Barreda was rushed to Harris Health Ben Taub Hospital where he was admitted into the intensive care unit (ICU).
After being hit, Barreda incurred a fractured skull and ear bones in his left ear from his head hitting the car windshield. After the initial hit, he landed on his right side, resulting in a full head injury. He had to undergo a bifrontal craniotomy, a brain surgery that requires a portion of the skull to be removed.
He was also given a trachea to help with breathing and a percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) tube to assist with feeding.
“And then there’s all these other consequences of brain injury—internal brain bleeding, which leads to scar tissue and dead neurons,” Barreda explains. “It’s definitely a process to deal with. Currently, it takes longer to think things through. Things just take longer to process now.”
As he began to improve, he was moved out of the ICU and spent nearly a month recovering at an inpatient rehabilitation center.
Barreda says though he can barely recall his stay at Ben Taub Hospital, he was told the staff was truly caring and he owes his remarkable recovery to them. He also credits Michael Segal, senior patient liaison, Patient/Customer Relations, Ben Taub Hospital, for assisting him and his family with the healing process.
Today, Barreda is back in school and slowly getting back to the things he loved before the accident, such as music and food.
“You just got to keep going!” he expresses. “Everything in me said keep going because I’ve never been a quitter. We are survivors. We made it this far with our extenuating circumstances, that means anyone can do anything. Never give up. And to the staff at Ben Taub Hospital, you guys saved my life. It’s because of you all, my family, friends and my God that I’m here.”