May 13, 2025 • 38 mins
When Shane Swenson's car was struck by a drunk driver traveling 90mph in a 30mph zone one February morning in 2019, life as he knew it changed forever. His 12-year-old son Brady suffered a traumatic brain injury that would launch the family on an unexpected journey through emergency surgeries, months of rehabilitation, and a complete reimagining of their future.
Shane vividly recalls the moment of impact—feeling "like an explosion" that momentarily paralyzed him before he turned to find Brady unconscious. What followed was a parent's worst nightmare: emergency craniectomies to relieve dangerous brain swelling, 18 days in intensive care, a broken jaw, fractured femur, and months of inpatient rehabilitation. Even after returning home, complications continued, including Brady's body rejecting his skull replacement, requiring a custom prosthetic skull that later became infected.
The most powerful thread woven through Shane's story isn't just about medical challenges—it's about how communities rally during crisis. From teachers showing up at the hospital during surgery to neighbors feeding their dogs and plowing their driveway, the outpouring of support sustained them through their darkest days. Perhaps most touching was how Brady's older brother Jacob, who has autism, stepped up to care for Brady, even waking at 4:00 AM to prepare medications so his parents could sleep.
This experience inspired the family to create the Brady Finn Foundation, which hosts the annual Lucky Brady Swenson Lucky 13 Golf Tournament (named for Brady's favorite number). The foundation supports Sacred Heart Catholic School and Crescent Cove, a rare respite facility that provides the family with crucial breaks from Brady's round-the-clock care. Though Brady remains in a wheelchair, unable to walk or speak, his story has become a powerful catalyst for giving back to the community that carried them through crisis.
Ready to help families like Brady's? Join the Lucky 13 Golf Tournament on October 11th, 2025, or learn more about how you can support the Brady Finn Foundation at Lucky13golf.net.
Facebook Page for the Lucky13 Golf Tournament
Contact Shane Swenson at shane@bradyfinnfoun
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Shane Swenson (00:00):
Brady was on Cefapine antibiotic with the
PICC line that he had, you wouldhave to take these little balls
like the size of a I don't knowracquetball or tennis ball, and
they had to refrigerate them.
But you had to take them out anhour before you administered
them, and so we were on like Idon't know what time I can't
remember what the times butJacob would actually get up in
the morning and at four o'clockin the morning, come upstairs,
(00:24):
grab one of those little balls,put it on the countertop and
then go to bed so we, Jenny andI, could sleep.
Oh, wow, yeah, I mean, it'sjust the little things, right,
and he did that for two, twomonths.
Wow, Without question, likewithout question, yeah.
So yeah it, it, it takes, ittakes everybody, you know.
(00:44):
And he.
he definitely stepped up to thechallenge.
It takes it takes everybody,you know, and he definitely
stepped up to the challenge.
Dr. Ayla Wolf (00:51):
Welcome to Life After Impact the concussion
recovery podcast.
I'm Dr Ayla Wolf and I'll behosting today's episode, where
we help you navigate the oftenconfusing, frustrating and
overwhelming journey ofconcussion and brain injury
recovery.
This podcast is your go toresource for actionable
information, whether you'redealing with a recent concussion
, struggling withpost-concussion syndrome or just
feeling stuck in your healingprocess.
(01:12):
In each episode we dive deepinto the symptoms, testing,
treatments and neurologicalinsights that can help you move
forward with clarity andconfidence.
We bring you leading experts inthe world of brain health,
functional neurology andrehabilitation to share their
wisdom and strategies.
So if you're feeling lost,hopeless or like no one
(01:33):
understands what you're goingthrough, know that you are not
alone.
This podcast can be your guideand partner in recovery, helping
you build a better life afterimpact.
(01:55):
In 2019, shane and his son,brady, were hit by a drunk
driver driving 90 miles an hourin a 30 mile an hour speed zone
on their way to school.
This accident left Brady with atraumatic brain injury that
would change his life and thelife of his family forever.
In this interview, shane sharesBrady's story and how this
experience led him and hisfamily to start the Brady Finn
Foundation, an organization thatraises money to give back to
(02:18):
the communities andorganizations that supported
them during this crisis andafterward.
