Man’s traumatic brain injury inspires life goal

A Saucier man struggling to recover from a traumatic brain injury is making it his life goal to bring awareness to the deadly symptoms that often go unrecognized. The brain injury happened after he was in a car wreck two years ago.
“It knocked the wheels completely off my truck and it hit me right in the door.” Ricky Latch didn’t see it coming, an 18-wheeler running a stop light, crashing right into the side of his pick-up truck at a Saucier intersection. Latch says November 4, 2015 changed his life forever. The accident landed him in the hospital. “I had a huge hematoma on my leg and a busted eye and they sent me home.”
Doctors told Latch he had a minor concussion. As time went on, he started having trouble balancing, both physically and emotionally. “I became where I would be enraged over the smallest things. I would cry for hours, not knowing. I would just fall apart,” said Latch.
A bad fall landed Latch in the hospital again. It was then a neurologist diagnosed him with a traumatic brain injury, a condition connected with permanent brain damage, usually caused by blunt force trauma. Physical therapist assistant Holly Beaugaz said, “I feel like all too often, concussions are dismissed by the emergency room, that they send patients home too quickly.”
Two years later, Latch is taking steps to improve his balance and physical abilities at Community Rehab in Gulfport. He tells News 25 if he only knew the symptoms beforehand he could have gotten help earlier. “Dizziness, a lot of difficulty with balance, headaches,” said Beaugaz.
According to the CDC, 52,000 people die annually from TBI’s. Ricky Latch’s new mission is to reduce that number, even if it’s just by one. “If we can save one child’s life, or one family, then it’s worth it. That’s what I want to do,” said Latch.