9-Year-Old Recovers From Brain Trauma After Hay Ride Accident
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March 7, 2010 (NJ.com)
"Squeeze your lips, Jacob."
Jacob George with his brothers
In the basement of his Gillette home, George Avirappattu watched his 9-year-old son, Jacob George, struggle to blow into a plastic whistle. His wife, Jaya George, and a personal care assistant coaxed the boy to press his lips around the whistle to make a sound, stroking his face and occasionally holding open his eyes.
After a few minutes of coaxing, the boy — held upright in a contraption called a stander — Jaya and the assistant stop, moving on to another task on a page-long list of physical therapy exercises.
It is like this every weekday, George said, although Jacob rarely makes it through the entire list.
Before October 2008, Jacob was a 7-year-old who played second base, took piano lessons and changed the station when his dad played public radio in the car.
