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experienced such a traumatic injury at such an early age, like she did in 1972. “I googled the chances and Addi’s story came up at the very bottom of the page, about 12 stories down,” Watt said of InMaricopa’s February piece, “Miracle child,” the first part in this series. She also stumbled across the Addi’s Miracle Facebook page, and from there, Watt and Sandell met virtually. The two for months have found solidarity talking about their common experiences and Sandell’s aspirations to set up a nonprofit. Building a nonprofit To call the meeting well-timed would have been an understatement, Sandell said. Not only did Watt’s situation mirror Addi’s, but she also has an advanced degree in nonprofit administration. Watt years ago started her own nonprofit, Three In One, a mental, spiritual and physical health education outfit. Sandell’s new venture has much to learn from TIO. “You have to have a clear, defined mission,” Watt said of a successful nonprofit. “That’s where it all starts.” For Sandell, there’s a lot of work ahead to start a nonprofit and to get the word out about the dangers of distracted driving, she said. With the injuries she has seen firsthand, Sandell said she feels it’s a mission worth undertaking. “This affects way too many people,” Sandell said. “Addi will have her challenges for the rest of her life but think about the woman who hit her. She has to live with that for the rest of her life.” Sandell said the only way forward is education. “I feel like we really need to be drilling it in on our kids because there’s just a whole generation of people not driving safely,” Sandell said. “And it’s adults too. They don’t understand the dangers. It’s easy for people to not comprehend what’s at stake if they’ve never had a family member suffer a life-changing injury.” Sandell said she’s in the process of figuring out her next legal steps in setting up her nonprofit. For now, she launched a website, SurvivorsAgainstDistractedDriving.com, where visitors can leave their email address to receive future alerts about the nonprofit’s goings-on. “Hopefully, we’ll be able to show them what that looks like,” Sandell said, “and how people are being affected for the rest of their lives because of distracted driving.”
happened during that ATV collision, along with a steady diet of many different antidepressants, a therapist eventually realized Watt’s problem was not emotional but something physically wrong with her brain. Watt finally got the help she needed from Pittsburgh-based concussion specialist Dr. Charles Simkovich, who diagnosed the issue in short order: He surmised, while the doctors were able to put Watt back together at the age of 4, they didn’t consider the growth of her skull and perform the adjustments needed to treat the many fissures that lined her cranium as she grew older. As a result, the left and right sides of her brain stopped communicating with each other. Simkovich performed several pressure treatments to adjust Watt’s cranial joints, which provided relief, emotional and otherwise, that Watt said she never expected. “It unlocked memories I didn’t even know I had,” Watt said. “My dreams were so vivid. My vision has even improved.” Watt said she became aware of Addi’s story — and the Maricopa community — when she researched the survival odds for someone who
“Where I’m making enough money and have benefits to take care of my loved ones.” And now, because of distracted driving, he has to wonder whether the dream he has worked for will disintegrate into dust. “I might not be able to do my job.” Johnson said. “It’s hard. It hurts. It’s still too early to tell whether this is pain I’m going to have to live with for the rest of my life. I may have to retire early from this job with this company that I love.” A glimpse of the future Like Addi, Sharon Watt, a recruiter who lives in Ohio, suffered a brain injury at age 4. That, more than a half-century later, would lead her to Maricopa. Watt, now 55, chased a ball in front of an oncoming car, operated by a distracted driver, as a toddler. The accident wrecked the entire left side of her body, partially collapsing the left side of her skull. She spent the next year recovering from the accident in a full-body cast. Such a devastating set of injuries meant Watt had to undergo many surgeries afterward. She said she thought she was through with them
It unlocked memories I didn’t even know I had. My dreams were so vivid. My vision has even improved.” SHARON WATT after a procedure in her late 30s. However, in April last year, she hit a tree while riding an ATV. On the outside, she was unharmed, but her brain — that was a different story. “A few months later, in August, I’d lost the ability to speak, just like a stroke patient,” Watt said. “I had a numbness from the middle of my legs down and I couldn’t stop crying.” After many attempts to diagnose what
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InMaricopa.com | November 2024
November 2024 | InMaricopa.com
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