May 9, 2024 | by Josh Williams
My story starts, like many stories of those dealing with traumatic brain injury, with the tragedy of
a serious accident that rocked the foundations of a family. A near fatal car accident gave my
mother brain damage that devastated her mobility, robbed her of her speech, singing voice,
education, and any memory of or affection for my father. After less than one year of marriage,
my mother woke up in the hospital and asked incredulously, “who is this man, and why is he
trying to touch me?
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March 13, 2024 | by Tyler Eastridge
On June 24th, 2022, my life took a drastic turn. While headed to pick up our two daughters from daycare, my wife, Taylor, hydroplaned and collided with a concrete light pole, striking it directly on the driver’s side. Arriving at the hospital, I was led into an ER waiting room. Surrounded by a few friends, I was told that it was not going to be a good night. It was then that I knew my life’s trajectory had taken a profound shift.
Thanks to the remarkable efforts of the first responders, including the firefighters and paramedics from the Newberry Fire Station, as well as the quick response of two friends/deputies in Alachua County, Taylor was extracted and transported fast enough to hand over to the medical team at Shands. She had sustained multiple internal injuries that needed to be addressed immediately. Her spleen had shattered resulting in significant internal bleeding. She also had several broken ribs, a punctured lung, and a severe traumatic brain injury.
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Taylor Eastridge was born and raised in Alachua county. She met her husband, Tyler, while in college and the two tied the knot a year after graduating. In June of 2022, Taylor was in a horrific car accident leaving her in a coma for a little over a week. Taylor was in a fight for her life. Through God’s grace, Taylor began to emerge and has since made a remarkable recovery. It is a testament to God’s miraculous healing and the power of prayer; to go from being unable to do basic functions such as talking, eating, and walking to now teaching a full course load of economics at Santa Fe College in Gainesville.
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Staci Sims serves as the Chief Operating Officer for Florida Farm Bureau Federation, the state’s largest general agricultural member association. She joined the Florida Farm Bureau family in 2009, and has had the opportunity to serve in multiple roles, including General Counsel and Director of Government and Community Affairs.
Prior to joining Florida Farm Bureau, she served as a prosecutor for the Florida Department of Health, appearing before the Board of Medicine and Board of Nursing Home Administrators on disciplinary matters involving licensees.
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Caitlin Tietjen is the mother of two, wife of a firefighter/paramedic, as well as a registered nurse and paramedic herself. She is from the High Springs area and currently lives on her family’s small beef cattle ranch. She enjoys riding and training horses, fishing, and mini vacations with family. She has been a nurse for over 10 years with experience in ER, pediatric intensive care, neonatal intensive care, and trauma intensive care. Caitlin is the ICU nurse who admitted Taylor the day of her accident and has a passion for caring for her community.
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