Steph Milam’s Traumatic Brain Injury Recovery

On January 21st, 2022, Stephanie Milam was in a terrible bicycle accident while biking home with her fiance in Ventura, CA. As a result, she has suffered a Diffuse Axonal Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) that will take years for her to recover from. She also has fractures to her maxilla bone and nasal bridge, severe nerve damage paralyzing her right eye, deep gashes on her hands requiring stitches, severe road rash burns to her right elbow and significant scrapes all over her body.

For over a week, Stephanie fought for her life through extreme brain swelling, swelling shutting off blood to her right eye, and a subdural hematoma in her brain while under the care of neurosurgeons and ophthalmologists in the Intensive Care Unit at Ventura County Medical Center. The nightmare became even more of a hell when we discovered that Stephanie did not have traditional insurance at the time of her accident. This meant she would be strapped with an insurmountable amount of debt from the ICU, and worse of all, she wouldn’t be considered by a Traumatic Brain Injury Center for proper care when she needed it most. Luckily, on Monday, January 31, Steph stabilized medically and was admitted into an intensive Traumatic Brain Injury rehabilitation center at the Casa Colina Hospital Inpatient Rehab wing.

Her family is appealing to the public, friends and family, and anyone in the extended community willing to help her out with the financial burdens this traumatic event has created.

While healing her external injuries, Stephanie is undergoing intensive active therapy to work on everything damaged in the accident: her short and long-term memory, expressions and alertness, and ability to move without assistance. Her speech is impaired, and her right eye remains swollen shut, with the nerve in the eye continuing to be irritated, paralyzing its movement.

This will be a marathon, not a sprint.

All the money raised will help pay for medical bills, rehabilitation, surgeries, and therapy while Steph is unable to make a living to pay for the ever-growing financial costs needed to return to normalcy. We expect she may need eye surgery, specialty brain treatments, and long-term home therapy. If you prefer to donate via Venmo, please send to her sister @Caitlin-Milam (the last four digits are 5828). We thank those choosing to be generous at the beginning of her long road to recovery.

Our family is beyond grateful for your support in getting the best possible care for Stephanie.

About Stephanie:

Stephanie is an absolute treasure, loves staying active, and is a heavy hitter professionally.

If you met her throughout the 34 years of her colorful life, you probably shared a great meal that she may have cooked for you and likely engaged in lively debate conversation with her. Her favorite activities up until now have been reading, swimming, enjoying wine and cooking, Scuba diving, listening to jazz and singing Elvis songs, petting every puppy she sees, playing cards with family and friends, and traveling.

She graduated from UCLA with a degree in Geography/Environmental Studies and took school credits overseas in Tanzania, living with the Maasai. She then worked in behavioral psychology for marketing, food & beverage and started her own business. After working at a winery outside of Austin and obtaining her wine Sommelier license, she single-handedly began her company making wine-infused popsicles which were even accepted as a trial product on Whole Foods’ shelves. She loves helping small restaurant businesses grow with her knack for business strategy. She recently worked remotely as the Chief of Staff for Mike & Patty’s LLC, a growing restaurant chain based out of Boston.