Thank you for joining me forepisode 17 of the Life After
Impact podcast, which is beingreleased on May 13, 2025, in
honor of Brady Swenson's luckynumber 13.
(02:40):
All right, welcome to the LifeAfter Impact podcast, and we
have a very special episodetoday where I have Shane Swenson
on and Shane is here to talkabout his son, brady Swenson,
and the story of Brady andeverything that his family has
been through with Brady'straumatic brain injury.
So, shane, welcome to the showoh, thanks for having me.
(03:18):
I'm really happy to be here andhow that's developed, and then
everything that you're doing nowas a result.
So why don't you start out andtell us a little bit about what
happened with Brady and how hegot his traumatic brain injury,
and we'll take it from there.
Shane Swenson (03:34):
Well, the data is very fresh in my mind.
It comes up a lot Most days ofmy life I think about it.
It happened on February 5th2019, about seven o'clock in the
morning.
Day was pretty typical.
We got up, got ready for workand school Brady hopped in the
car.
I drove him every morning toschool, to Sacred Heart Catholic
(03:55):
School in Robbinsdale,minnesota, and we had stopped
and got gas that morning and itwas a little icy for being
February in Minnesota and I hadpulled out and and, uh, had
driven down the road a bit andthere was this massive.
It felt like an explosion, to behonest with you.
The airbags deployed, um, andif you've never had that happen
(04:18):
to you, it stuns you Like you.
You lose feeling in your body.
It's almost like timestampstill, and you have to wait for
the feeling to come back in yourbody.
It's almost like time standsstill and you have to wait for
the feeling to come back in yourbody before you can react to
what what just happened, and thereality sets in and then panic
ensues, right, and obviouslyBrady was my first priority and,
looking behind him, and he wasout cold.
(04:39):
He'd been knocked unconsciousand I got out and it was pretty.
I was pretty hysterical, as youcan imagine.
The impact was just incredible.
I've never experienced anythinglike that in my entire life.
And so first responders arrivedon the scene, got me to the
hospital, extracted Brady, gothim to the hospital and you know
(05:04):
it's hard to recall everythingthat happened in the way that
actually did happen, but youknow there's doctors, and then
my wife, jenny, came, and then Ihave two brothers locally that
showed up and they explained thesituation that he had.
Their biggest concern is one ofhis pupils had blown, which
means that there was pressure onthe brain and they needed to do
(05:26):
an emergency craniectomy to getthat bone off the skull off, so
he could let that brain swell.
So that's what happened andthey took him into surgery right
away while I was in the ERrecovering.
Dr. Ayla Wolf (05:42):
And you were rear-ended by a drunk driver,
correct?
That's what happened.
Shane Swenson (05:46):
Yeah yeah.
This is what blows a lot ofpeople away is that.
It was seven o'clock in themorning and, through back
channels and talking with thedetective from the New Hope
Police Department, his bloodalcohol level at 7 am was 0.319.
Dr. Ayla Wolf (06:02):
That's insane.
Shane Swenson (06:04):
That's yeah, that .
I mean.
That's almost four times thelegal limit at 7 am on a Tuesday
.
Dr. Ayla Wolf (06:10):
And now didn't he also have three previous DUIs
on his record too?
The person that hit you.
Shane Swenson (06:17):
Yeah, technically I think it was two and this
turned out to be his third one.
Yeah, but you know, just arepetitive behavior from this
man.
Dr. Ayla Wolf (06:29):
So you found yourself in the hospital.
Brady has to have emergencysurgery to relieve the pressure
on his brain.
Shane Swenson (06:35):
Yep, and they successfully removed it.
The surgery was fine.
I think they actually put theflap back on and were and we're
like wait and see.
You know, I don't think theprognosis was very good.
He was 12 years old and um heit was a very significant injury
(06:55):
.
Not only did he have atraumatic brain injury but he
had broken his jaw, um, in twoplaces and his right femur as
well.
So he was in pretty tough shapeand you know, next couple of
days, you know, he stabilizedand you know, and things were
going well.
But then I'll never forget this,the the crane cranial pressure.
(07:16):
They were always monitoring.
It was like a, like a tickingtime bomb.
You're just waiting to see.
Was it going to go up, was itgoing to go down?
And when I get it?
Just throughout the week gotworse, right?
