A Hero's Recovery
Sutter Medical Foundation
2023
[MUSIC PLAYING]
TRAVIS: It was April 18, 2021.
DAISHA: We went fishing with our family,
and a man approached us and brandished a gun
and shot our friend first, and Travis stepped in.
And he took four bullets to make sure we were safe.
TRAVIS: I was shot in the hand, I was shot in the groin,
and I was shot in the leg.
DAISHA: Then the man shot him point blank in the head.
The very first night, they told me he
wasn't going to make it through the night.
It was unstable.
TRAVIS: I was in a coma for nine days.
They knew that the severity of the injury--
it was going to take a lot of work
to get me back to-- as close as I could be to a full recovery.
I could barely talk.
I definitely couldn't walk.
DAISHA: I started trying to do some research on rehabs
that have dealt with his traumatic brain injuries
specifically.
We looked into all of them on the West Coast, all the way out
to Detroit, even.
Then we chose Sutter Health.
PAT: The Sutter Rehabilitation Institute
is a CARF-accredited inpatient rehab
facility that's part of Sutter Roseville Medical Center.
Our traumatic brain injury program is very unique.
It really is about controlling the environment
to make sure that they're not overstimulated,
and it helps with their recovery from a behavioral perspective.
TRAVIS: On the physical level, they
wanted to make sure that I could do basic things,
just like taking steps.
When we got a little bit more advanced with it,
we moved to the ZeroG machine, which
is a fully supported system that holds you
in balance so you don't fall.
After a couple minutes of being in that machine,
I started to feel comfortable myself.
DAISHA: They were able to sit with me.
The psychologists talked to me a lot about some
of the upcoming problems we're going
to have and hurdles and obstacles that we were going
to face for years to come.
And it was very helpful to get us back on track.
TRAVIS: Specifically in the speech section,
I was fumbling over a lot of words when I came in there.
The progression that I had through the speech therapy
helps me to this day.
And it was extremely important that I
was able to move forward and actually
articulate myself with what I want
to say when I need to say it.
DAISHA: He would be mixing up words,
and I wouldn't really understand.
But they gave me the tools that I
needed to make sure that we could communicate better.
TRAVIS: My progression was pretty fast.
We were there for 15 days, and we
were expected to be there for six to eight weeks.
So we actually had a welcome home party.
And as soon as I get out of the car,
my friend that was in the incident with us
gives me maybe the best, most powerful hug I ever
received in my entire life.
And then it was just a joy and a celebration
of me being home with my daughter,
me being home with my now-wife.
Beginning of March, I was able to go back to work.
DAISHA: There was the conversation about him
not going to rehab.
And I said that him not going to rehab
is something we can't afford.
We need him to be back, to be able to move on from this.
And without Sutter Health, I don't
think we would have been there.
TRAVIS: It was April 18, 2021.
DAISHA: We went fishing with our family,
and a man approached us and brandished a gun
and shot our friend first, and Travis stepped in.
And he took four bullets to make sure we were safe.
TRAVIS: I was shot in the hand, I was shot in the groin,
and I was shot in the leg.
DAISHA: Then the man shot him point blank in the head.
The very first night, they told me he
wasn't going to make it through the night.
It was unstable.
TRAVIS: I was in a coma for nine days.
They knew that the severity of the injury--
it was going to take a lot of work
to get me back to-- as close as I could be to a full recovery.
I could barely talk.
I definitely couldn't walk.
DAISHA: I started trying to do some research on rehabs
that have dealt with his traumatic brain injuries
specifically.
We looked into all of them on the West Coast, all the way out
to Detroit, even.
Then we chose Sutter Health.
PAT: The Sutter Rehabilitation Institute
is a CARF-accredited inpatient rehab
facility that's part of Sutter Roseville Medical Center.
Our traumatic brain injury program is very unique.
It really is about controlling the environment
to make sure that they're not overstimulated,
and it helps with their recovery from a behavioral perspective.
TRAVIS: On the physical level, they
wanted to make sure that I could do basic things,
just like taking steps.
When we got a little bit more advanced with it,
we moved to the ZeroG machine, which
is a fully supported system that holds you
in balance so you don't fall.
After a couple minutes of being in that machine,
I started to feel comfortable myself.
DAISHA: They were able to sit with me.
The psychologists talked to me a lot about some
of the upcoming problems we're going
to have and hurdles and obstacles that we were going
to face for years to come.
And it was very helpful to get us back on track.
TRAVIS: Specifically in the speech section,
I was fumbling over a lot of words when I came in there.
The progression that I had through the speech therapy
helps me to this day.
And it was extremely important that I
was able to move forward and actually
articulate myself with what I want
to say when I need to say it.
DAISHA: He would be mixing up words,
and I wouldn't really understand.
But they gave me the tools that I
needed to make sure that we could communicate better.
TRAVIS: My progression was pretty fast.
We were there for 15 days, and we
were expected to be there for six to eight weeks.
So we actually had a welcome home party.
And as soon as I get out of the car,
my friend that was in the incident with us
gives me maybe the best, most powerful hug I ever
received in my entire life.
And then it was just a joy and a celebration
of me being home with my daughter,
me being home with my now-wife.
Beginning of March, I was able to go back to work.
DAISHA: There was the conversation about him
not going to rehab.
And I said that him not going to rehab
is something we can't afford.
We need him to be back, to be able to move on from this.
And without Sutter Health, I don't
think we would have been there.
After heroically shielding a friend from a gun-wielding assailant while on a fishing trip, Travis was hospitalized with a gunshot wound to the head. Unable to walk and barely able to talk, he went to the Sutter Rehabilitation Institute’s Traumatic Brain Injury Program. Within 15 days, they were able to not only help Travis walk again, but also recover his verbal ability through speech therapy.
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