CEDAR PARK, Texas — For Lauren Frank, there were many reasons why she fell in love with Brian Frank, an Illinois state trooper. Humble, kind and never boastful, Lauren Frank said he also has a keen eye for people and all of their details.
"Our first date, we played catch because one time he heard me say that I loved to play catch with my dad growing up," Lauren Frank said.
In 2018, the two married, with Lauren Frank taking those vows to heart.
"No matter what, this is the person that I would be willing to sacrifice, you know, myself for," Lauren Frank said.
That willingness to sacrifice was displayed in 2021 when Brian Frank responded to a crash in a snowstorm where a driver hit his squad car at 80 mph. Brian Frank suffered a severe traumatic brain injury that Lauren Frank calls "devastating" and "traumatic," leaving the couple on a "really long road."
"It was an instant thrust into a brand new reality of just fight or flight, not knowing if he was going to survive. And still, with the complications with his brain injury, like, if he'll ever be the same, if he'll ever come out of this. Because he lost consciousness," Lauren Frank said.
Originally told there might not be hope, Lauren Frank admits they have been living in a world that is confusing and gray.
"He was in a medically-induced coma. Then, he was on his own natural coma to a vegetative state, which is now called unresponsive wakefulness, and he was there for a long time, which is scary," Lauren Frank said.
For almost two years now, Brian Frank has been minimally conscious, which means his eyes are open and oriented and he can look around.
"He is needing full assistance of you can't get up, walk, talk, ask for what he needs, drink or eat," Lauren Frank said.
In Chicago, Lauren Frank felt hope dwindling. They were doing all the traditional therapies and medical appointments, but nothing was moving the needle.
"I often feel very pitied or very foolish trying to take Brian to get help because they look at Brian and say, 'Well, this is probably the furthest he's going to go,'" Lauren Frank said.
But hope for their family arrived in the form of NeuroSolution Center of Austin in Cedar Park. Lauren Frank found the clinic on social media, compelled to do something different.
Brandon Crawford is the owner and founder who is dedicated to forming new pathways in Brian Frank's brain.
"He actually has a lot of potential there," Crawford said. "There was a lot left on the table for Brian that was not actually looked at or leveraged."
With Lauren and Brian Frank in town, Cedar Park police also visited them at their Airbnb, returning the same gesture of service a state trooper made to his community and the same vows a wife first made to her husband.
"What I'm sacrificing, in the grand scheme of what he has sacrificed, is nothing," Lauren Frank said.
The couple plans to stay in Central Texas for a month and hopes to come back for more treatment in the future.