On May 21, 2010, Christine de Mariz, PhD, wife, mother of two small boys, and rising star at an international development organization, suffered a severe brain injury while doing what had occupied her professional life for the last two years—helping to build a stronger Haitian economy. In a flash, one car collided with another, tumbling over and over on the wet road. Now de Mariz, comatose and suffering severe head trauma, faced some very tough rebuilding of her own. Within days of the accident, de Mariz was flown to a hospital, where her husband Pierre-Henri Leon waited anxiously to learn more about her condition. “Eventually they told me the prognosis was grim,” Leon says. “But they didn’t know Christine.”
By the end of June, her medical condition had stabilized and she was ready to leave the hospital and start rehabilitation at the National Rehabilitation Hospital (NRH). “That’s where her recovery really jettisoned,” said her very grateful husband. “Christine had suffered a traumatic brain injury as a result of a significant impact that caused prolonged unconsciousness,” explained Kritis Dasgupta, MD, de Mariz’s physician at the NRH Brain Injury Program. “I felt she had a good chance for recovery.”
Months later, de Mariz said, “I was there to work hard. I knew that I had to put in the eight hours a day to get better. I still do. But I’m very motivated. I need to be there for my boys, to see them grow up. That’s my incentive.”
By early September, she was ready to go home. But her recovery isn’t nearly over. Less than a week after she was released from the hospital, de Mariz returned to therapy at the NRH Transitions Day Treatment Program headed by Dasgupta. “My first goal is to take a walk in my neighborhood. Then I want to be back at work by spring.”