Published on March 11th, 2021 | by Guest Author

Jamie MoCrazy, An Inspirational Story Of Determination, Perseverance & Overcoming Hardship

Jamie MoCrazy grew up on the ski slopes. By the time she was 18 years old, she had won Junior World Championships and moved to Utah to continue training as a professional slopestyle and halfpipe skier. She goes into her background to say, “skiing has been a part of my family for generations. My grandmother competed on the world cup tour!” Her accolades include getting three podiums in the first year competing in the Junior Olympics and by 17 had won the Junior World Championship in New Zealand. However, in April 2015, Jamie crashed at the World Tour Finals, went into a coma, and became paralyzed.

She details her recovery with trials and triumphs. “During that first year, I realized that by relearning to do everything that included relearning to ski, and all my tricks. I also knew to learn those tricks the first time I had to fall over and over. Hitting my head again was very dangerous and I like life, so I decided to step away.” She continued to recover mentally as well as physically and decided to return to college and pursue new life passions with the second go at life she was given. “I created the destiny I am starting to live in, motivation through my keynote speeches, partnerships with nonprofits like the Brain Injury Alliance of Utah, and running their caregiver campaign. I am alive and motivated myself with new goals and a new outlook on life.”

Speaking on her coma experience, Jamie could not recall the accident. It took six weeks for her to have any memory of what had happened on that tragic day. The struggles she faced as soon as she woke up were ordinary, everyday tasks. She couldn’t walk, talk or swallow water. Jamie credits her mother in aiding her in such a successful recovery. “The number of exercises mama MoCrazy gave me, above and beyond what the hospital said created the recovery I had. For example, my right side was paralyzed due to brain stem damage. In the hospital after stimulators helped my right arm move slightly again, Mama MoCrazy taped down my strong side and made me use my weak arm to make breakfast.” Her mother had an understanding of neuroplasticity and knew using her weak side would create new synaptic connections allowing Jamie’s brain pathways to fire on the right side of my body. Jamie regrets nothing about her recovery process and enjoys telling her story to inspire others battling a brain injury.

Jamie knows her accident was not only difficult on her but feels it was harder for her family to process. “I don’t remember the accident, the coma when I was on life support and not expected to survive. My cognition wasn’t back enough to understand the severity of my recovery. Now that I’m recovered I get a lot of the credit that they deserve.” Her support system of her mother, father, sisters, and friends rallied around her and helped her be such a success story. “The person who helped me through the most was Mama MoCrazy. She was followed by Jeanee MoCrazy who did every physical therapy workout with me amongst other things. Jeanee was followed by the rest of my family, like my oldest sister who is a doctor and became my primary care physician to be involved in my medical decisions. My next older sister who is a massage therapist and massaged me every day for three months after I left the hospital. My dad did one of the most unpredictable and gutsy things in his life when he allowed me to become the first patient in North America to receive an oxygen and pressure analyzing brain bolt.My youngest sister took care of the rest of the family keeping them healthy. Followed by the friends who stuck with me, and supporters I had from all over the world.”

Now looking to the future, Jamie does not have goals for competitive skiing, however, she has goals for touring mountains and teaching her kids to love the snow. As far as goals for MoCrazy Strong there are many facets. They go from publishing the narrative nonfiction Jeanee has written about her accident, the memoir turning into a movie, to being voices and communicating educationally about the national crises that are Traumatic Brain Injury. Every 20 seconds an individual receives a traumatic brain injury and their family becomes caregivers. Many of those traumatic brain injuries result in deficits that are curable, yet never handled properly. Jamie says she has “many goals related to brain injury and how recognition can fix our incarceration rate, and help with our homelessness.” She not only wants to help people with known injuries but help the rest of the population who may not know they are struggling with one.

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