PARIS, Ky. — After a car accident nearly took her son’s life at twenty-three years old, one mother in Paris has created a nonprofit to help people with loved ones who’ve experienced traumatic brain injuries. 

It was an experience Cheryl Lopez said she hopes no mother would have to understand.

“Duron was hooked to a lot of tubes, to a lot of things, a lot of things that I had never seen before,” Lopez said.

On Aug. 12, 2018, a car accident changed her son’s life forever.

“My son was in a coma for 17 days in [UK Hospital] and two months at Cardinal Hill Sheehan to learn to walk and talk again,” she said. “He had to learn so many things that we take for granted.”

At 23 years old, the doctors told Lopez twice that her son, Duron, would not make it. Nearly four years later, Lopez said Duron is a walking miracle. 

“Everybody says that living can be a struggle and sometimes depending on their situation, but you know the struggle for us to be a TBI survivor is looking like you're normal but you’re totally different,” Duron Adams said.

Adams has traumatic brain injury and is paralyzed on his right side. He suffers from short-term memory loss.

One of the hardest things, Adams said, was going from living 23 years as someone considered normal to waking up one day having to re-learn how to walk and talk. 

“There is a whole different kind of uniqueness. You look like a regular person walking and talking and then people are like ‘oh he’s just like another one of us’ but then when they sit down and talk to you they’re like you ‘why do you speak a little bit slower’,” Adams said.

Even with the simplest activities.

“It feels so good but also I never printed with my right hand I just wrote cursive, so it is kind of weird having to go back to the basics and print everything,” Adams said.

And although it’s a difficult journey, Lopez wakes up proud of her son and his accomplishments every day. 

“He had 3% brain waves, and they had called the family and said I don’t think he’s going to make it but you know he did and he’s thriving each and every day,” Lopez said.

A support for one another.

“If I’m down I have to stay up because I have a great family that represents me, someone that I can just hold on to whenever I feel weak,” Adams said.

Using Duron’s story, Lopez created a nonprofit called Duron’s Journey. 

It’s a place where people affected with traumatic brain injuries can find support. Through resources, meetings and events with information about TBI.

“When he left the hospital, I made a vow that I needed to get TBI or traumatic brain injuries out in Kentucky because I never want any parents to feel like I felt, when they called me and told me I needed to go to the hospital,” Lopez said.

A journey that has been hard, but one Duron’s family will support him and others, every step of the way. 

This fall, Duron’s mother is planning on hosting “Duron’s Day” to support people with traumatic brain injuries, to raise awareness, provide resources and recognize the journey Duron and others may be on.