Karen Stephens – A life worth living

MANY people don’t handle bad news about themselves well, and will resort to throwing in the towel, but for Karen Stephens, she’s gone past that and is determined to live her best life.

Stephens, 51, a traumatic brain injury (TBI) survivor and advocate, in January launched the Face of TBI campaign to promote awareness and public education of brain injury with a one-minute video on YouTube and Facebook to start discussions about concussions and brain injury and let people understand the complications.

Born and raised in Constant Spring Gardens, in 1986 Stephens placed second in the Pulse Miss Jamaica Fashion Model competition, which marked the beginning of an international modelling career where she was contracted to the then International Marco Rasala Models in London. This saw her completing ramp and photographic modelling assignments for Harrods, French Connection, Nicole Farhi, Williwear Willi Smith, as well as CHIC, Trend, and BELLA magazines. Her modelling credits also include American Airlines, Candyman Jamaica Limited and an appearance in international reggae band Third World’s music video Committed.

Also a successful businesswoman, Stephens operated Grooming Plus, which stressed self-empowerment, self-confidence building, and quality service, and focused on things like effective communication skills, professional development for women in management, resume preparation and corporate makeover demonstrations. She also operated the Karen May School of Grooming, Modelling, Fashion & Makeup and Karen Stephens Company Limited in Kingston, which dealt with events planning.

After completing a degree in journalism at the CUNY Queens College, in 2001 Stephens returned to the college to do a teaching degree in English Language Arts. In the fall of her final year in the programme in 2003, at 39 years old, her life took a turn when she was injured from a falling pole that was part of scaffolding surrounding a hall under repair.

“It was a very windy day, the scaffolding came down, and one of the poles struck me in my head,” she said. “I was now a disabled student. I went back and finished my last semester, but I don’t remember it.”

She said she went undiagnosed for five years as the doctor who did the initial neuropsychological evaluation determined that she had suffered a concussion and told her it would correct itself.

But the journey thereafter was plagued with confusion and she wasn’t remembering anything.

“I’d be on my way somewhere and I wouldn’t know where I was going and would have to pull over. I would pass my exit seven, eight times and pass it again. There are times I’d get into the apartment and I didn’t know how I got in, but the keys were left downstairs in the front door. I’d lock myself out of my car. It was just hard and I realised there were things I just couldn’t do because I was challenged with remembering,” she said. “Later on I realised that my attention was affected and when you don’t pay attention, you don’t remember.”

Stephens said the ordeal was painful and her doctors thought the chronic pains she experienced in her neck were from severe muscle spasms that showed up on an MRI indicating her cervical spine had curved in the opposite direction. But Stephens shared that alongside that she had broken her shoulder and torn tendons from the fall.

“It got to the point where I couldn’t even use my right arm anymore and I was learning to read all over again; and my eyes couldn’t see the words. Nothing was wrong with my eyes, but neurologically, whenever my brain communicated to my eyes, my eyes would get the message late. All those things I found out in 2008, going into 2009 – five to six years after my accident.”

That was when reality really set in for Stephens, after a fresh set of tests in November 2008 confirmed that she had suffered TBI. Subsequently she was referred to the Mount Sinai Phase II six-month day programme for persons with TBI where she underwent treatment for complications specific to the condition.

“It can have far-reaching effects on your life at a neurological level. My concussion caused vision problems and I still have vision therapy. I had to literally learn to read again. I lost my sense of smell for three years. I hear things louder than I should. I had balance issues and my visual perception had been affected. There was neurofatigue, which came about from doing the simplest things like concentrating while driving.

“With all I’ve gone through, I have a platform to start talking about it, so I’ve created this conversation to start talking about it and the different treatments I’ve encountered – over 1,300 – and to say what has been successful,” she said.

Stephens said the condition did get the best of her initially and it was something she couldn’t talk about, but she eventually learnt to accept it and move on.

“The term ‘disabled’ was being used and I didn’t like it. Being disabled for me meant I had failed, so it wasn’t a word I was ready to use. But after being in psychotherapy for a few years, I started to accept that I could still do some of the things but I had to do them differently. Innately I’m someone who doesn’t believe in giving up as long as I can breathe and live.”