Claire Galloway

by Claire Galloway A few seconds. That was all the time it took for two-year-old Luke Galloway to slip away from his parents and go running toward the swing set. And only a few seconds more before the hard plastic swing struck the side of his head with enough force to send him flying. But the effects of that playground accident would stay with him—in the form of an undiagnosed traumatic brain injury—and alter the course of his life. In A Call to Mind, Luke’s mother, Claire Galloway, recounts how a seemingly routine childhood injury—readily dismissed by professionals for sixteen years—transformed a happy, healthy child into an anxious, agitated boy, who would be haunted by “noises” only he could hear. As knowledge of brain injury in sports and the military is on the rise, Claire adds Luke’s voice to the choir. As she lays the groundwork for physicians, educators, psychologists, family and friends to better recognize symptoms of traumatic brain injury in a practical, everyday sense, she hopes to embolden parents to fight for their children on behalf of what only they might see, increasing the odds of successful post-injury outcomes.