Friends helping Jackson couple after husband's brain injury a year ago

June 1 will be a time Julie Daniels is looking forward to as a lot of her friends will gather at her church.

Jammin’ for Julie and Jim is set to be a fundraiser for Daniels and her husband, who is approaching the one-year anniversary of suffering severe brain trauma from which he is still recovering.

Juliet and the Romeos — the band with which Julie Daniels sang with for years before Jim’s accident — will be one of the groups performing along with Southern Sounds; Tyler Goodson; Paula Bridges McGill and The McGill Girls; Scott Myatt and Ernie Smothers; and Rocky.

The event will take place at the Family Life Center at Campbell Street Church of Christ from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. with catfish plates for lunch available for $10 apiece, a silent auction of homemade desserts and fun and games for all ages. There is no admission charge but donations will be accepted. Pre-ticket sales for catfish plates are available at Leaders Credit Union in Thomsen Farms and South Highland.

“To know people that I’ve been friends with and loved for so many years are stepping in to help me and my family out however they can … I just can’t explain how much that means,” Julie said while appearing to fight emotion. “But I’m looking forward to a fun afternoon.”

She admits she’s looking forward to the day of fun after a roller coaster of a year of recovery for Jim.

The accident

Julie was performing at Crown Winery on June 8, 2018, and left her phone to charge because it didn’t charge on the way to the gig from her home in Beech Bluff.

“I usually have my phone with me while we perform, but on this night, I didn’t,” Julie said.

She regretted not having it upon missing a number of calls after Jim, her husband since 2011, suffered a brain injury and came close to death in an accident.

“Jim is a gear-head that's into cars, motors and power, and a friend came by to show him a racing dirtbike he’d just bought,” Julie said. “Jim took it for a spin, and I don’t believe he had ridden a bike with that much power.

“He rode it down our country road, turned around and came back towards our house. Neighbors and two friends say they heard him giving it gas for a few seconds and then there was nothing.”

When they went to see what had happened, they saw the bike underneath a tree on the side of the road, but Jim had left the bike apparently before it hit. He was laying unconscious with the back of his head on large rocks by the road.

Julie said the tire marks in the grass on the left side of the road the next day showed he did not make the slight curve. The assumption is the bike was more powerful than he realized and he might’ve lost control before being thrown off the bike without a helmet.

First responders were on the scene quickly. They made a quick decision to get an Air-Evac helicopter to take Jim directly to Regional One’s Trauma Center in Memphis.

“The wreck happened between 6:40 and 7 that night, and he was in Memphis by 8:40, and they told me later the response time was significant in his survival,” Julie said, again fighting emotion. “I went straight to Memphis after talking to my son who was headed there.

“Our then 17-year-old son beat me there by 15 minutes, and I was on the phone with him as medical staff was telling him they needed him to sign release forms before they could perform surgery. As I was telling him to sign them, doctors said there was no time, they had to do emergency surgery now.”

Rehabilitation

Jim stayed in Memphis for over three months after making it through the initial surgeries that included removal of part of his skull to allow room for the brain to swell.

On Sept. 11, 2018, he was moved to Henderson Health & Rehabilitation in Chester County and was there until March 4. He then went to Shepherd Center for brain rehab in Atlanta, where he was for a few months before he returned to Henderson to continue rehab.

“It’s been a rough, long journey,” Julie said. “He was in a coma for three-and-a-half months, and he’s slowly regaining his ability to communicate and hopefully eventually walk, use his right hand and arm better and gain more cognitive functioning.”

Communication has been difficult, but he’s able to say some words. Those who spend the most time with him can understand him.

A highlight of the process came when Julie told him she loved him in mid-July 2018, and it sounded as if he responded by humming “I love you” in response. Another was a conversation she had when he wanted to call her at home a few months ago.

“I got the call, and one of his rehab nurses said he wanted to call me, and it was a night when I got off work late and was too tired to go see him,” Julie said. “They put him on and I hear, ‘Hey,’ like how he sounded before his accident.

“Then he asked what I was doing and how I was doing, which sounded like a normal conversation we would have. I was told these could be reflex responses, not requiring any complicated thought process."

Julie said he’s slowly regaining his personality as the workers in Henderson laugh with him, and he likes to sit up front in the facility and say hello to people.

“He’s always been a people person, and I think he still likes being in environments with people as long as he’s not overwhelmed,” Julie said.

Raising funds

Julie said the fundraiser will help as she’s waiting to get approval from Medicaid to pay for her husband's continued room and board. The estimated cost with rehab is $9,000 per month.

“When it first happened, I wasn’t sure I needed help when one of my friends set up a Go Fund Me page on Facebook. I was embarrassed, but realized it was needed because I found out about a lot of expenses I wasn’t aware of beforehand,” Julie said.

Julie said God, her family, friends at church and in the community, her work family at the Jackson Chamber and many others have been a great help to her.

“That support along with my faith are how I’m able to get through this,” Julie said. “I’ve got hope that Jim will continue to recover.

“We still don’t know how much he will recover, but we try to stay positive and trust that God will allow Jim’s brain to rewire itself. That’s what we’re praying for.”

Reach Brandon Shields at bjshields@jacksonsun.com or at 731-425-9751. Follow him on Twitter @JSEditorBrandon or on Instagram at editorbrandon.