A child’s life was forever changed nine years ago. At age 7, T.J. Floyd’s life changed in an instant.

The Floyd family remembers back in April 2010 when T.J. flipped over the handlebars of his bike and landed very hard on the pavement. He wasn’t wearing a helmet.

T.J.’s siblings ran to get their parents. They found him unresponsive and called 911. He was rushed to Norton Children’s Hospital.

“The doctor came in and said he had bleeding on his brain and that he needed emergency brain surgery,” Heather Floyd said. “When the chaplain came in, I knew it was bad.”

T.J. was rushed into surgery to remove bleeding on his skull and repair his fracture skull. T.J. did survive the surgery.

He spent 63 days in the hospital and underwent three brain surgeries.

9 years and 9 surgeries later, the hospital stays and therapy visits are well into the thousands.

It was a dark time for the family, especially for T.J.’s mother, Heather. She got the inspiration to start an online support group for families affected by traumatic brain injuries.

Today she runs two Facebook groups with more than 40,000 members across the world.

“This is a global epidemic; this isn’t just a few people,” Heather said. “Brain injuries are tough because you can’t fix it; it’s not a broken bone.”

Heather also began to work with state legislators to pass a bill that would raise awareness about the need for children to wear helmets. She took on speaking engagements and learning events.

“If his story can help another family from going through that, that’s why we are here,” Heather said.

She established T.J.’s Warriors, a group with a mission to protect children from brain injury one helmet at a time. The group teamed up with the Children's Hospital Foundation to help more kids wear helmets.

She found a brand known as Nutcase because she thinks the helmets could fight the uncool stigma associated with helmets.

“If a kid likes a helmet, they’ll want to wear it,” Heather said. “Their friends are going to ask where they got it.”

The legislation is not yet passed, but Heather finds strength in how strong T.J. is.

“Live by someone else’s example,” she said. “Not through your own tragedy.”