Occasionally we are fortunate enough to know an individual whose love of life and people shines just a little brighter than others. When you look at them you know they have mastered the secret of enjoying life. This is the description people have given of Jimmy Simpson.
Jimmy Simpson was not a famous person, but if you talk with individuals who knew him they will tell you of a remarkable person who had a way of enjoying life and all of its hills and valleys. Jimmy was a loving husband, father, and grandfather who was very involved with his family. He was vice president of Astec Industries, an international asphalt manufacturing corporation. He and Carol, his wife, were looking forward to traveling and enjoying time with their grandchildren when a tragic turn of events took place to forever change the course of many lives associated with the Simpson family.
After an anoxia brain injury in 1995 from a fall out of a hospital bed, Jimmy could no longer communicate with anyone and we were unsure of how much he understood.
Throughout the course of treatment and care for Jimmy, the family was advised that a facility would be needed to provide the care he would require. Family and friends searched through databases and information provided by rehabilitation facilities, but could not find a facility that would accept a high-level agitation patient and offer one on one care.
The family was amazed and frustrated that there were no facilities that offered the one on one supervision needed for a patient of Jimmy’s needs. After months of searching for a facility, the family decided to bring Jimmy home and hire private licensed professionals to see to his needs. During this time Astec Industries played a big role in helping to secure the nursing care needed for Jimmy that allowed him to remain in the home.
While caring for Jimmy at home, the family began to receive telephone calls from other family members searching for facilities to care for a loved one who was traumatic brain injured. Carol Simpson decided that the logical decision was to begin a facility that would provide the type of care needed for a low level cognitive impaired individual who had been the victim of a traumatic brain injury. The family already had eighty percent of the staff in place to care for at least two if not three patients. At the same time a major goal was to provide the type of care needed to the families that did not have the resources necessary to help their family member.
This was the beginning of the Jimmy Simpson Foundation and the life long care facility for low level traumatic brain injury called Safehaven.
