Megan Jewsbury with parents Lisa and Jack and brother Jackie.

In the fall of 1999, Megan Jewsbury headed back to the University of Missouri – Columbia to start her junior year of college and then attend nursing school. For most 21-year-olds, returning to school after summer break is just another rite of passage. For Megan, it was nothing short of a miracle.

In June of 1998, three weeks after she completed her sophomore year at MU, Megan was broad-sided at an estimated 70-80 mph by another car as she was coming home from her summer job at St. John’s. She suffered a closed-head injury resulting in a coma, lower back and neck fractures and a broken pelvis.

When they first arrived at the hospital after receiving the phone call that their daughter had been in a serious car accident, Megan’s parents Jack and Lisa were met by a chaplain and told to prepare for the worst.

“… They didn’t want to give us any false hope,” her mom Lisa said in 1999. “We had to realize how bad (her head injury) was so we could prepare ourselves.”

Fourteen days passed and Megan showed no signs of coming out of the coma. The nursing director of the Neurotrauma floor at St. John’s told the Jewsburys to start thinking about whether Megan would want to continue life support. That same day, she opened her eyes slightly.

Over the next few months, Megan’s parents and brother, Jack, spent eight to 10 hours at a time at Megan’s hospital bedside to help her regain skills such as breathing, eating and talking. She gained more and more responsiveness until she was finally able to begin physical, occupational and speech therapies.

“I don’t remember much about that time in my life, but I do remember the frustration I felt when I was doing my occupational therapy,” Megan says now. “I liked physical therapy because I could see my progress, but occupational therapy was difficult.”

Struggling to learn the basics all over again was difficult for determined high achiever like Megan. It was also difficult for her family to see her struggle.
“You never expect this to happen to your daughter,” Lisa said in 1999. “She had great grades, was active in high school … to see her like this was hard.”

Three months after the accident, Megan came home from the hospital and began day rehab at St. John’s. Her mom dropped her off at St. John’s each morning at 8:30 and picked her up in the afternoon. Tests showed Megan had memory, information-processing and response-time deficits. When she began rehab, her physician and therapists talked to her about jobs for which she might be suited once she completed the program.

“The jobs they were trying to steer me toward at first didn’t require a college degree. My goal was to go back to MU and attend nursing school. The accident didn’t change that,” Megan says.

Over the course of a year, with the help of a specially designed rehab program to help her achieve her goal of going back to school, Megan made dramatic improvement.

“When she first began rehab, Megan’s potential for reaching her goal of going back to school and attending nursing school wasn’t great,” neuropsychologist Michael Whetstone, Ph.D., said in 1999. “Given the severity of her injury, the kind of improvement she had in a year’s time was very significant.”

Megan took one course at Southwest Missouri State University (now Missouri State University) as a trial run before going back to MU. She got an A in the class. After she completed the day rehab program, Megan returned to MU in the fall of 1999. She was excited but nervous to return to school and depended on her roommates for rides because she hadn’t yet been given the go-ahead to resume driving by her physician. She also required special accommodations for exams because she had problems concentrating, and she took a tape recorder to class because her writing was slow.

“I didn’t drive for about two years,” she says now. “When I did start driving again, I was very careful and cautious, and I’m still that way. I got involved with Think First Missouri, which educates young drivers about safe driving and the effects of head injuries. I speak to high schools and to people in traffic offender programs.”

Megan graduated from MU with a general studies degree in nursing, biology and psychology in 2003 and is now pursuing a graduate degree in counseling from Missouri State University.

Now 27, she also works part-time at the Carol Jones Recovery Center, a substance-abuse program for local women. She recently became a graduate assistant for Missouri State’s Literacy Center. Once she completes her master’s degree, Megan plans to work as a counselor for people going through rehabilitation after a traumatic injury.

“Ever since I can remember, I have always wanted a job where I was helping people,” Megan says. “When I was doing my clinicals in the nursing program at MU, I spent a lot of time talking to patients who had had a head injury like mine. After I graduated and began working at the Carol Jones Recovery Center, I realized that I wanted to work as a rehab and recovery counselor for people with traumatic injuries.”

Six years later, neuropsychologist Whetstone continues to be impressed with Megan’s success.

“When Megan first came to St. John’s the day of her accident, I don’t think anyone expected her to ever be able to do much more than determine her basic needs and wants,” Whetstone says now. “I was amazed when she went back to college and I’m even more amazed to learn that she is now in graduate school and plans to counsel people who are recovering from a trauma. I think she will be able to offer a lot of hope and inspiration to these patients.”