So Saturday of that week theyactually ended up having to do
an emergency craniotomy.
So they had to remove it againto allow his brain to swell,
which, if you've never seen thatit's amazing that your body can
(07:40):
do that and recover from it.
I mean, at least you survived,know you survive that trauma.
So yeah, that that first weekwas pretty dicey, it was really
dicey.
Dr. Ayla Wolf (07:51):
And then after that he had some other
complications as well, right asfar as the the plate got
infected or there was anotherkind of infection.
Shane Swenson (08:02):
Yeah, so he ended up spending I don't remember
the exact amount of dates, Ithink it was 18 days in icu.
He spent another seven days, Ithink, and just like a like a
regular floor at at the at thehospital, before he was
transported over to saint paul,to gillette children's, where he
began in in-house rehab for thenext five months.
(08:22):
He lived there for five monthsto get the extensive rehab, and
so February was the accident,and then I know it was tax day
of 2019 that they brought himback to North Memorial, where he
had been to put the bone flapback on.
Everything was fine, but threeor four months later you could
actually tell that there wasparts of a skull that were
(08:46):
missing.
It was crazy because you couldfeel like a hole in his skull,
which was very traumatic as well.
What is going on here?
So we brought it in and turnsout it's a fairly common thing
that happens, and so they endedup having to take that it.
(09:06):
The bone basically dissolves.
It's like your body justrejects it.
After they put it back in, somet with a plastic surgeon his,
his neurosurgeon at gillette andthey had a 3d um.
I think it was a ct, could havebeen an MRI, I can't remember
and they send it off to a laband they print these things
prosthetic skulls, basically.
Dr. Ayla Wolf (09:27):
Like a custom fit based on the image.
Wow.
Shane Swenson (09:30):
Yep, based on the yep, based on the imaging, and
so then what they did was theyhad set them up for surgery.
This was in March of I think itwas 2021 or 2022.
I the years kind of just kindof get all jumbled together now,
but it was in March.
It maybe it was 2020 because Ithink it's.
(09:52):
I think it was right aroundCOVID that this happened.
And so he went in and hadsurgery, got him home,
everything was fine, and then hestarted like vomiting, like
like he'd eat vomit, you know,and didn't know what was going
on, went back to Gillette and itturned out he had an infection
in the underneath the skull cap.
(10:12):
There's a bacteria that theyhad found in there, so they had
to remove it again.
And so he and then he went on aeight week.
He had a pick line put in aneight week course of these
really, really strongantibiotics that we had to
administer through IV Um.
So Jenny and I did that everyeight hours for uh, on the eight
hours.
For two months we did this andthen in July of that year he
(10:37):
went back in and they make two,apparently, uh, in case
something happens with the firstone, so they put it on and
knock on wood, but everything'sbeen fine since then, so that
was quite an ordeal too.
Dr. Ayla Wolf (10:48):
That was really kind of a wow, yeah, and so at
this point he's, he's in awheelchair, he can't walk and he
can't speak, and he has afeeding tube, yep.
And so you guys have undergonea lot of different therapies, a
lot of rehab, but let's talkfirst about just the community
outreach and all of the supportthat you got after this happened
(11:10):
, because I know that was, youknow, so impactful after this
happened Cause I know that was,you know, so impactful.
Shane Swenson (11:19):
Yeah, you don't realize how many people are
there to help out until you'rein.
You know your most dire time ofneed, right it?
People that you, that you knewwere around, that you maybe knew
casually, were all all of asudden, um, the most important
people in your life.
You know.
When you're, when your son's in, you know, you know ICU he was
in an induced coma for eightdays.
You don't really feel likedoing anything.
(11:39):
Getting up and going to thehospital every morning was was
the only thing on our minds.
And we we have an older childtoo that still had to go to
school and you know we had toparticipate in those things.
But Brady and our older son,Jacob, had gone to, like I said,
sacred Heart Catholic Schooland I remember being in the
waiting room when Brady was insurgery and teachers, the
(12:02):
principal, the priests of theparish they were chief, we had
detectives from from the policedepartment that came and just
talked to us and just there andit just snowballed.
You know it.
Just, it started out just beingthere emotionally and then it
(12:22):
was what do you need?
Do you need food?
Do you need?
