This Website was originally to chronicle Taylor’s day to day progress regarding her recovery from a 2014 cardiac arrest, and subsequent Anoxic Brain Injury, which occurred after a midday exercise run. Since then, Taylor has become nearly fully recovered, despite enormous odds against her. The website now is tells her story to help others going through a similar situation. To see her story unfold in detail, read through her updates.
Summary
Taylor’s journey has taken her to different facilities as she progressed through each stage in her recovery. After her injury she was treated at Massachusetts General Hospital for five weeks where she was unconscious the majority of the time. The initial prognosis was Persistent Vegetative State (PVS) for the rest of her life. In spite of this Taylor rallied and became conscious for increasing periods starting around week four but had major difficulty controlling her body. Initially she could only stick out her tongue to communicate. She then went to Craig Hospital to start her rehabilitation, where she worked for three months getting to the point where she could almost walk. While there she had an Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator put into her chest to prevent any future incidents. From there she went back to Los Angeles to live at home and did outpatient therapy at Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center where she got great care. She received skilled nursing care a few times a week at Center for Neuro Skills and attended Santa Monica College in their Acquired Brain Injury Program.
Taylor then returned to MIT in Fall 2015 and Spring 2016 where she took a reduced class load. She then took a year off to work some more on her physical skills and returned in Fall 2017. She took her time finishing her degree, graduating in Spring 2021. Since then she got her first job as an iOS app programmer for an agriculture technology company.
Her story, told in this website, is a success story which others experiencing similar circumstances should take as a sign of hope. Taylor is proof that a distressing initial prognoses, and long odds, can be overcome.