My Story

Editor’s Note: “My Story” is a first-person column OR a Q&A feature of a New Albany community member that centers on health. Have a story to share? Email bklein@cityscenemediagroup.com. Submissions should be no more than 1,000 words.

Miracle on Dublin-Granville Road

OSU professor defies odds in recovery after traffic incident

Michael Lohre has been a lecturer at The Ohio State University, Marion campus for more than 25 years. In 2018, Lohre suffered a traumatic brain injury in a traffic incident. He shares his story and the challenges of recovery with Healthy New Albany magazine. This Q&A was edited for clarity and space.

Healthy New Albany: How was life before the accident?

Michael Lohre: I’ve taught at Ohio State for 25 years, English literature, poetry and creative writing composition. When I moved to New Albany, I moved out here to a farm south of Johnstown on Beech Road.

I grew up on a cash crop and livestock farm, a very small farm, in southwest Minnesota. That’s the way I grew up. (My wife and I) moved to New Albany because we were called to get out of the city. We came out here to start small, farming, to return to my roots. My wife grew up in the Philippines on a mountain. Very country, very rural. She’s very acquainted with an agrarian lifestyle and we decided to rent this farm and its 16 acres. We were interested in that before I got hurt and we were called to raise heritage lard hogs.

HNA: Tell us about the accident.

ML: I had voted that day. I had my voting sticker on my jacket. I had to get home and do chores and I’m on DublinGranville Road going to Beech Road – it’s only about a mile.

Michael and Irene Lohre

I rode my dirt bike and I had my helmet on, of course, and my jacket, but I’m in my farm boots. Thank God I had all that stuff on. I was just heading that regular mile to do chores and I was at highway speed and a young man ran the stop sign.

It was one of those things that happened so fast because I had no time to react. I just can’t believe that he was going to run the stop sign. I remember the car was gold. I don’t even really remember anything else, but I knew I was going to be hit. I said one word. I said, “Lord.” I pretty much knew that my life was in his hands.

HNA: What happened after the accident?

ML: (After being released from the hospital), I went down to the police sta-

tion. I asked if I could meet the (officers) who picked me up off the road because you don’t know what happened to you when you weren’t conscious.

One of (the officers) told me, “Well, your helmet was way out in the field. Your strap broke,” and he said, “Your helmet came off somehow.”

I hit the asphalt. I must have flown. I don’t know what happened, but I think I came down face-first on the tar and with my helmet on, thank God, because I’d be dead. … I eventually hit the back of my skull on Dublin-Granville Road and I had fractures in 10 other places as well traumatic brain injury. … I had three brain bleeds in my head.

The officer told me he was angry because the young man who hit me hadn’t checked my pulse. He thought I was dead because there was, I guess, so much blood and I was just lying there on the street. The police officer came and checked my pulse and said, “This guy is alive,” and they got the ambulance for me and (the police officer) actually rode with me in the back to Mount Carmel East.

I still haven’t met (the guy who ran the stop sign). He hasn’t come and talked to me or anything and I don’t have hard feelings against him. I assume he didn’t do it on purpose. Obviously, I wish it didn’t happen, but it doesn’t do any good to harbor hatred. Can’t change it.

I probably shouldn’t have woken up, but 45 minutes or so later, they get me to Mount Carmel East. … I remember waking up and I remember the doctor, the neurosurgeon perhaps, being quite astounded that I had woken up and (that) I was talking to him.

I told them, “I don’t know what happened to me,” and the surgeon said I had a terrible accident, that I was very seriously injured. “They have to drill holes in your head because your brain is bleeding.”

This is going to sound strange, but this is what happened. I said to the doctor, “I don’t know exactly what’s happening, but I know one thing.” I said, “Do you feel the presence of the lord God almighty in this room?”

And the doctor says, “No.” I said, “I understand perfectly. I know you are trying to save my life. I respect you guys. I assume God put you here for a purpose. You’re trying to do your job but I don’t think you have to do brain surgery on me – I believe I’m going to be healed.”

Long story short, I had all my cognition. I had my reasoning skills. I didn’t give them consent for the surgery and I told them, “It’s OK. If I die, it’s alright, it’s not your fault.”

Someone came in at 4 a.m. and said my worst brain bleeding was gone and the other two apparently stopped enough that they weren’t worried about the surgery anymore.

I’ve heard everything from the doctors. I’ve heard doctors say I’m a genetic freak. That’s the only thing that explains it, or they don’t know enough about the brain yet. There must be some mechanism that kicked in.

No – I believe I got a miracle.

HNA: How are you adjusting to your life now?

ML: I had my insurance and, somehow, I didn’t lose everything that I own. I lost almost everything, but I didn’t go bankrupt.

I’ve met many (traumatic brain injury patients). They lost everything: they lost their job, they lost their house, sometimes they lost their marriage because you change (after a brain injury).

I look the same, (but I’ll) never (be) the same again.

I went back to Ohio State and I did OK. I made it through the semester, but I ended up in the hospital again and I really faded badly at the end of the semester. … It was a bit weird being back in the classroom, but the students were really great. They were really understanding, and I really had a passion for (the subject matter). I have always loved literature, poetry, fiction and writing.

But I didn’t have the stamina.

I ended up having to give the students a 10-minute break sometimes and I’d go lay in an empty room and put my headphones on all the way down and just check out for 10 minutes and give my brain a rest because my head was starting to hurt so bad.

I love Ohio State and I’m thankful for all the years I’ve had teaching there. I’m sad if I can’t go back, … I’ll keep farming. No matter what, we’re going to keep raising this healthy food.

Brandon Klein is the senior editor. Feedback welcome at bklein@ cityscenemediagroup.com.