We had dogs at home and peoplewould go buy dog food and feed
our dogs twice a day.
Let them out, make sure thatthey they were taken care of.
Um, it was middle of winter,our driveway was always um, they
were taken care of.
It was middle of winter, ourdriveway was always plowed out.
We got a lot of snow that yeartoo, and just hot meals.
We didn't have to worry aboutanything, and that just made a
(12:45):
really hard situation just alittle bit easier to tolerate.
Dr. Ayla Wolf (12:50):
Yeah, the other thing is that you have to travel
for work as well, correct?
Mm-hmm, yeah, and so you alsodiscovered there's a place, I
mean.
So, so fast forward to you know, today, and Brady is still, you
know, in a wheelchair, needinga lot of support, and he was
going to school, but now he's,you know, essentially graduated,
(13:10):
correct?
And so.
so now he's, he's at home fulltime.
You have to travel for work,and so you guys have have also
discovered a place where, ifboth of you need to leave town,
you and your wife that there's aplace that can care for him,
called Crescent Cove, as well.
Shane Swenson (13:27):
Yep, yeah, that actually was interesting how
that came about.
Jenny had a, I believe was acousin that had passed away a
couple years ago ago and she wasat her funeral and I don't
remember how the conversationcame about.
But somebody had told Jennyabout this place called Crescent
Cove and we knew about itbecause it literally was
probably about two miles awayfrom where we lived in Crystal
(13:50):
for almost 20 years.
We knew it was there for almost20 years.
We knew it was there.
We didn't really know what itwas other than it was.
It was marketed as a um uh, arespite and end of life care for
kids, which is very uniquebecause this facility in the
Northwest part of Minneapolis isonly one of three in the entire
country.
Dr. Ayla Wolf (14:10):
Oh, wow.
Shane Swenson (14:11):
And yeah, so we contacted them.
You go through, I would say,kind of an interview process to
make sure that you know it's agood fit for Crescent Cove and
for Brady and it's a place thatwe can bring Brady, we schedule
time.
I had a time we get 15 nightsof respite care a year at no
(14:33):
charge, no cost to the familiesat all.
It's all donor funded care andit's amazing, yeah, and for a
family like us that you know wedon't have a lot of PCAs, we
don't have a lot of people thatcan come in and relieve us of
our responsibility that we havewith Brady.
(14:53):
So when we get theseopportunities, it's huge because
we can go away for a coupledays or three or four days or
whatever.
It's not a week or two weeks ata time, but you just get to step
back from the daily grind, Iguess, of life.
He requires full-time care.
We can't just leave him at homefor two hours and go out and
(15:16):
grab lunch, it just that.
That doesn't work for him.
He needs, he needs care all thetime.
Dr. Ayla Wolf (15:21):
And you've also had to make a lot of
modifications to your house andso you've had to kind of work
you know, a lot with insurancecompanies as well in terms of,
like getting equipment andgetting approvals for things,
and I know that has been a bitof a battle at times to like
even just getting the eye gazedevice to try to help them with
communicating via the eye gaze.
(15:42):
Do you want?
to talk a little bit about kindof that process too and the
different things that you've hadto kind of adjust and it's.
Shane Swenson (15:49):
it's always a challenge.
You know the the way thatinsurance companies view needs
of of people is kind ofincredible, but because they're
not the ones that are caring forhim and they have no idea what
his needs are, it's based off ofsomebody, what somebody else is
telling them that he may or maynot need.
So it's it's um, it'sfrustrating and it's challenging
(16:12):
, but for the most part it'sreally worked out pretty well.
You know, the state ofMinnesota has some really really
good programs out there thatare available to families that
have children with disabilitiesthat help us.
If insurance companies can'thelp out depending on what the
need or the ask is, they canstep in and help out financially
as well.
(16:32):
Because it's a, you know it'sjust not the trauma or the brain
injury as well.
Um, because it's a, you knowit's just not the trauma or the
brain injury.
I mean it's a huge financialburden to families that have
it's not just like brady, it'sfamilies that have children or
adults that have some type ofdisability.
You know it's.
We went, we tried, when bradycame home, to have a full-time
(16:52):
PCA in our house and it justdidn't work.
