Woman puts life back together after brain injury

When Jenna Poulos arrives for work each morning as a receptionist in a neurosurgeon's office in West Islip, she's reminded that Dr. Donald Krieff isn't just her supervisor. He's the surgeon who saved her life six years ago after a horrific highway accident.

Poulos, 26, of Massapequa suffered severe brain injuries in a November 2004 car accident on the Seaford-Oyster Bay Expressway, after she had pulled over to help a pair of stranded drivers. Her doctors weren't sure she'd survive, much less walk or talk again.

Today, Poulos greets patients and answers the phones at Krieff's practice. She laughs easily with family and friends and shows almost no outward signs of her injuries.

She still struggles with headaches and memory loss, and she's had to adjust to a life that's different in many ways. But she nonetheless has exceeded everyone's expectations. "I don't have as much energy," she says. "But at the same time, I feel like I did before. I'm still the same personality."

Poulos and her parents - Bruce Poulos, 61, a retired statistician for the United Nations, and Terry Poulos, 58, a receptionist at South Oaks Hospital in Amityville - credit God and Krieff for their daughter's progress.

"She is special," Krieff said of Jenna. "She appreciates the fact that she's here, more than most people do."

Thrown from her car

Six years ago, Poulos was driving south on the Seaford-Oyster Bay Expressway when she spotted two cars in a fender-bender. She stopped to help, just as another driver crashed into one of the disabled cars. That car slammed into Poulos' Volkswagen and threw her from the car.

Poulos was taken to Nassau University Medical Center in East Meadow, where Krieff was chief of neurosurgery. Doctors found bleeding inside her brain's temporal lobe, the section that controls speech and vision.

Krieff removed a blood clot on the outside of her brain. Poulos then was placed into a drug-induced coma as doctors temporarily removed half of her skull, allowing the brain to swell as it healed from the bleeding, Krieff said.

"We almost lost her more than once," Terry Poulos said.

Jenna Poulos left the hospital in six weeks and began rehabilitation. It was the beginning of a long road back. Friends and family recall her transposing words, forgetting events, and losing focus in mid-conversation. She started having seizures, each one making her memory worse.

Couldn't return to work

Gradually, Poulos learned to walk and talk again. But she couldn't resume her work as a receptionist at a Syosset hair salon - which held a fundraiser for her after the accident. She had to drop some of her classes at Nassau Community College, and she lost many of her old friends.

"You were kind of talking to a totally different person," said Jamie Lanza, 27, of Levittown, who remains Poulos' best friend. "She just wasn't normal Jenna, the Jenna I knew and had all those memories with."

But she has moved forward. Medication has helped stop her seizures, and she regained her driver's license. She finished an associate degree in liberal arts at NCC and started to take up old hobbies, including photography.

She also got a big assist from Krieff, who continued to monitor her progress. Early last year, when he heard she didn't have a job, he told her to apply for a job as his office receptionist.

And he said she's been a good addition: "She's bubbly, she's funny. She livens the office."

Poulos isn't precisely sure what she will do next. But she does plan to meet with a career counselor to decide her next steps.

"I don't care if she's a photographer, a receptionist, or whatever. I just want her to be happy," Bruce Poulos said. "She's a tough fighter, my daughter. She fought through it all."

Traumatic brain injury

Causes:The head suddenly hits an object, or something pierces the skull and enters brain tissue.

Symptoms:They vary depending on the severity of the injury. A mild brain injury can cause a brief loss of consciousness or headaches, dizziness, blurred vision or other temporary symptoms. More severe injuries can cause lasting headaches, seizures, loss of coordination or slurred speech.

Treatment:Doctors can do little to reverse the initial brain damage caused by head trauma. Instead, treatment is generally focused on limiting the damage by stabilizing the flow of blood and oxygen to the brain. Subsequent therapy can help the injured person recover and cope with his or her injuries.

Source: National Institutes of Health