By Joe Johnson
Three weeks after he was critically injured in a brutal assault, an employee of an Athens homeless
facility has been released from the hospital into intensive rehabilitative and therapy.
Christopher Sullens was a supervisor at the Advantage Behavioral Health Systems Day Center on North Avenue, where he was attacked on June 20 by a machete-wielding homeless man.
The suspect, 33-year-old Cedric Courtes Smith, reportedly had been upset for having been kicked out of the facility for bringing alcohol there, and when Sullens was walking to his car after work, Smith attacked with a machete, striking Sullens multiple times in the head and face.
The 53-year-old victim was flown by helicopter in critical condition to Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, where he underwent several major surgeries to save his life. Doctors were unable to preserve one of his badly damaged eyes, and it was removed.
Now Sullens is at Shepherd Center, a premier rehabilitation facility that specializes in helping people with traumatic brain injuries.
“Today was the first true day of therapy, although they didn't do anything super extensive because they're trying to gauge his limitations and get to know him,” said his sister, Teresa Sullens-Baker.
“He did amazing walking to the main gym, and wheeling himself back with a little assistance from his physical therapist,” she said.
Teresa said that her brother has optical nerve damage that’s limiting Chris‘s vision.
“He’s still not able to open his eyelid which can be frustrating when he's trying to do things for himself,” Sullens-Baker said. “Through it all, he's got a great attitude about 99-percent of the time. We expect there will be another surgery at some point to help him open that eye, but for now we're assisting him in opening it and they've suggested taping it up while also putting a slightly see through patch that helps to keep it from drying out.”
Sullens-Baker said that her brother has been achieving “major improvements” with his speech and cognition, and his scars were healing “beautifully.”
She said the Chris struggles almost daily with flashbacks and will require psychotherapy to cope with post-traumatic stress disorder.
“Overall though, his progress is amazing,” Sullens-Baker said. “Watching him do things in his PT session that I had trouble doing myself with my eyes closed, it's crazy how his brain has compensated in areas because of his lost sight.”
Sullns-Baker said that Chris had the following to say to her on Wednesday:
“I’m gonna fight as hard as I can to be able to see again, but if I can’t see again it’s okay, I’m gonna own it, and you can be my eyes and drive me around.”
Then he laughed.
“He told me he’ll be victorious, and he’s a superhero. Made my heart fill up more than I thought possible.”
Chris said that he “loves everyone and wants to spend the rest of his life helping people and animals”
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