Roxana Delgado is no stranger to being in a room surrounded by high-ranking military officials. As an advocate for soldiers who have suffered traumatic brain injuries (TBI) and their families, Delgado has had one-on-one conversations with top military brass, and spoken at several events including last year’s Joint Marine Corps and Army Symposium.

But Delgado, a doctoral student in UTEP’s College of Health Sciences, was in awe as she sat 100 feet from President Barack Obama in the House Chambers during his State of the Union address on Jan. 24.“I wasn’t nervous, but it was surreal,” Delgado said. “It’s an experience that you never think is going to happen.”

U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, invited Delgado to Washington, D.C., to take the seat of his wife, Carolina, who was unable to attend the speech.

Delgado and her husband, Staff Sgt. Victor Medina, met Reyes and his wife last April when the two couples were flying back to El Paso from Washington, D.C. Their flight was delayed and Delgado and Medina passed the time sharing their story about Medina’s traumatic brain injury.

On June 29, 2009, Medina was wounded while serving in Operation Iraqi Freedom when an explosive formed projectile blew up near his vehicle while he was on patrol. The explosion missed his head by about two feet.

“This explosive formed projectile is one of the most powerful IEDs (improvised explosive device). Usually soldiers with that type of IED die, but he made it,” Delgado said.

The explosion however, had its physical and emotional consequences.

“The event on 29 Jun 09 changed my life,” Medina wrote on his website, TBIWarrior.com. “I had a concussion from the blast. I do not remember losing consciousness, but I do remember waking up … I was confused and extremely slow. It was like that day being in slow motion.”

Medina was transported to an aid station and then returned to active duty.

Delgado and Medina would Skype every other day, and she began noticing changes in her husband. His face was drooping on his left side and he had tremors and couldn’t think straight, Delgado said.

“He couldn’t understand what I was saying,” she said. "I found that he wasn’t the person he was like a week prior.”

Medina’s first sergeant contacted Delgado, who said there was something wrong with her husband. He described Medina’s symptoms, which Delgado recognized as those of a traumatic brain injury patient.  

Delgado, a senior research associate at Samueli Institute on Fort Bliss, was very familiar with TBIs through her work at the institute, which is a military medical research program that focuses on complementary, alternative and integrative medicine.

She sent the first sergeant manuals and guidelines about TBIs from the Defense Center of Excellence, and he immediately sent Medina for a CT scan. Medina was then transferred to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, where an MRI showed bleeding in his brain.

After three weeks, Medina was sent home, where the road to recovery has been challenging.  

To this day, Medina has problems with his vision, hearing and balance.

Delgado said her husband wanted to tell his story to create awareness about traumatic brain injuries. He created TBIWarrior.com and began to blog about his recovery.  

“He said, ‘I’m going to be a TBI warrior because this is about TBI and I’m a warrior fighting for my health and the health of others,’” Delgado said.

Through it all, Delgado has been at his side. She also has a blog, TBIArmyWife, on the website where she discusses her experiences dealing with her husband’s injury.

“Sometimes we focus so much on the wounded warrior that we forget the family, and we are the backbone of the healing process,” she said.

Delgado works with families and has a support group in conjunction with the Warrior Transition Battalion on Fort Bliss, where she helps others cope with their situations.

The couple’s mission is to create awareness about traumatic brain injuries, change policy, introduce new programs, and involve family members of wounded soldiers in the recovery process.

"One of the issues Ms. Delgado and her husband faced was lack of understanding about treatment for traumatic brain injuries," Reyes said in a press release. "They worked to increase understanding of this issue and to expand treatment options. Military members from all branches of service have benefited from their efforts, and care for those affected by TBI has been improved by this family and others who have become tireless advocates for those injured in combat."

Delgado received her bachelor’s in biology and her master's in epidemiology from the University of Puerto Rico. She is in the final stages of her Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Health Sciences from UTEP, where she is about to start her dissertation on traumatic brain injuries.

Sandra Aguirre-Covarrubias, assistant director for Graduate Studies and Research at UTEP’s College of Engineering, has known Delgado and her husband for the past seven years. She said her friend has helped educate and comfort others in similar situations with her story.

“I believe she has embarked on a quest to provide the support her husband needs, inform others, but most of all seek the medical help survivors and their families desperately need,” Aguirre-Covarrubias said.

Delgado said her invitation to the State of the Union Address has helped boost awareness about TBIs. At a reception hosted by U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Delgado had the opportunity to share her story with the former Speaker of the House.

What hit home for Delgado about the President’s speech was when he spoke about how the Navy Seals worked together in their mission to bring down Osama Bin Laden.

“It’s true. In the military nobody asks you, ‘What is your political party?’ We all work together in one mission and we just get it done,” she said. “As a spouse, we have our own missions. When the soldiers deploy, we take care of things at home, we never look at political parties or anything; we just get it done.”