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JUNE 19, 2012 Vol. 117, Issue 119
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The long and winding road to recovery Trail man facing five charges BRAIN INJURY AWARENESS MONTH
BY TIMOTHY SCHAFER Times Staff
Dennis Eastman’s life ended when he was 23 years old. The Nelson native was an amicable young man. He was mild tempered, athletic and he loved life. But like many young men he was searching for his place in that life and he got mixed up with the wrong crowd, a crowd that led him even further astray after his mom, Sherry, died of bone cancer. At the time he was working at a sawmill in Revelstoke. Coming home one night on a day off in Nelson he had too much to drink, missed a curve in the road in his car, took out 60 feet of guardrail and crashed his vehicle at the foot of High Street. Dennis Eastman did not die that night, but the life he knew did. When he woke up from a coma 60 days later with a brain injury and numerous broken bones, he spent the next year relearning how to walk, talk and develop basic motor skills, and the well-adjusted young man was gone.
“There are so many hoops for people with a brain injury to jump through just to get help and the government doesn’t make it any easier for them.� JENNIE KELLY
It was replaced by a man who could not hold his rage, a job, or to communicate with others and he ended up on the street and dealing with addictions. For that fact, Dennis Eastman wished he had died at the scene 23 years ago.
BY TIMES STAFF
TIMOTHY SCHAFER PHOTO
Dennis Eastman reflects on his ordeals following a brain injury 23 years ago. “I wish I would have never woken up. If I wouldn’t have woken up, I wouldn’t be dealing with this right now. I would have died,� he said, 23 years later. That night began 16 years of what could only be described as a search for a geographical cure, as Eastman spent the years trying to solve the dilemma of his new life with a brain injury, battling depression and suicidal depression to boot, moving over 90 times. His life mirrored the sometimes insurmountable hurdles thrown at those with a brain injury: being in and out of the psychiatric ward or jail; misunderstood and dismissed by social service agencies because he was too difficult to deal with; facing government red tape and unhelpful bureaucrats—and all because of his brain injury. But that is the nature of life with a brain injury, said West Kootenay Brain Injury Association outreach worker
Jennie Kelly during June’s Brain Injury Awareness Month. The government system is onerous to deal with, so arduous many people become discouraged and fall by the wayside. “It’s hard enough for people without a brain injury to deal with the government, but it’s even harder for a person with a brain injury,� she said. “There are so many hoops for people with a brain injury to jump through just to get help, and the government doesn’t make it any easier for them.� For years the pattern was the same as Eastman would find a place, get situated, sometimes find work, but then something would happen. Invariably Eastman would get angry, he would embarrass himself, and then would have to pack up and move and try somewhere else. He tried to work several times after the accident and found he could not hold down a job. He would get frustrated
4OMMOROW IS THE ½RST DAY OF SUMMER • Free parking
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and had trouble focusing and concentrating on what was at hand. If he didn’t quit he was fired. So welfare became his bread and butter, as did homelessness, addictions to drugs like heroin and alcohol, and attempts at suicide became frequent, with depression eventually coming home to roost. “If you suffer from mental illness, you have depression thrown in,� he said. Eastman fell through the cracks of the system. For 16 years he battled with ICBC to get some kind of compensation for his brain injury. There was a clause in the Insurance Act that stated if anyone sustained a brain injury in a car accident, drinking and driving or not, they were entitled to some money for rehabilitation. Although Eastman could walk and talk, drive a vehicle, he could not hold down a
A Trail man who allegedly robbed the Uptown Liquor Store in Castlegar had one night to enjoy a couple of drinks from his plunder. On Friday evening 34-year-old Trevor Isenor allegedly stole a bottle from the liquor store, but Castlegar police did not identify him at the time and therefore did not make an arrest. Saturday, Castlegar RCMP received a tip that the suspect who had stolen the liquor the day before was at Shopper’s Drug Mart in Castlegar. A security officer who recognized Isenor from the surveillance tape in Shopper’s Drug Mart reported the sighting to police around 11 a.m., according to Sgt. Laurel Mathew of the Castlegar RCMP. When confronted by police, Isenor resisted arrest and ripped the officer’s radio from his shoulder during a brief struggle with police. “The male was able to rip the officer’s radio off of his shoulder, taking away the officer’s ability to request backup,� said Sgt. Mathew in a press release. However, several bystanders made calls to the RCMP to notify them of the altercation. A police search of the suspect revealed that he was in possession of a bottle of cologne that had been stolen from Shopper’s Drug Mart prior to the arrest.
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Motorcycle Show and Shine supports charities BY BREANNE MASSEY Times Staff
Revamping your bike is only one aspect of the first Waneta (Trail) Rotary Motorcycle Show and Shine. The event is being geared to flesh out two local charities—Rotaplast and the Greater Trail Hospice Society—with a ride, bike show and breakfast. There will be awards for each bike class, the best metric cruiser, Harley, vintage and more. The charity ride takes place on Saturday at the Waneta Plaza between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. “This is the first time we’ve ever had the event here,� said Robert Hawton, an event organizer from the local Rotary club. “We’re certainly hoping for a good turn out
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Contact the Times: Phone: 250-368-8551 Fax: 250-368-8550 Newsroom: 250-364-1242