"The Matt Duffin Show" - 17-yr old TBI Survivor Amara Riccio

This week on TMDS, we are honored to introduce Amara Riccio, of New Jersey to the rest of the recovery world!   Greet her tonight on BIRN as she shares, inspires and explains life as a growing teen with a TBI.  With her family providing, her survival has been quite the miracle itself - and she but 17-years old.  Her life changed before it really started 5-years ago, but the song 'Joy To The World' must of been written by her.  I’ll let her words explain, and then more Sunday at 10 p.m. EST, 7 p.m. Pacific. 

     Her mother Lori explains:  “Amara’s carefree everyday life changed in an instant as she was crossing the street to a dance recital, when a car came from nowhere and struck our dear sweet daughter. Hit so hard, she was thrown 12-feet in the air, leaving her unconscious under a parked car. She was brought to Jersey Shore Hospital Trauma Intensive Care, spending 9 days in a coma, then 12 days in PICU.  At just 13-years old, Amara sustained a severe TBI."

    A skull fracture to her frontal lobe, lesions, axonal sheering, slight bleeding in the brain and fractures in her arm and leg; the prognosis was grim; a doctor stating Amara would only recover half way, if she's lucky.”

Its Brain Injury Awareness Month, and I've no idea the number of folks under 21-years old are Surviving BI's - like all BI numbers, not so sure they are important except for business finance requests.  You see, Amara's "Riccio Pick Me Ups" is a display of one young ladies challenge to accept, promote and produce Brain Inury Awareness.  And I thought the biggest smile in the BI world belonged to me - Nope, Amara's is...