Jaffrey resident and Franklin Pierce University Recreation Director Doug Carty is recovering at an inpatient rehabilitation center after sustaining a traumatic brain injury when he fell more than 10 feet while hauling hay, striking his head on a trailer.
Carty’s wife, Chauntelle Carty, said the injuries were serious, but Carty has already shown major signs of improvement and his doctors are hopeful he’ll largely recover. And while that recovery is underway, Chauntelle said the love and care her husband has put into the community at their family’s horse farm and through his work at Franklin Pierce have come back around through a huge amount of community support.
“We feel totally blessed,” Chauntelle said. “People we don’t know at all have been asking, ‘How can we help you?’ Everyone is praying for him, and we feel that. We feel those prayers, and we feel how much the Lord has done for us through this community.”
Chauntelle said since her husband’s injury, many people have been ready to step up and help, including many Franklin Pierce University alumni. One former student, who knew Carty when she attended the university 10 years ago, drove two hours to drop off a pie. The Franklin Pierce women’s rugby team is organizing a day to volunteer at the couple’s farm to do chores. And, at the request of community members, the family set up a GoFundMe page, which exceeded its $20,000 goal within three days.
Chauntelle said all the support has been overwhelming.
“He’s such a pillar in their community, a pillar in their past or present, they wanted to help,” Chauntelle said. “We feel incredibly blessed.”
Carty, a Franklin Pierce graduate, has been the head of campus recreation for two decades. In his time on the job, the department has gone from an intramural/facility-based program to one with multiple spaces throughout the campus and beyond, including the annual Mount Monadnock climb, the freshman Cardboard Boat Regatta and the annual Oozeball mud volleyball tournament, as well as up to 15 off-campus trips per semester.
Kathryn Grosso Gann, director of communications for Franklin Pierce University, said Carty is an integral member of the campus, and the college community was shocked and saddened to hear about his injury.
“Anyone who knows Doug knows that he will work as hard as he can to return to doing the things he loves most, including spending time outdoors and mentoring FPU students. All of us in Raven Nation send him and his family our thoughts and best wishes and we look forward to welcoming him back to campus soon,” said Grosso Gann.
Chauntelle said Carty was loading hay for their horses at a nearby farm, and had several stacks of bales loaded on the back of his truck when he must have slipped from the top of the pile, falling backward and striking his head on the trailer. He was rushed to the hospital, where scans revealed multiple bleeds in his brain, in both his bilateral frontal lobe and the parietal lobe. He had 11 staples and two sutures put in.
Carty was released from the hospital the next day, but returned to the emergency room three times in the following days to manage his symptoms. On Thursday, his family took him to the emergency room at Monadnock Community Hospital, which is not where he had been treated previously, and the doctors advised he be readmitted for inpatient treatment.
“Monadnock Community Hospital moved very fast for us,” Chauntelle said.
Carty was eventually moved to Northeast Rehabilitation Hospital in Nashua, where he is receiving continued occupational and physical therapy.
Chauntelle said immediately after his accident, Carty had trouble with his speech, and was speaking very slowly and often repeating himself, had balance is sues and short-term memory issues. While short-term memory issues linger, they have improved, as have some of his other symptoms, particularly since his readmission to the hospital and inpatient rehabilitation care.
“He’s come leaps and bounds since being [at Northeast Rehabilitation Hospital]. He’s crushing his physical and occupational therapy,” Chauntelle said. “Doug has always been one of those very much overachievers; he always has to get it done and be optimistic all the time about everything. One doctor told him, ‘You know, Doug, I see these injuries all the time, and everyone is different, but I can guarantee you’ll make a 90 percent recovery.’ He said, ‘Ninety percent? I’m going for 100.’”
Chauntelle said recovery from brain injuries take between six months and a year while the brain attempts to repair or build new pathways and relearn how to do tasks.
“It’s going to be a work in progress. It’s going to take some time to learn specific things again. But the brain is amazing,” Chauntelle said.
Chauntelle said the family has been reading Carty encouraging messages from Facebook, which often leave him in tears, despite his usually stoic demeanor.
“He had no idea how many people he’d touched, and what that meant to them. You don’t know your impact on someone’s life until something like this happens,” Chauntelle said.