Doctors and therapists at Houston’s renowned Memorial Hermann –TIRR rehabilitation center are relying heavily on music to treat Texas trial lawyer Steve Susman, who in April suffered a traumatic brain injury in a biking accident.
For example, while Susman still communicates mostly in monosyllabic words, he sang every word to the Johnny Cash song “I Walk The Line” accompanied on the guitar by a music therapist. He has also sung along with one of his favorites: “Under the Boardwalk.”
Music was also an important part of the first in-person visits by family members over the past weekend, according to Ellen Susman, his wife, who was with him Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Ellen was able finally to hold Steve’s hand and, “We listened to classical music, interspersed with looking at photos of family and friends to jog his memory,” she reported on his page at Caringbridge.org/visit/stevesusman.
Until last weekend, Covid-19 restrictions had limited such personal visits and their main connection — like the families of many patients — had been on Zoom.
Susman, 79, the founder and force of Houston’s Susman Godfrey, was in a coma for 11 days after the April 22 accident. He had been on a ride with some colleagues in the firm when his front wheel caught and locked in an expansion joint in a concrete roadway, throwing him over the handle bars. For years Susman has been an avid biker, regularly taking rides measured in the tens or scores of miles.
As if it weren’t enough that he still has the highest GPA ever at the University of Texas Law School and became arguably the Alpha-beast in highest-stakes commercial litigation, Susman apparently can immediately hum any tune he hears and plays the piano by ear.
“I can tell he wants to tell us things, but can’t find the words,” Ellen wrote after the weekend visits. “But I can almost see his brain working behind his eyes – and know we are just at the beginning of this marathon.”
Susman’s condition was so worrisome early on that any progress has been considered major progress – such as moving an arm or a leg in response to commands. But it is obvious now the synapses are firing, growing and reconnecting.
A few weeks ago, as his family watched on a Zoom visit, Steve played the tambourine and as a flourish placed it on his head like a crown, wrote Harry Susman, his son and law partner. It was “a typical Steve move which embodies both his sense of humor and the fact that he is always in touch with his inner child.”