Hello and welcome to living in the Lehigh Valley, where our focus is your health and wellness.

I'm your host, Brittany Sweeney.

Every 9 seconds, someone suffers a brain injury.

Today, more than 5 million people in the US are living with a brain injury, according to the CDC.

That's the case for a carbon county girl who uses her story to inspire others to never give up despite the cards they're dealt.

I never thought she was going to survive ten years ago.

Ten years ago, Emily Brong's mother received a call that would change her family's lives forever.

It was a Sunday.

I'll never forget the phone call.

1111 119 2014.

There's been an accident.

Beth Winter remembers every detail.

She was in with other girls.

They were on their way to softball practice.

They were over by Beltsville Lake and a car hit black ice, and it hit the kid's head on.

That accident left the 15 year old with a traumatic brain injury and wheelchair bound.

Emily was the only one with life altering injuries.

Emily, what do you think about physical therapy?

I love it.

We spent two months at Lehigh Valley Trauma, and then, fortunately, Good Shepherd was able to offer her an acute rehab bed.

And she rehabbed at Good Shepherd for seven months following her injury.

The outlook was grim, but somehow the teenager found the strength to carry on.

1, 2, 3.

Good job.

Good job.

Emily still obviously is a brain injured individual, though her brain injury has made her more intelligent than she was prior to injury.

That's my look on it all.

But she is wheelchair bound.

She walks with her therapists.

Keep going.

Don’t stop.

Keep going.

Don't stop.

However, her left side's paralyzed and she requires 24 seven care.

You're rock and roll.

And that's rock and roll.

A decade later, Brong is thriving.

Whatever part of our brain it affected, it affected something that has made her a very happy lucky and just a pleasant, pleasant person.

A lot of her progress, her mother attributes to the work she does at Good Shepherd Rehabilitation, Hyland Center for Health and Technology.

We offer a diverse offering of rehabilitation, but we also hyperfocus on some catastrophic rehabilitation, which particularly involves the spinal cord injury, stroke, rehabilitation and traumatic and non traumatic brain injury.

Dr. Sandeep Singh is good Shepherds, Chief Medical Officer and Senior Vice President of Medical Affairs.

He says roughly 5% of their patients have a traumatic brain injury.

So there are a multitude of resources offered to those who are part of that group.

We try to incorporate where their the necessities of deficit are and identified so that we can layer in technologies, whether that's a functional stimulation unit that helps a patient take and pick up a glass for the first time after their injury or help support their arm through mechanisms like a neuro move.

With the help of those resources like the zero-G technology.

Brong and patients like her have progressed in their overall movement.

Goods ship right step.

When you implement that technology, we're really trying to tap into what we call the central central pattern generator, which ideally is to help facilitate neuroplasticity, which is the kind of the model and mindset behind rehab, neuro rehabilitation, and really help these patients progress in their path of recovery.

Emily is able to basically do a lot for herself independently.

Even though her left side is paralyzed.

Emily goes to speech.

They help me to do better.

She is reading books now, which she has not done in over ten years, she's comprehending things, her memories improving.

Her speech is much clearer.

Through occupational therapy, she's able to make her own bed.

She can clean around teeth.

This is huge for somebody like Emily.

Clearly, it's a journey.

It's not like an episode of care and you're done.

It really is this long term journey and longitudinal care model that Good Shepherd buys into and what is really required for the brain injury population.

All right.

Good Shepherd provides physical, occupational and speech therapy to the 26 year old as an advocate for brain injury awareness.

Winter says she wants people to know there is hope for progress towards a normal life for survivors.

Keep fighting.

Keep a positive outlook on life.

When I tell you, it's easy to give up, very easy.

But you just got to keep fighting.

Although Emily is wheelchair bound now, her mother says she never thought her daughter would come as far as she has.

When asked if she thinks Emily will ever walk on her own, she said she now believes anything can happen.

That'll do it for this edition of Living in the Lehigh Valley.

I'm Brittany Sweeney, hoping you stay happy and healthy.