The best people that can carefor him are myself and Jen, and
so you know she had a greatcareer, had just started a new
job, her future was going placesand she decided it was in her
best interest and Brady's bestinterest to um to quit working
(17:13):
and and care for him full-time,best interest to um to quit
working and and care for himfull time.
So you lose a lot.
You don't just lose the childthat you knew or the life that
you knew.
There's so much more to it,yeah.
Dr. Ayla Wolf (17:24):
And I, I, I sense from Jen too.
I mean she's she's oftentalking about.
You know the Facebook groupsthat she's on and seeking out
information, and you knowfacebook groups that she's on
and seeking out information, andyou know, the thing that really
struck me from the beginning ofof meeting you two was just how
dedicated she was to tryinganything and everything under
the sun to help brady and uh, sothat's been, you know, just
(17:47):
inspiring to watch.
You know her endless search fortrying to to get him better,
and I know that she's.
Both of you have really alsofound that he struggled with
some of the medications that thedoctors had recommended and
found that he actually respondedreally well to a lot of the
natural therapies you know theherbs, the supplements, the
(18:09):
homeopathic remedies.
Talk a little bit about thatpart of it the homeopathic
remedies.
Shane Swenson (18:16):
Talk a little bit about that part of it.
Yeah, so when, when you know hewas in rehab, you talk with all
kinds of doctors right andspecialists, and we actually
connected with a doctor atGillette that was, you know he
was more open to the idea of youknow natural medications, not
where where a lot of the otherdoctors and surgeons, it's like
you know their their pathforward is you know natural
medications, not where where alot of the other doctors and
surgeons it's like you knowtheir their path forward is you
(18:38):
know medication, drugs, you knowwhatever they can do to kind of
manage the situation.
And you know don't get me wrongthere were a lot of things that
that brady required, otherwisehe wouldn't have been alive, you
know so.
Um, the we just saw as timewent on they were trying certain
things and his body would reactto him.
You know things that, like kids, have been taken for years.
Like I remember Ritalin was,was something and I can't
(18:59):
remember why they had prescribedit for him.
He just rejected it all, likeacross the like he.
We had to take him offimmediately because he had such
an adverse effect to it.
Um, and you know so it's it'sbeen a slow progression, but
it's been a couple years since.
Jenny like it, you know she'sbeen a pretty, she's a bulldog
(19:20):
when it comes to this stuff.
She, you know, she's reading,like you said, on those groups
trying to find these things, andshe found us a line of
supplements that she reallylikes, that offer certain things
.
So we were actually able toremove medications that he was
taking to help him do just basiclife function and replace it
with a natural thing that didthe same exact thing.
(19:41):
It did the same same thing andit's non-toxic and that's as a,
as a parent.
That's great, because you don'twant to.
Just, you know that poor kid'sliver is probably, you know, in
really tough shape because ofall the medication that he has
to take.
I mean, he still takes um,keppra or levotricetam for um
for seizures, which he does havefrom time to time, Um, but
(20:03):
that's really like the, the only, like true hard drug that he
takes on a day-to-day basis.
Everything else is naturalremedies.
Dr. Ayla Wolf (20:12):
It's pretty incredible, yeah, yeah it is,
and then talk a little bit aboutthe fundraiser that you started
on behalf of Brady, the golftournament that happens every
fall.
Shane Swenson (20:24):
Yeah, yeah.
So it became really apparent tous quickly after Brady's
accident that the house that welived in wasn't going to be
adequate for him.
And you know, we had kind ofbeen looking at moving a little
bit here and there but thisreally like we didn't have a
choice, really Like he just hedidn't have any mobility in that
house.
So we ended up, um, and weended up building a new house
(20:48):
and where we can have big, youknow, wider doorways and just a
more open place for him to be.
Along with that comes making newfriends in the neighborhood and
with COVID we got really closeto people in this neighborhood
and I tell you it's probably nodifferent than a lot of other
neighborhoods, but all the menin the neighborhood are they're
golf nuts, right, we like togolf, we like to get together.
(21:10):
The first year we lived outhere we had a little
neighborhood golf tournamentthat there's 16 of us and one of
the neighbors I found outreally kind of interesting.
He's one of the founders of ourfoundation.
His name is Rich Conley and intalking and making small
conversation with them turns outhe went to Sacred Heart School,
(21:31):
just like Brady did years ago.
