My Story

Hi my name is Bob Gray and I am a TBI survivor. 

It has been 2.5 years since my accident. I am still recovering from my injury but I feel very fortunate to be where I am today. I am starting this blog as a way to help connect others recovering from and dealing with traumatic brain injuries.

My family lives in the suburbs of Dallas, Texas, and we really enjoy the community. My personal priorities involve spending time with my family, helping others recovering from traumatic brain injury, maintaining a healthy lifestyle and staying involved with my community.  

Me and my wife Lesli

Myself, my daughter Olivia, and my son Max

My favorite hobby, fishing!

Prior to moving to Texas, I spent 30 years with Arlington County Fire Department (ACFD) in Northern Virginia during which I served as a firefighter, paramedic, Captain, Field Battalion Chief, Department Training Chief, and Personnel Services Chief. 

ACFD 2005

During my career with ACFD, I served on several significant incidents including the Maryland LaPlata Tornado (Arlington/Alexandria TRT Task Force), Hurricane Katrina (NOVA Task Force), and the response to Pentagon on 9/11/2001. As a Technical Rescue/Collapse Group Leader at the Pentagon, I was involved fighting the fire, search and rescue efforts and the collapse work. Even though the Pentagon resides in Arlington County, we worked alongside other firefighters from Alexandria Fire Department and national FEMA Collapse Teams. 

During the Pentagon response, I also led the Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) efforts for ACFD personnel. Stress recovery challenges for department members after 9/11 resulted in the transitioning the CISM program into a highly specialized Traumatic Experience Recovery Program (TERP). This transition was the result of our work with New Millennium, which is a behavioral health team led by Dodie Gill. New Millennium now works with fire department and military service members.

While with ACFD I also worked with the organization Project Rebirth to continue developing ACFD's CISM/TERP program to ensure continued recovery from 9/11 and other traumatic and stressful incidents, as well as building personnel resilience.

I retired in January 2011 and 2 months later, I fell 16 feet off of a ladder while working on my house. As a result of my fall, I suffered a Traumatic Brain Injury. Because of this accident I spent about two months in Parkland Hospital in Dallas, Texas. Immediately after arriving at the hospital part of my skull was removed to relieve the pressure on my brain caused by an arterial bleed. I spent several months working to recover from memory loss, the paralyzation of the right side of my body and a significant loss of my ability to communicate. I had to relearn how to do almost everything including walking, talking and reading.  After my bone flap was replaced I had to deal with several infections which required significant antibiotic treatments and additional surgeries. 

2012 White Rock Marathon

I was very fortunate to be located near a premier rehabilitation center, Pate Rehabilitation Center, which is focused primarily on patients recovering from brain injuries. I spent two 6 month cycles as an outpatient at Pate. While still recovering I have regained most of my physical and communication abilities. 

In 2012, I was invited by Project Rebirth to a Ride2Recovery (R2R) Event in San Antonio, Texas. Although I was unable to participate in the ride, I spoke to the group about 9/11 and my efforts to recover from this injury. In 2012, I was asked to join Project Rebirth Team as the First Responder Outreach Coordinator. I gladly accepted this opportunity to become more involved in building public service and community pre and post disaster resilience. 

In September 2013, I participated in the R2R MinuteMan Ride on behalf of Project Rebirth. The ride began in Boston and ended in Philadelphia. It was an awesome event and I am fortunate to have met many amazing individuals as part of the ride.  

My primary goal in starting this blog is to connect people recovering from TBI as well as others who are recovering from serious challenges in life. I hope that you will find this blog useful and will consider contributing to it.

Ride2Recovery (R2R) 2013

My primary goal in starting this blog is to connect people recovering from TBI as well as others who are recovering from serious challenges in life. I hope that you will find this blog useful and will consider contributing to it.