Man Suffers a Traumatic Brain Injury in an Accident, Wife Documents Recovery Online

Thanks to the internet, the world is just one big happy family — that's when we aren't fussing about politics, human rights, and religion. Despite our differences, there are some stories on social media that bring us all together — one of which is this tragic tale of a wife and mother-of-two.

When two people get married, they vow to have each other’s backs for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health. And TikTok user @kay.epps and her family were faced with a tragedy that put her wedding vows to the test in 2023.

After Kay’s husband of 15 years, Randy Epps sustained a traumatic brain injury (TBI), she took to TikTok with a cry for help. Since then, she has used the social media platform to document his road to recovery.

Kay first explained what happened to her husband in a video posted in late May. In the TikTok, Kay explained that her husband, a former Marine, was playing outside with their two boys on Mother’s Day when he had a terrible fall and was rushed to the hospital.

There, he was diagnosed with a diffuse axonal injury and a broken elbow. Now out of his coma, Randy is working on his memory and learning to talk again.

Kay makes a living as a nurse but her husband’s injury renders her unable to go to work. Fortunately, a number of good samaritans on social media chimed in to do their part.

In addition to a number of very generous donations on the family’s GoFundMe page, Kay has also garnered the support of hundreds of thousands of sympathetic users on TikTok.

“My husband [had] a TBI, was in a coma for 17 days but is perfectly normal now,” user @ktrimble wrote, encouraging Kay to “hang in there!”

And per her update videos, the wife and mom has done exactly that.

While Kay has been candid about Randy’s road to recovery, she still makes it a point to protect his privacy. In one update, Kay shared the real reason we don’t see her husband in her videos.

“One of the things that has been brought up — and I've mentioned it, but I wanted to speak a little more thoroughly about it — is why I don’t put Randy in my videos. The short answer is that he cannot consent to that right now,” Kay clapped back at critics.

Kay shared that although Randy has some “very lucid moments,” he’s still not ready to be on camera. “In those moments I have mentioned TikTok and that I’m doing this and he’s OK with it,” she added.

“But to me, if they’re still asking me to consent to things medically, that means he’s not ready to consent to things on his own. And he is in his absolute most vulnerable state. I don’t want to take that dignity away from him.”

If you needed convincing: Kay and her husband are living proof that love really does heal all wounds.