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H E T Matters
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PHOTO BY GLENN TRI EST

St rai ht From

Giving Back, Giving Hope

Ruth Okun won a Sinai award for her very
personal kind of return.

RUTH LITTMANN SECTION EDITOR

he two-lane Indiana
highway was icy that
evening in 1980. It was
Ruth Okun's first year
of law school at Notre
Dame and she was returning
home from a "moot court" com-
petition in South Bend.
Ruth dozed while a friend nav-
igated the homestretch. She
doesn't remember exactly what
happened when an oncoming
vehicle swiped the passenger side
of the car. Whatever it was, it
sent Ruth spiraling into a
coma.
Ambulances rushed the 28-
year-old to St. Joseph Mercy Hos-
pital in South Bend where her
parents, Faye and Seymour, were
told their daughter's chances of
surviving the weekend were slim.
Ruth had sustained a closed-head

I

injury. Her body showed only a
few cuts and scrapes. Her brain,
however, was considerably dam-
aged. Even if she were to live,
doctors said, there was little
chance she'd ever be the same.
But somehow, Ruth rebound-
ed. On the day she opened her
eyes, her family members and
Lyn Leone, a close friend, were
standing at her bedside.
"My dad said, authie, aren't
you going to say "hi" to your
friend?' " she remembers.
Those initial post-coma days
are still a foggy blur for Ms. Okun,
now 42. But one thing is clear: "I
had a great and wonderful fam-
ily," she says. "I had people who
were pulling for me to get well.
That's very important."
Ruth's incredible comeback
motivated yet another comeback.

,

Not one to take for granted all the
support she received during her
time of crisis, Ms. Okun literally
came back to Sinai 10 years ago
and has helped other closed-head
injury patients ever since.
In recognition of her service,
the Rehabilitation Department
late last winter named her "Vol-
unteer Of the Year" and pre-
sented her with the Kenneth
Wellman Award.
The recovery wasn't without
tribulation, but Ms. Okun focus-
es on things other than hardship.
After the accident, Notre Dame
returned her tuition for half of
the semester. Siblings, friends,
even Notre Dame administrators
came to visit at the hospital. After
four weeks, Ruth was transferred
to Sinai Hospital in Detroit to
start an intense rehabilitation

recovery."
program.
Ms. Okun now assists patients
Names like the
late Father Mike with some of the methods that
McCafferty and helped her.
"Whatever your situation is
Dean David Link
from Notre Dame, right now, you have to believe
along with Dr. that things will work out. The
Thomas Szymke things you don't have now are
and the entire re- things you'll compensate for," she
habilitation unit at advises. "I try to get people in-
Sinai stand out in volved with activities that will
her mind as people take their minds off the things
who made all the they don't have."
Ms. Okun has dedicated an
difference. Ms.
Okun fondly re- evening each week to the pa-
calls Dr. Harold tients. She plays Bingo with
Rodner and Dr. them because the game fosters
Sharon Wolf from eye-hand coordination. She also
Oakland In- helps out with the Halloween
ternists, who also parties and other programs.
"I don't usually talk about my
aided in her re-
own situation," she says "because
covery.
Determined to it's hard for people to believe.
earn her law de- Sometimes, if there's a yol mg per-
gree, Ruth re- son, I'll tell them what I've gone
turned to school through. It's motivating, but it's
and taped lectures. difficult for them. Even though
Her motor skills you can motivate people, you
were still not up to can't tell them their recovery
par, so she typed is going to be absolutely the
her notes from same."
Sinai staff, along with those
the recordings. It
who serve with her on Sinai's
wasn't easy.
"I remember one rehab committee, say Ms. Okun's
Ruth Okun
of my therapists services and perspective are
with her son, said, 'Don't think significant.
Daniel
"Besides her commitment to
about how far you
Carlos.
have to go. Think the hospital, Ruth brings a
about how far you've come,' " she warmth and kindness and the
ability to be encouraging and sup-
says.
In 1983, Ms. Okun took the portive to the patients and their
bar exam. Certain she had failed, families," says Elsa Silverman,
she began studying for the next director of volunteer services at
one. Needlessly. She passed on Sinai. "She really has a feel for
her first try and began working the rehabilitation unit because
she understands what it is like
for a law firm downtown.
After a year, while in transi- to be in that situation."
Today, Ms. Okun
tion between jobs, Ms.
lives in Huntington
Okun began volun-
Woods and works as
teering in Sinai's re-
an attorney with the
habilitation unit.
law firm of Logan,
"I worked on the
Huchla and Wycoff
same floor where I
N- aavitet
I
in Riverview. She
was a patient," she
!
will continue to vol-
says.
unteer at Sinai, but,
Some of the nurses
for the time being,
were still there, along
she will taper off a bit
with many of the
to take care of her
memories.
"The rehabilitation unit at new, adoptectson, Daniel Carlos.
Ms. Okun says a brush with
Sinai has got to be one of the ma-
jor things that contributed to my death has helped her appreciate
recovery," she said. "I was a life — and so does volunteering.
"People look at me now and
young person who had been in
law school, so it was not only my think nothing really happened,"
physical recovery that was im- she says. "But I realize how ten-
portant, but also my emotional uous everything is." ❑

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