MURFREESBORO — An
MTSU alumna continues her quest to turn tragedy into triumph by raising awareness
of traumatic brain injuries.
Recording industry major Micah Jones had just begun an
internship with a company on Nashville’s Music Row MTSU when a car struck her
July 9, 2004. The impact of the collision propelled her into the air, and her
head landed on a metal grate.
She spent six weeks in a coma in hospitals in both Nashville
and her native Ohio. She was still in the hospital when her parents accepted
her diploma for her at commencement.
After a tough rehabilitation, Jones convinced the Ohio state
legislature to designate July 9 as “Brain Injury Awareness Day” in 2012. Ohio
Gov. John Kasich signed the bill into law.
Jones also founded a nonprofit organization called
BrainSong. Its mission is to “provide hope and serve as an advocate for women whose
lives have been affected by a traumatic brain injury so they may develop a
sense of dignity, a feeling of self-worth and the skills necessary to socially
integrate with and contribute to the communities in which they live,” according
to the foundation’s website, www.brainsong.org.
BrainSong will hold its second consecutive “Rock the Walk”
fundraiser in Zanesville, Ohio, on Saturday, July 13.
According to the site, BrainSong provides hospitals and
trauma centers with care packages for victims’ families, connects victims with
support systems and holds confidence-building conferences for victims. Two
physicians from Ohio State University Medical Center are on BrainSong’s board
of directors.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say 1.7 million
traumatic brain injuries occur each year in the United States. They are
contributing factors to a third of all injury-related deaths in the country.
To learn more about BrainSong, The Micah Jones Foundation,
go to www.brainsong.org. You also can
watch a video created by Jones and her family about her journey at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DaWtcB9rUE.
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