Proud graduate overcame brain injury

Proud graduate overcame brain injury

After massive damage caused in car accident,
York program assists woman to get degree

Oct 21, 2008 04:30 AM
Comments on this story (1)
Shabnam Janet Janani
Staff Reporter

After Rosanne Wong was in a horrific car accident 11 years ago, doctors said her brain was so badly damaged she would not be able to do anything for the rest of her life.

She was, according to them, in a persistent vegetative state.

Saturday, Wong stood on a podium at York University wearing a flowing black gown as she graduated with a B.A. in sociology. Her remarkable achievement was made possible with the help of York's Office for Persons with Disabilities.

"I never give up," said the 29-year-old east Toronto woman in a phone interview, her speech still slowed by the effects of the brain injury she suffered while living in Apopka, Fla.

Wong had just received a full scholarship from the University of Florida and dreamed of becoming a computer engineer.

Then, on Sept. 19, 1997, she was driving on her way to tutor underprivileged students when she made a wrong turn, into the path of a 16-wheel tractor-trailer.

Wong spent 10 days in a coma at the Orlando Regional Medical Centre in Florida.

Over the course of nine months, despite what doctors had said, she began to regain basic functions. She slowly started to breathe, eat, talk and walk on her own. She was released from the hospital, but it would be two years before her brain could do more complex things.

"Gradually, her ability to read came back," said her father, Ray Wong, "but she had to read a page more than 10 times to remember details."

As her insurance coverage ran out – and the company refused to renew her policy – bills for her medication that reached $6,000 a month prompted her family to return to Canada, where they had moved from Jamaica 30 years earlier.

She enrolled in York University's Information Technology program in 2001, still hoping to become a computer engineer.

"When disabled students register at the university, they meet with case counsellors first," said Karen Swartz, director at the Office for Persons with Disabilities at York. Case counsellors review the students' difficulties and then build a plan based on what kind of accommodations they need to proceed through their university career.

In the 2007-2008 academic year, 2,533 students were accommodated for their disabilities at York. Of these, about 50 had brain injuries, Schwartz said.

Students with disabilities are usually expected to write the same exams and assignments as other students.

After Wong failed courses in the Information Technology program, a neuropsychology assessment suggested that parts of her brain that process information related to math and science had been destroyed along with her short-term memory. That indicated she should change her major.

"She is very hard working and dedicated," said Annette Symanzik, a case counsellor at York.

But before her transition, Wong faced another shock when her mother died from a heart attack.

"She was so close to her mother and was so depressed that she wasn't able to do things properly," said her father.

She received therapy and was eventually able to recover from the grief."It was a big loss for me," she said. "My mother really wanted to see my graduation day."

Wong is independent now, and looks forward to starting a job in her field.

As for the doctor who told Wong's father his daughter would never do anything for the rest of her life, he is still annoyed but said, "We let it go."

http://www.thestar.com/article/520884