REVIEW
The Light Through My
Tunnel: OVERCOMING
TRAGEDY THROUGH
COURAGE & FAITH
by Mary Varga
Reviewed by
Ellen R. Hale
D
aniel Varga, MD, received a phone call on May 10,
1997, that his sister Mary had been in a car accident.
Even though Mary had married in 1995 and moved to
Little Rock, Ark., Dan was listed in her wallet as her
emergency contact, so the first responders called him. She grew up in Louisville, graduating from Assumption High
School and the University of Kentucky. She worked in marketing
for Jewish Hospital and in sales for a pharmaceutical company.
She had completed marathons. She experienced the joys of being
a new wife and mother.
What had happened? The accident occurred the day before Moth-
er’s Day. Mary was driving with her 3-month-old son, Andrew, to
a cookout at the home of friends who lived about a mile away. She
stopped at an intersection and began to accelerate. An SUV sped
toward the intersection and struck Mary’s car. An ER nurse was
standing in a nearby yard and saw the collision. He pulled Mary
out of the totaled car, gave her CPR and waited for the ambulance.
Since Andrew was in a car seat, he was not injured. She was wearing a seat belt at the time of the accident, but her
brain “ricocheted back and forth” inside her skull, Mary writes.
“Once fully aware of my surroundings, I became keenly aware of
my immobility,” she says. “At first, I felt trapped in the bed. Mom,
Dad and God were the three I innately turned to for comfort.”
The Varga family, including Mary’s father, Donald Varga, MD,
rushed to Little Rock as her life hung in the balance. She had sus-
tained a traumatic brain injury and was in a coma. She regained
consciousness around the Fourth of July, but remained on a ven-
tilator for two weeks.
Twenty years later, Mary’s book about her recovery, The Light
Through My Tunnel: Overcoming Tragedy Through Courage &
Faith, has been published. She details the practical challenges
of life as a brain injury survivor with two physical disabilities: a
speech disability (dysphasia) and a balance disability that affects
her ability to walk, and prevents her from driving.
“Every brain injury is different,” Mary explains. “Depending on
what part of the brain is damaged, different consequences will result.
Recovery is very individual.” In Mary’s case, she had a contrecoup
injury affecting her whole brain. Most of the injured cells were in
the cerebellum, controlling her balance and coordination.
Mary’s book begins with her marriage and move to Little Rock.
8
LOUISVILLE MEDICINE
Once out of the hospital, she worked with a physical therapist,
occupational therapist and speech therapist. Her husband hired a
nanny/driver to care for their son and help Mary; he became only
a caregiver. “The hardships I lived with because of my balance and
voice were endless,” Mary writes. She felt slow, awkward, clumsy,
disgusted and ashamed.
Then, in November 2000, her husband told her he was divorcing
her. Mary was stunned. “I just stared at him,” she says. “This was the
first time I really regretted not being able to cry. The brain pathway
that connects emotions with tears has been severed.”
Mary’s father drove her back to Louisville; to her surprise, her
family and friends welcomed her warmly. “It was not a pity party
at all, but a true show of love and support for their sister who had
come home,” she says. In addition to Dan, Mary has a sister, Julie,
and three brothers, Andrew, John (MD) and Paul.
As part of the divorce, Mary’s husband won sole custody of their
son: “Now with my marriage dissolved and my son taken away,
the only dream that kept me moving forward was my quest to walk
again. I thanked God every day that I came from a medical family,
believing that my dad or brothers would certainly hear about any