They both played basketball andthey both wore the number 13,
brady's lucky number, and theyalso share the same birthday,
october 13th.
Oh, crazy.
Yeah, it was really, reallycrazy.
And so just in talking withRich I'm like, hey, is there
something fun we could do?
(21:52):
You know, like 13th place getstheir entry feedback or
something like that.
So that's what we and we madesome hats and you know with with
Brady's name on it and we didthat for a couple of years and
it was a lot of fun.
And then Rich and I kind of gotto talking.
We're like you know what, maybewe should break this off from
the neighborhood and maybe weshould like see if we can put a
(22:13):
tournament together and we cangive money back to sacred heart.
So sacred hearts, a privateCatholic school that requires
tuition and it's hard for somepeople to pay that tuition even
though they want to theirchildren to have a Catholic
education.
So I thought, hey, if we canget give back to them, that
that'll ease somebody else'sburden.
We had kind of Jenny and I kindof flipped that switch from
(22:36):
asking people for help all thetime and we got so much help and
people were just there for usemotionally, like you know how
we talked about it's.
We let's see what we can do togive back now let's show our
appreciation in this method.
So the first year was a 2022.
Uh, we partnered with a golfcourse um, close was 2022.
(22:57):
We partnered with a golf courseclose in Maple Grove, minnesota
, and put on a golf tournament,made a ton of money and was able
to donate a bunch of money andeverybody had a great time.
Feedback was really good.
So we did it again in 2023.
Again, it was just perfect.
It was great.
We had a good time, goodturnout, able to raise a lot of
(23:17):
money for Sacred Heart.
In between that year and thislast year in 2024, that's when
we partnered up with CrescentCove.
Jenny and I had used CrescentCove services and thought this
is just the coolest thing.
It's privately funded, itdoesn't cost us anything, which
is great.
The average daily stay costs$2,500 per kid.
(23:39):
Wow, that's Brady needs.
Brady needs a little bit morethan that.
He's $3,500.
Wow, so it's that's.
It's incredible that they canoffer that at no charge to to
families.
It's.
It's a gift, it's an absolutegift that we otherwise I don't
know if we'd be able to get outand and have any kind of
(24:00):
normalcy in a marriage withoutit, to be able to just get away
for a couple of days, um and it.
So in our thinking.
We're like you know what, let'stake this to the next level,
right, let's?
Let's not stop.
We've got the momentum behindus.
So last year it's almost comingon a year now we founded the
Brady Finn foundation thatsupports Sacred Heart and
(24:24):
Crescent Cove, and so this iskind of our going on year two,
as with our foundation, andwe've got our tournament
scheduled again for October 11ththis year and change of venue,
which we're really excited about.
It can help accommodate us alittle bit better, I guess, for
lack of better description.
So, yeah, and we're just, we'rejust getting started, we know,
(24:48):
with some planning and you knowcertain things, and now we need
people to sign up and get outthere and come golf with us.
Dr. Ayla Wolf (24:55):
Yeah, okay.
Where is the golf course thatyou're at this year?
Shane Swenson (24:58):
So it's called um pheasant acres, which is in
Corcoran, minnesota, which is aneighbor of Maple world.
So it's right If you'refamiliar with this area, um,
we're physically in Maple Grove,rogers, corcoran area, um, so
that's where we kind of keep itout this way.
A beautiful golf course it's.
I can actually see it from mybackyard, if on a good day, I
(25:19):
can see across the where thegolf course is.
I love to play it.
Good staff, it's fun.
They got a great number 13 hole, which is kind of our, our, our
highlight, our feature hole,because Brady's favorite number
was 13.
So we incorporate that intoeverything that we do.
The golf tournament istechnically called the Lucky
(25:40):
Brady Swenson Lucky 13 GolfTournament.
That's put on every year.
So yeah, it's a great event.
I look forward to it every year.
Dr. Ayla Wolf (25:48):
Do you do other things in addition to the
tournament?
Shane Swenson (25:51):
Yeah, you know, we're very fortunate that,
through channels that we haveand people that we know, we're
able to get some really greatstuff from, whether it be the
Minnesota twins or the MinnesotaTimberwolves, the Minnesota
wild, um, the Vikings have havehave given us stuff, um, and we
have random people to that tosay, hey, here's a golf set here
(26:15):
, you go, go ahead and raffle itoff and we do silent auction,
we do um, we do a uh a raffle.
