“I was almost given up for dead,” Terry Stein begins his story as he relaxes in an easy chair in his living room. “Genesys saved my life.”

The Holly resident and retired police officer remembers slipping on his very steep and icy driveway last Christmas day, but not much more after that. “I walked down to grab the newspaper from our mailbox, fell backwards, and hit my head. I felt fine,” so Terry continued with the family’s festivities.

But his wife Barb new something was wrong. “Terry just wasn’t himself. After some time, he left the room and didn’t come back. We found him on the bathroom floor having a seizure.”

Within minutes of calling 911, paramedics arrived and took Terry to Genesys. “Terry and I had only been married about three years and I didn’t know where they would be taking him,” Barb admits. “They told me Genesys because it was the closest trauma center.

“They were ready for him when we arrived. I couldn’t tell you how many doctors and nurses surrounded Terry in the Emergency department. They were phenomenal, just phenomenal.”

Terry immediately was diagnosed with an acute subdural hematoma (an intracranial bleed). He was in danger of losing his life. The trauma surgery team rapidly assembled and Terry was rushed off to surgery in less than 17 minutes from the time he arrived at Genesys.

He learned later that the impact from his fall was similar to Natasha Richardson’s, the actress who lost her life several months ago from a fall on a ski slope. “My Glasgow score was 3, hers was 11,” Terry points out. (The Glasgow Coma Score is used in trauma centers to quantify the level of consciousness following a traumatic brain injury. A score of eight or less means a severe life threatening brain injury.)

Terry literally got a second chance at life, thanks to the speedy diagnosis and treatment he received at Genesys.

Jawad Shah, MD, trauma neurosurgeon on staff at Genesys, who conducted the surgery in an attempt to save Terry’s life, "was very honest with us; he told us he didn’t know if he could do anything to save Terry. There were no guarantees. I remember his words … he is such a kind man …” Barb says with emotion. “He told us, ‘we are family now.’ This was the nicest thing any doctor could ever say to me.”

The bleeding was filling Terry’s brain very rapidly. Dr Shah had to reduce the pressure around Terry’s brain if he had any chance of survival. He drilled a small hole in the skull, allowing the blood to drain and relieving the pressure.

Terry's condition remained very fragile for the next 11 days, as the family sat by his bedside hour after hour, day after day, waiting for some sign of hope.

“No one knew what the outcome would be,” Barb remembers. “Would he live, would he be able to walk and talk? The doctors didn’t know how severe the damage to his brain would be until the swelling went down.

“The hospital chapel meant so much to me,” Barb says softly. “I didn’t want to go home so I sat in the chapel for hours. I found peace and comfort there. Every day, I dipped a tissue in holy water, brought it up to Terry, and made a cross on his forehead.”

As Barb sat at her husband’s side, “I would talk to him and remind him of some of our favorite places. I remember asking him if he wanted to go back to the lazy river in Mexico. He squeezed my hand.”

After 11 touch and go days, the family’s prayers were answered. Terry couldn’t speak because of a tube in his throat, but he could write notes to his family. “His handwriting was a little shaky, but his questions were coherent,” Barb notes with a sigh of relief.

Every single day brought a little more hope to the family. Finally, he was ready to be moved to the Genesys Inpatient Rehabilitation Center where Terry’s memory and movements began returning.

Three weeks after he was rushed through the doors of the Genesys Emergency department – close to death – Terry was healthy and strong enough to return home.

“The people at Genesys were wonderful!” he announces. “I can’t say enough good things about Genesys. I’m looking at the grass now when many had given me up for dead.”

“The nurses, doctors and even the housekeeping staff went out of their way to make us feel comfortable,” reports Barb. “As bad as the situation was, Genesys made it as pleasant for our family as possible.”

"We’re going to Florida in January, and we’re planning a vacation to Mexico this fall,” Terry notes with enthusiasm. "And I’m anxious to get back on my motorcycle, but I don’t have enough confidence yet,” he admits.

Since his near death experience, Terry has changed doctors. “I want a doctor from Genesys. I have told so many people about how they gave me a second chance at life.”