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It's the first night of the Association of Future Farmers of America (IL FAA) Convention
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in Springfield, IL and attendees are getting their groove on. During the day the young
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convention go-ers network, attend lectures and receive recognition for their accomplishments
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in leadership, personal growth and agricultural education. However, the evening social events
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are a chance to laugh, flirt and make new friends; tonight's party is no exception.
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A young man is crowd surfing across the cheering, dancing crowd when disaster strikes.
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He falls and accidentally kicks 16 year old Riley Horner in the head on the way down, knocking her
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unconscious. Riley is immediately taken by ambulance to St. John's, a nearby hospital.
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Authorities notify her parents who live 2½ hours away, in Kirkwood, IL. Riley's parents
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rush to the hospital, arriving in the wee hours of the morning. When they see Riley, her knee is
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injured and she isn't acting like her normal self. Riley's mother Sarah demands a CT scan. It comes
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back normal. Despite the Horners' protests that something is wrong,
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the ER doctors announce that Riley is fine and release her to the care of her parents.
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The Horners load Riley in their car and begin the long journey home. But Riley is not fine.
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The family's about an hour into their trip, when Riley, who's sitting in the backseat
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starts shaking. She's having a seizure. By the time the family makes it home
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Riley's had at least 4 more seizures. She's readmitted to a different hospital. However,
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all tests for major medical conditions come back negative. Over the next few days Riley
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has seizure after seizure, over 35 in total. Her parents notice other odd symptoms,
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every two hours Riley seems especially confused and doesn't remember conversations or events
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that just happened. In fact, every morning Riley wakes up thinking that it's June 11th,
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the day she was kicked in the head. The summer wears on. In addition to memory issues,
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Riley has dizzy spells, migraines, sensitivity to light and sometimes slurs her words. The Horners
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take Riley to doctor after doctor. However, the medical professionals are stumped and can offer
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no diagnosis. Clearly Riley had a concussion, but she doesn't have a brain bleed or tumor,
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nothing unusual shows up on her MRI or CT scans. Riley is forced to develop a system of detailed
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note and picture taking to use as a cheatsheet to minimize confusion and
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help her navigate her daily life. She sets alarms on her phone for every 2 hours so
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she can brush up on events she's forgotten. Frustrated by the lack of help from medical
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professionals, Sarah researches and educates herself about brain injuries. Terrifyingly, she
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learns that after six months of experiencing short term memory issues, a patient may have suffered
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irreversible brain damage. She becomes even more determined to find medical help for her daughter.
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Riley begins her junior year of school and has a difficult time. She once excelled at
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sports and in her studies. Now, she has trouble focusing and can't remember where her locker is.
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About 3 months after the accident, Riley gets a really bad headache and then becomes unresponsive.
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Even though she's breathing and her heart's beating, she can't be roused for nearly 45
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minutes. When Riley finally wakes up, she has tremors in her left arm and leg.
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She can't walk. She ends up in the ER again, but the doctors can't determine what's wrong.
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They give her crutches and send her home. Sarah reaches out on the internet to bring
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awareness to Riley's condition and to raise money to help alleviate the cost of her daughter's many
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tests and doctor's visits. Riley's story is picked up by various news media. Strangers online alert
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the Horners to Cognitive Fx, in Provo, Utah. Cognitive Fx specializes in the treatment of
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concussions through physical and cognitive therapy using cutting edge neuroscience.
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In November, Riley is able to spend 2 weeks at Cognitive Fx undergoing diagnosis and treatment.
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It's discovered that 4 months after the accident, Riley still has a pretty severe concussion.
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On a scale of 0-5, 5 being the worse, Riley has a 2.5 at the beginning of her treatment. Doctors
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suspect that when Riley got concussed, it also stopped blood to her hippocampus. The hippocampus
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is the area in the brain where memories are created. The lack of blood to the hippocampus
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set off a chain reaction and since then certain areas in Riley's brain receive too much blood flow
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while other areas don't receive enough, basically in the words of Sarah 'making Riley glitchy'.
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Thankfully Riley's hippocampus doesn't seem to be damaged. The hope is that time and therapy
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would 'rewire' the pathways in her brain. Within a few days of beginning treatment the
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Horners see improvement--when Riley wakes up, she remembers where she is! After 2 weeks of
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treatment Riley improves her concussion score dramatically--from 2.5 to a .13!
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Since then, Riley has experienced ups and downs. In March Riley had a seizure at school and briefly
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stayed in the hospital. Soon after Covid-19 caused school closure. Quarantine ended up
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being a blessing in disguise for Riley. She was able to spend more time simply recovering
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without having to adhere to a strict schedule. The concussion damaged Riley's eyes and she's had
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to see a specialist. However, new glasses have helped immensely. The concussion also caused
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digestive problems; for several months after the accident Riley couldn't eat or digest food
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without severe pain. As a result she lost weight, surviving on granola bars and water.
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Eventually doctors came to suspect that oxygen wasn't circulating correctly through Riley's
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diaphragm. Doing breathing exercises she had learned while at Cognitive Fx prior to eating
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helped to lessen the pain. In the ensuing months Riley's digestive system has slowly settled down.
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Currently in her senior year of high school, Riley continues to experience memory problems,
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migraines and other issues related to Post Concussion Syndrome. She's doing well in school
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and dreams of studying neuroscience and helping others. Periodically she has online follow up
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exams with medical professionals from Cognitive Fx. She hopes to return to the treatment center
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for another round of therapy once it is safe to do so. Unfortunately, nearly all of the
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treatment Riley has undergone is considered experimental, which means no help from insurance.
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Riley has come a long way since the accident, but the road ahead presents many challenges.
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If you would like to help Riley, please visit her GoFund Me. A link is available
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below in the description.You can learn more about Riley on her Facebook page: Thank you!