We also do 50 50 if you'refamiliar with that, which is a
fun thing, you know 50.
We take 50 of the, the uh, theproceeds that come in cash wise,
and one lucky winner gets theother 50 of that.
(26:35):
So the first year we did $3,000and somebody went away with
1500 bucks that day.
So, wow, yeah, we do a lot ofdifferent things.
You know it's it's going to befun.
Dr. Ayla Wolf (26:46):
Excellent, super Well.
I will include the informationin the show notes for how people
can sign up.
Is there a website that youhave up right now or, as far as
registration, yeah, it's a, it'slucky13golfnet.
Great.
I'll include that in the shownotes.
Shane Swenson (27:02):
Yeah, there's great information out there too.
As far as about the tournament,a little bit more on Brady's
story, some pictures of him,some pictures of the golf
tournament, past sponsors.
So if you're just curious tosee what we're all about, and go
and check it out.
Dr. Ayla Wolf (27:15):
Yeah Well, I'm afraid I'm not a golfer,
otherwise I'd sign up.
I'll contribute to the raffle,since I can't swing a club.
How does that sound?
Shane Swenson (27:26):
Perfect, we'll take everything we can get,
thank you.
Dr. Ayla Wolf (27:29):
Well, is there anything else that we, you know
we haven't covered or that you'dlike to talk about in terms of
just, you know, brady'sexperience?
Shane Swenson (27:36):
I really appreciate you having me on and
and we had talked during one ofBrady's acupuncture sessions
about when you, when you have afoundation and a golf tournament
.
Golf tournaments are a dime, adozen, they're.
They're all over the place,they're.
Everybody does them.
We're no different.
It's not unique, but it'sunique to our situation.
(27:57):
But what we find reallydifficult is getting people
outside of our umbrella ofpeople that we know and that
participate to, to pay attentionto what we're doing.
You know there are so many ofthese, these golf tournaments
that give to the American cancersociety or they give to
diabetes.
You know these golf tournamentsthat give to the American
(28:17):
cancer society or they give todiabetes organizations or
research on this or that and theother thing.
But we feel that what we'redoing is no less important than
any of that.
And they're getting millionsand millions and millions of
dollars, you know, every year.
And that's great.
You know I don't begrudge themfor that.
I would just trying to get themessage out.
That's the hardest thing isoutreach, just to get somebody
(28:38):
to listen, just to bend an earand say you know what are you
guys doing?
Or take a moment, look at SacredHeart Catholic School.
I could go on and on and onabout, not just about how they
supported Brady, but how theysupported our family.
We have an older son, jacob,who's 22 years old, went through
that school.
Jacob is on the autism spectrum, struggled in the public school
(29:00):
.
I think it was because theydidn't have enough resources to
help him.
And so I reached out to theprincipal at Sacred Heart Her
name is Karen Bursey, who hasbeen a great asset to us and our
foundation and being a part ofthe golf tournament and getting
the word out for us on the onthe the school side and I just
(29:21):
said, hey, he was in the thirdgrade, can we see, can we just
try, can we just see how it goes?
And she said, let's do it.
And it was a struggle.
It was hard.
You know, children on theautism spectrum struggle in so
many aspects, and academics wasnever Jacob's like strong suit.
But he worked really hard.
(29:42):
The school worked really,really hard to accommodate him
with like a small percentage ofthe resources that a regular
public school has, and he gotthrough it and he he went on and
had a very successful highschool career.
He ran cross country, he waswell-respected, he was adored by
(30:03):
his coaches and his teammates,and now he's at the University
of Iowa attending a specialprogram called UI Reach for kids
with intellectual disabilities,that they go to this major
university and they get aspecialized education to help
them be very productive peoplein life.
(30:24):
And it's no small miracle,honestly, that Jacob's there
going through his story and justeven now remembering how hard
that was for him and us in theschool.
But that's where it all started,right, sacred heart, we have so
much to be thankful for that.
(30:44):
We got connected to thatcommunity and that community
goes back to Jenny's family,like to the thirties, the 1930s.
