Marcus Trammell and C.J. Plummer, MD, at Vanderbilt Stallworth Rehabilitation Hospital. Photo by Erin O. Smith
In April 2020 the COVID-19 pandemic had just begun, and Marcus Trammell was planning to swing by his friend’s East Nashville restaurant, Dino’s Bar and Grill, to pick up some dinner.
Trammell was waiting in a turn lane on Gallatin Road, preparing to pull into the parking lot at Dino’s, when he nearly died.
A vehicle traveling more than 70 miles an hour plowed into his car and he was ejected through his windshield.
Trammell was rushed to Vanderbilt University Medical Center with a fractured skull, broken collarbone, broken ribs, fractured lumbar spine and a brain hemorrhage.
Trammell, 41, spent about three weeks at Vanderbilt University Adult Hospital (VUAH), much of that time in an induced coma, before beginning nearly a month of inpatient rehabilitation at Vanderbilt Stallworth Rehabilitation Hospital. Outpatient rehabilitation followed.
“I’m back to work, and I’m driving, and I’m raising a kid. And every day is not easy, but I’ve basically decided, like, whatever. If there’s a chance to recover, I’m going to take it.”
In the last year, he has gone from relearning how to remember, swallow and walk to returning to his job as associate director of the Wendland-Cook Program in Religion and Justice at Vanderbilt University Divinity School.
One year ago, “there was a little doubt about where I was headed,” Trammell said. “Not sure of when I’d go back to work. Not sure of when I should be driving.
“Well, I’m back to work, and I’m driving, and I’m raising a kid. And every day is not easy, but I’ve basically decided, like, whatever. If there’s a chance to recover, I’m going to take it. I’m just going to take every opportunity.”
Trammell is sharing his rehabilitation journey to raise awareness about traumatic brain injuries and give hope to those with similar struggles. He gives a lot of the credit for his recovery to C.J. Plummer, MD, assistant professor of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, who met him at Stallworth and has overseen his rehabilitation along with a multidisciplinary rehab team.
“The one-year mark is really a very important date for brain injury patients. And he’s made a remarkable recovery.”
“This is actually a very big deal because what we know about these kinds of injuries is, most of that recovery happens at its fastest rate in the first six months, but most patients continue through up to that one-year mark,” Plummer said. “The one-year mark is really a very important date for brain injury patients. And he’s made a remarkable recovery.”
The next thing Trammell remembers after the wreck is waking up at VUAH. But even that’s a little foggy. It took weeks before he could really comprehend what was happening.
“It was a complete shock, really,” he said. “There was pain, but beyond the pain…you have a recollection of life being one way, but now it’s another.”
When Plummer first met Trammell, he said his patient had deficits in all three major rehabilitation areas — physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy. He had a complex web of injuries, both physical and mental. Perhaps most challenging was his severe traumatic brain injury.
“He was very impaired,” Plummer said. “He was unable to remember me, even though I was seeing him every day, rounding. He couldn’t remember our therapy staff initially as well. He couldn’t remember questions that he had asked me that I had answered, which actually ended up being a source of frustration for him because he kept thinking he wasn’t getting the answers that he needed.”
His recovery would have been daunting enough in normal times, but VUMC’s strict COVID-19 precautions at the time meant visitors, who can aid in recover, were not allowed. And seeing everyone walking around with a mask was a confusing scene for someone struggling to remember.
Walking was a challenge for Trammell. His injured facial nerves caused his face to droop, his vestibular system was awry, affecting balance, and he had difficulty swallowing food, necessitating a feeding tube. He had hearing loss. On top of that was post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and depression.
“We dealt with a lot of behavioral challenges, too, which is expected with the type of injury that he had,” Plummer said. “Some agitation, restlessness, things like that.”
Trammell would spend just under a month at Stallworth, relearning basic tasks like how to swallow, shower, groom his hair and brush his teeth.
His recovery would have been daunting enough in normal times, but VUMC’s strict COVID-19 precautions at the time meant visitors, who can aid in recover, were not allowed. And seeing everyone walking around with a mask was a confusing scene for someone struggling to remember.
But Trammell powered through his rehab, wanting to be there for his wife, Heidi Wiitanen and new son, Eero Ove.
“I had a 5-month-old kid at the time of injury, first child, so I was insistent to go home with my family,” he said. “It was just part of my drive.”
Eventually, Trammell’s father was able to stay with him, and he was able to get out and enjoy the peaceful interior courtyard at Stallworth. “I spent some time there just kind of trying to frame the fact that I was alive and kind of come back to some sort of conscious balance of where I’m at and what my existence is,” Trammell said.
He sees his rehabilitation as a journey, a trajectory, learning to rewire and rebuild the brain. It’s never fully over. But he continues to improve.
After he was released from Stallworth, Trammell continued outpatient rehabilitation at Phi Beta Phi Rehabilitation Institute. He spent time in the rural Upper Peninsula of his native Michigan, walking in the water of the Great Lakes.
He sees his rehabilitation as a journey, a trajectory, learning to rewire and rebuild the brain. It’s never fully over. But he continues to improve.
“It’s kind of like levels,” he said. “Stallworth gets you to a certain place, physical therapy gets you to a certain place.
“Vanderbilt got me to the place where I could basically take that next step,” he said. “I’m very grateful for the care that I got. I feel blessed that I had the access to be able to be treated there.”
Trammell is now at the place where he wants to tell his story to help others with brain injuries, which he is doing on his website, theheadfix.com. Trammell recently completed a 10-minute documentary film about his recovery, which is now posted on his website.
“He wants to be a source of hope for other people who have had traumatic brain injuries and I think that’s just been a big motivation for him, and I love that,” Plummer said. “I think that his desire to help others through this process has actually really helped him quite a bit, as well in his recovery, because it’s really given him a lot of things to look forward to in terms of recovery.”
“Some people take the traumatic injuries that occur, and they basically use them to grow. And so that’s what I’ve chosen,” Trammell said. “I’m choosing the path of post-traumatic growth.”
