Mike Rea's Recovery Info & Updates

Mike's family created this blog to acknowledge our heartfelt appreciation for all your thoughts, prayers, and well wishes since his accident. Please check back regularly for updates on his condition and recovery process. We know all of you will keep Mike and his family in your prayers!

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Location: Newark, Delaware

On June 16, 2006, Mike was doing what he loves most in the world~training a race horse! One minute, friends saw him go by at a full gallop. Thirty minutes later, he was found unconscious and barely breathing. Mike endured an emergency helicopter ride to the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Unit where doctors determined he had suffered a severe brain injury and was placed in ICU in critical condition. After three weeks, Mike was transferred to Kernan Rehabilitation Center, then Sunbridge Care and Rehabilitation. He returned home in October ‘06 and continues to work on his recovery. We have experienced much hope and joy as we have witnessed Mike's miraculous journey towards recovery. Mike IS A MIRACLE (the exact words of his neurologist) and continues to surprise his health care providers. Mike faces each day with courage, faith and perseverance; his new job consisting of physical therapy and theraputic riding. Mike is currently undergoing Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy and is experiencing great progress! FOR THOSE WHO HAVE OFFERED ASSISTANCE, A "MIKE REA RECOVERY RELIEF FUND" HAS BEEN ESTABLISHED TO HELP WITH MIKE'S MEDICAL AND DAILY NEEDS.

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

How Lucky Mike Is To Have Such Dear Friends

Sorry we haven't posted a blog in such a long but I am sure everyone knows how it is sometimes. Mike is doing very well. He is a very strong willed person and he wants to be back to normal so bad. He has a very dear core group of friends that have helped him so much with his ongoing recovery that really have made a big difference in his life. He needed rides to his physical therapy classes, groups work outs, doctor appointments and anything else he needed. The core group has been fantastic. They are Angels sent by God.

We had let Mike drive in parking lots when we were visiting last and he didn't do to bad. He made the comment that he use to tell people that he could ride a horse better than he could drive a car but that it is reversed now. He can drive a car better than he can ride a horse. So he was set up with a driving instructor and he passed Mike to drive. Mike even had a flat tire one day and changed it himself. I asked him how he loosened and tightened the bolts and he told me he did what he could do with his hands and then would jump on the tire wrench to loosen or tighten it more. Wow!!!

Yes they sold their home. But before that they had sold Mike's horses, horse van and all the horse things and equipment, his truck and some home furnishings. They were going to live with his wife's mother but then a dear old friend of Mike's offered them to live in this 200 year old farm house on their farm. It has been refurbished but still has oil heat and no air condition. Mike says he loves it though and the children like watching the horses and cows on the land.

I feel like when people are saying that my brother is walking and driving that they picture it like we drive and walk and it is just not like that. He still has a very long way to go and a whole lot more recovering to do. He loses his balance a lot because he hardly has any balance at all. What he has accomplished is all on his own and with his such strong will power like I have never seen before. The riding therapy and water therapy are the two main things that helps him to get his balance back, if he'll ever get it all back only God knows. He still has a very long way to go and a whole lot more recovering to do. Yes he is walking with a cane but he walks very slowly because he still doesn't have very good balance. It is like watching a little old man with a cane if you can picture that but it is my brother trying his hardest to walk right and with a steady gait. When we say that he's driving we mean that he is driving an old, old Honda Accord that does have some heat. He has to be very careful and have no distractions while driving. His concentration has to be totally on his driving. His wife won't allow him to drive the family car or drive with the children in the car. I guess the liability of it all. He still has a very long way to go and a whole lot more recovering to do.

We have received so many calls, emails, and communication from AlexBrownRacing site that we know everyone is still hanging in there with us. And due to the very needed Extreme Home Makeover for the Luther family there still is hope for Mike. Thank you to Alex Brown and Laurie Hammer for everything.

We all still believe in miracles and want to thank everyone for everything that they have ever done for my brother and us. We love you all and think of you often (everyday). May God bless each and everyone of you.

WE BELIEVE IN MIRACLES
WE BELIEVE IN MIKE REA
WE BELIEVE IN THE FANS OF BARBARO

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