How One Family’s Tragedy and Determination Created Safehaven – Chattanooga’s Only Home for Traumatic Brain Injury Sufferers

The Jimmy Simpson Foundation bears the name and honors the legacy of Jimmy Simpson. All who knew him say that Jimmy was a remarkable person who enjoyed life, hills and valleys alike. He was vice president of Astec Industries in Chattanooga, an international asphalt manufacturing corporation, and, more importantly, was a loving husband, father, and grandfather. Jimmy and his wife, Carol, were looking forward to traveling and enjoying time with their family, but they were instead met with a tragedy that changed the course of the Simpson family.

In 1995, Jimmy fell out of a hospital bed and suffered an anoxia brain injury, which meant he could no longer communicate and his level of understanding was unknown. Following the injury, Jimmy’s family was advised that he would require the care of a facility. Family and friends began to search through databases of rehabilitation facilities, but they were not able to find a facility that would accept a high-level agitation patient and offer one-on-one care for Jimmy. The Simpson family was amazed and frustrated that there were no facilities that would provide one-on-one care that Jimmy would need. After months of searching, the Simpson family chose to bring Jimmy home to be cared for by private licensed professionals. During this time of decision-making and care-planning, Astec Industries played a big role in helping secure the care Jimmy needed, while still being able to remain at home, surrounded by loved ones.

The Simpson family began to receive phone calls from other people looking for facilities to care for their loved ones who had suffered a traumatic brain injury. Carol Simpson decided that the path forward for Jimmy’s legacy was to begin a facility that would provide the type of care that low-level, cognitively impaired individuals who had suffered a traumatic brain injury would need. The Simpson family, at the time of this decision, had 80% of the staff in place to care for a few patients, and the goal was set to provide types of care needed to the families that did not have the necessary resources needed to care for a family member.

Out of this major goal came the Jimmy Simpson Foundation, and then the founding of Safehaven, a life-long care facility in Rock Spring, Ga., for low-level traumatic brain injury sufferers. Safehaven provides ongoing care for non-ambulatory individuals in a homelike environment. The goals of the facility are to maintain a long-term care living environment to provide the quality of life that fosters an individual’s physical, social, and emotional needs while striving to increase the feeling of success and enhancing an individual’s self-esteem by providing a wide range of support services. Safehaven also works to sustain a living environment that provides family members with confidence that their loved one is receiving quality care that preserves their dignity and confidentiality.

Jimmy Simpson’s love of life lives on in Safehaven, and our caregiving team strives to honor his legacy through loving care for those who have suffered traumatic brain injuries.