Elijah Sowerby is a martial arts instructor at the martial arts studio Self Defense for U in Bedford. Yet, he is currently undergoing intensive therapy to recover from a flare-up of a severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) he suffered while in the military in 2014.
An unlikely source triggered the flare-up. Sowerby was playing with his two-year-old son David last month when the two accidentally headbutted.
In most cases, this might cause a small bruise, but in Elijah’s case, it rendered him barely able to walk.
Just a few minutes of exposure to light and everyday activities at home left him feeling dizzy and exhausted. He was forced to spend most of his time in a dark room, missing precious time with his two toddlers.
Luckily, his wife Stephanie was referred to a neurologist in Coppell, TX, who offers advanced treatments focused on veterans with TBIs similar to Elijah’s.
Last week Elijah started intensive therapy, 2-4 hours daily, five days a week, and he is gradually beginning to regain his functionality.
The neurologist is optimistic Elijah will return to his state before the accidental headbutt with his toddler and be able to continue as a martial arts instructor.
Already, he has made significant progress. In an interview with The Dallas Express, Elijah said he would not have been able to answer any questions about his recovery just a week earlier.
Elijah’s first head injury occurred during a pickup game of rugby while he was in the military in 2014. There were no safety precautions in place, and when a fellow rugby player charged into him full force delivering a massive blow to his left temple, Elijah said his “bell was rung pretty hard,” yet he “played it off.”
“I took the hit and then got back up on my feet and tried to keep playing,” Elijah said. “I was under the impression I kept playing okay for the rest of the game, but I didn’t ever bring it to him (his rugby coach), just that’s that wasn’t really that wasn’t rugby culture.”
Elijah’s head never got evaluated, despite him suffering several neurological symptoms and bringing it to the attention of military doctors.
“I was puking three times; I had severe headaches, I couldn’t sleep. I was getting shaky and weak,” he said. “I could barely climb stairs; I’d lost 40 pounds. I couldn’t stay in any runs, and so I went to the medics and the military doctor, and I was telling them I think that might be something wrong neurologically, and they booked me for a scan that was, like, eight months out.”
The military doctors allowed Elijah to return to his job in the military with a lowered workload while he waited for his appointment. However, three months later, when he saw some military co-workers struggling to move heavy equipment, Elijah could not help but assist.
“I grabbed my sergeant, and we went and moved about 350-pound sleds, and I helped him move those up the stairs,” he said. “I got to the top of my stairs, and I completely collapsed; I lost my entire right hemisphere … my right arm, my right leg. Even my speech patterns, I could barely use the right side of my face, kind of that whole motion just kind of lost.”
Elijah was taken to the ER, where a brain scan was done for the first time. It revealed a slow bleed in his brain that had stopped by that time.
Despite his injury, Elijah said the only change the military instituted was to move him to full-time desk duty, but he continued to suffer even with that.
“I still would wake up every morning, hobbling on one side of my body, going down two flights of stairs to work on a computer, and it just kept getting worse and worse,” until one morning that he could barely move his body.
“My entire body shut down, and I just lost everything,” said Elijah. “My left side came back pretty quickly, within the next couple of weeks … but my right side didn’t come back for a long time. My right arm couldn’t move for about eight months, and my right leg I couldn’t move for about a year. And it still wasn’t load bearing.”
At that point, Elijah said he finally began to receive some treatment for his head injury.
“It was pretty basic occupational therapy, trying to get a basic range of motion back in my body,” he said. “Once it was near the end of that eight months, I started getting that arm back and getting it to where I could do some basic movement movements. And then they started working me towards like physical therapy stuff, but I really wasn’t in that state to even do much physical therapy. It was mostly just medicating an occupational therapy.”
Elijah would remain in a wheelchair until 2018 when a doctor gave him a one-time electric shock treatment that jump-started his “hardware.” It worked and let him slowly rebuild his muscle and functionality.
Elijah got well enough that he could finally start teaching martial arts again a year ago until his head injury sadly flared up again last month.
Stephanie said their family is severely affected while Elijah recovers from his injury, not just financially, as he cannot work, but also emotionally.
“The kids can’t really see their dad all that often and be involved with him,” she told The Dallas Express. “And as a wife seeing the strongest man that I’ve ever known struggle the way that he does because we have an incredible marriage, and so that as a wife has been the hardest to watch.”
His family has set up a GoFundMe to help cover the expenses.
