City: Davenport, Iowa

Brain Injury: While at work on May 3^rd as an endoscopic nurse, a patient stopped breathing during a procedure. While running across the room to get the rescue bag, I ran into the corner of a metal overhead cabinet and received a traumatic brain injury.

Explanation of Mask: My mask is divided into halves. The left side which is all black with a teardrop represents the different types of feelings as well as emotions I dealt with. Trapped inside my brain wondering what was happening and why I could not just go back to the way I was the morning of May 3^rd, 2016. Before my life changed in just a blink of an eye, while at work doing what I loved, taking care of patients as a nurse. The ride side of my mask represents the hope and courage I feel surrounded by the therapists at the LIFT program at Genesis, who empower me every day to keep fighting and help me understand what happened to my brain and how it heals, the emotions and thoughts that left me alone and isolated. In the middle of my mask you see family, friends, kids, mom, nurse, wife and faith. On the sides of the mask are my high and low points. In the middles is where I draw my strength to fight and dig down deep as I continue on my journey healing from this brain injury.