Kristin Rueb

August 1975:

I was pregnant and my husband and I were thrilled. An expedited delivery and soon we were home. Sadly, we watched our daughter, Kristin, as she struggled to cope with her young life. We sought psychological help when she was two, but we were told to relax. As time went by, we knew that something was very wrong. A family move, her illegal drug lifestyle and Kristin’s own poor decisions put her living on the streets of East Vancouver, British Columbia existing on cocaine and heroine. After many different treatment plans and her obvious disregard for consequences, we began to wonder about her mental state. Early in the morning of September 11, 2001 our personal world came crashing down along with the Twin Towers as Kristin was diagnosed with schizophrenia.

After 6 years of being sober and accepting psychiatric treatment with a myriad of psychotropic drugs to manage her chaotic symptoms, she continued to struggle.

Jerry and Sue Rueb

We thought her symptoms were about natural life consequences when the newly used SPECT Scan was suggested to us. Kristin’s scan showed severe brain injury from a rushed forceps delivery. Kristin has lived for 31 years with part of her frontal lobes missing from her brain. She is not chemically imbalanced. She is sober. She does not have schizophrenia. She has brain injury. Every year there are 1.3 million new traumatic brain injuries. Residential care is astronomical. Jail is not the appropriate place for those with TBI, though their behavior can ultimately put them there. We cannot ignore the ramifications of not providing for this segment of our society.

Listen To Jerry and I in an interview sharing this story with Rich Buhler on KRBT 740 AM:

-Sue Rueb, mother of Kristin. May, 2007