball, which she played on a local Glendora community league.

But one April evening after dinner, Sami got into the new Toyota Scion coupe she received for her 16^th birthday, and less than a mile away from her San Dimas home, she inexplicably plowed through 30 feet of a long, tall wooden fence. One of the wooden spikes punctured the windshield and left Sami with a devastating brain injury.

Chances of survival were small, but even grimmer were her odds of living a meaningful life if she were to somehow pull through.

But that was 2005.

Today, Sami is 23. And while doctors were almost certain Sami’s injuries would leave her incompatible with life, she has been busy doing quite a bit of living.

Today, Sami is getting ready to go on a date.

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In the seven years since her accident, Sami has made astonishing strides in her recovery. As she slowly regained consciousness, she began taking her first steps, and then finally communicating with hand gestures.

But she’s still not fully recovered – and her parents know that she may never fully regain the physical and mental abilities she once had before her accident.

Aside from her mother, Sami has four assistants who help her with daily tasks throughout the week.

Sami still can’t walk without the aid of a walker. Her massive facial injuries have left her unable to form coherent words. She now speaks using a computer-speaking device, and without the use of her right arm, Sami communicates through a variety of hand gestures with her left hand.

After 23 reconstructive surgeries on her brain, face and jaw, Sami’s physical appearance – although improved since her accident – is much altered from the 16-year-old girl who won Miss California Junior National Teenager.

She doesn’t remember her accident or the months before. According to her mother, Sami needs constant repetition or her short-term memory will cause her to forget even her own wedding if she were to get married.

But that hasn’t kept Sami from striving to live the best life she can possibly live.

“The first five years was a great deal of effort keeping her medically stable and physically strong,” said Diana. “The focus in the last couple of years has been really allowing her to enjoy life and get back to the living.”

With her friends and her assistants, Sami enjoys going out – shopping being one of her favorite hobbies. She can’t stand sitting in the house for long and will beg her mother to take her out for a drive.

After a few years of being fed through a tube in her stomach, Sami is savoring eating again –  going out to eat is one of her favorite pastimes.

One evening, Sami carefully typed into her computer:

“Don’t worry about me for dinner, Dad. I’m going out to eat with my friends.”

At first, her father, Sam Palumbo, was incredulous.

“Are we really going to let her go out? She needs to eat here,” he told Diana.

“Of course we are,” she told her husband.

For Diana, Sami’s simple statement of her evening plans was proof that Sami was beginning to take charge of her new life and enjoy the simple things, like an evening out with her friends.

Sometimes Sami’s independent streak makes her parents a little nervous. If she were to receive another brain injury, she would most definitely never recover, said Diana.

Still, Sami’s the first to want to ride the fast roller coasters at Disneyland.

Since her accident, she’s gone indoor skydiving, water skiing and rock climbing.

“It’s a reminder that I always liked to live life on the wild side,” Sami said.

Sami’s parents have made sure that aside from the routine physical therapy and medical procedures that dominated the first few years after her accident, that Sami can begin enjoying other aspects of life.

Sami has taken on volunteer efforts, including projects such as The Pageant of Hope, which allows children and teens with serious illnesses to participate in a non-competitive pageant. She also completed her special education IED at Mt. San Antonio College and continues to take specialized adult education courses.

Physical limitations and mental challenges aside, Sami’s family believes she still is the same girl with a competitive spirit, a quick wit and a positive attitude.

“Working hard and giving back,” Sami said through her computer. “Those are life’s greatest gifts.”

But there are some things her parents know they don’t have the power to give her.

When asked what her greatest goal would be, Sami responded, “To get married.”

Before her accident, the charismatic and attractive teenager turned heads of young teenaged boys. They were always asking for her number.

“They don’t ask for my number anymore,” Sami told her mother.

“I reached a point that there was one thing I couldn’t give her and it was what I knew she was dreaming of the most,” said Diana. “She wanted to go out on a date.”

While following the recovery of Juliana Ramos, fiance of former American Idol contestant Chris Medina, through her mother's blog, Diana found GOOD GIRLS GIVE® a nonprofit organization that gives Dream Days to Los Angeles area residents with severe disabilities.

Diana immediately submitted her proposal for Sami – what about a celebrity Dream Date for her daughter?

Inspired by Sami’s story, founder Laurie Green picked up Diana’s submission, giving the 23-year-old her very first date since her accident.

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Back at the Palumbo residence, Diana, Sami’s assistant Diana Gallardo and Sami’s friend Marissa Miller are frantically trying to help Sami get ready before her celebrity date arrives.

Good Girls Give has planned a day full of activities – a limo ride en route to see Cirque du Soleil’s Iris at the Kodak Theater in Hollywood, pizza from Rocco’s Tavern LA and milkshakes at Millions of Milkshakes in West Hollywood.

And of course her date, former Navy Seal turned actor Geoff Reeves.

Reeves, a tall actor with chiseled good looks, greets Sami at the door with a bouquet of flowers and gifts. Overwhelmed with excitement, Sami’s mouth hangs open. She doesn’t know what to say.

“I have a beautiful girl to take out,” Reeves reassures her. Sami points to Gallardo and Miller, her two assistants for the day.

And them, too, she seems to say, not wanting the others to feel left out.

For Diana, watching her daughter leave on her first date is a huge milestone, a drastic change from the unresponsive girl who narrowly clung to life almost seven years before.

“I’m so happy you’re finally enjoying life again,” Diana says to her daughter as Reeves and Sami’s assistants help Sami into the limo. “You’ve worked so hard for this.”

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Later that evening, when asked how her date went, Sami types into her computer:

“I had a killer time. I enjoyed going to all the places I’ve always wanted to go.”

Back at the Palumbo residence at the end of a long day, mother and daughter take a look of the snapshots taken throughout the date – a shot of Sami and Reeves sitting at the theater waiting for the show to begin, meeting the cast of Iris, sharing a milkshake at Millions of Milkshakes, even a sweet, candid shot of Sami’s hand resting boldly on Reeves’ knee.

Thanking Good Girls Give and the team that made the date possible, Diana says that while her daughter was out having fun on her date, she reflected back to the seven months her daughter was in the hospital following her accident and the uncertainty of what her future held.

“She’s past that and now she’s having fun,” Diana says. “Therein is the victory.”

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Sami’s road to recovery may continue to be a lifelong journey, says Diana.

She encourages Sami to pursue other goals, including furthering her education – perhaps obtain her GED and maybe take some college courses.

But, ultimately, it would be up to Sami, Diana says.

Before her accident, Sami was an aspiring broadcast journalist who enjoyed writing in her journal. When asked if she would take up writing again, uncertainty flashes across her face.

No, Sami immediately says.

“Why not?” her mother asks her.

“Because it would take a whole lot of self confidence,” Sami types into her computer. Refusing to let her give up right away, Diana encourages her. “You have a lot to say to inspire people. Why don’t you think about it?”

For Sami, it’s a reminder that sometimes the hurdles aren’t just physical.

But the journey continues to strengthen the Palumbo family, Diana says, and it reminds them that the core of happiness is the love and support they give to one another.

“If there’s one thing we’ve learned, being perfect in your physical and mental abilities isn’t necessary for that truly good life,” says Diana.

When asked if she was living a good life, Sami’s thumb shoots straight up.

“Heck yeah,” she says.