So it's like this, the snowballeffect that it's, it's coming
to a head.
So, um, and, and I want to makesure that kids that, and for
families that can't afford that,that we're doing something to
help them, and then also for thefamilies that are in our
(31:08):
situation to help them get toCrescent Cove and get that much
needed respite that they deserveto have.
So that's my biggest hurdleright now is just getting
somebody that just really buyinto what we're doing.
You know, because it all takesus, somebody that to relay that
message to somebody else andthen to the next person and the
next thing.
You know, you know we we have awide netcast and we're
(31:33):
expanding.
It's interesting, too, thinkingback.
I was thinking this morningabout helping Brady get ready
for his day, and to me one ofthe tragic parts of the whole
story is how Brady wasdefinitely there for Jacob all
the time, helping him navigatethrough school or just hanging
(31:55):
out with people or doing certainthings, and then Brady has an
accident and all of a suddenthat role gets reversed.
So for the longest time when,when Brady first came home from
rehab, jacob was there like hewas helping me transfer, getting
him in and out of bed, gettinghim cleaned up, getting him
dressed, getting him like he wasthere, like he would clean
(32:17):
Brady's room, he would tidy itup, he would make his bed, and
that role just kind of justflipped like on a dime.
It was just amazing to see that.
I mean, I didn't have to ask it, it was just a very fluid thing
that he would just all right,it's time to get Brady ready for
bed, let's do it.
And it's awesome when you thinkback about that.
It's just the little thingslike that that make a really
(32:40):
tough situation just a littlebit easier to tolerate.
Dr. Ayla Wolf (32:43):
Yeah Well, just really incredible when you see
people rise to the challenge andtake it on and do the hard work
.
Shane Swenson (32:51):
Yeah, yeah, he, definitely he was one of them.
I mean, I just I can't evenremember.
You know, the unfortunate thingof trauma is that I forget a
lot of the stuff that that we'vegone through.
You know, I used to have amemory that I couldn't remember
anything, and now it's astruggle just because I'm more
concerned about.
My focus is on Brady and whathis day is and I forget about
(33:14):
something like that.
I was.
He had in Brady's room.
There's a little, um, a littlepicture that, um, Jacob had
drawn, I think right after hegot hurt, cause Jacob was 15 at
the time, and it said on there acouple of stick people and it
said best friends, forever onthere, and that's what triggered
that.
That's what triggered thatmemory, as I was like, oh my God
, that's right.
I forgot about how he, and inwhen I was telling you about how
(33:36):
he Brady cefepine antibioticwith the PICC line that he had,
you would have to take theselittle balls like the size of a
racquetball or tennis ball andthey had to refrigerate them,
but you had to take them out anhour before you administered
them, and so we were on like Idon't know what time I can't
remember what the times, butJacob would actually get up in
(33:57):
the morning and at four o'clockin the morning come upstairs,
grab one of those little balls,put it on the countertop and
then go to bed.
So we, jenny and I, could sleep.
So we could just I mean, yeah, Imean it's just the little
things right, and he did thatfor two, two months without
(34:22):
question, like without question,yeah.
So yeah, it, it, it takes, ittakes everybody, you know.
And he, he definitely steppedup to the challenge and and I'm
not surprised now looking at howhe's doing, he's just about
ready to finish up his firstyear.
He comes home next weekend, um,and how he's excelled.
And you know his future, hissky's the limit, in my opinion.
Dr. Ayla Wolf (34:37):
Yeah, yeah, no, I was.
I was so happy to hear that hegot that scholarship and was
able to do that program, becauseit sounds amazing and like he's
been able to make a lot offriends and, you know, take part
in all kinds of cool activitiesand yeah, sounds really cool.
Shane Swenson (34:51):
I think he's actually kind of dreading coming
home, which is when he left.
I think he was like what did Iget myself into?
Can I really do this?
And now at the end of he's likeI'm kind of bummed out that I'm
having to come home.
Yeah, I'm like wow, what achange.
I mean so, but he's veryexcited to go back in the fall
already.
Dr. Ayla Wolf (35:10):
So Well, and I just think it's so amazing, with
everything you've been through,that you're taking that
experience and you're saying howcan we give back to all the
people who supported us?
So I think that's incredibleand I hope I can help in
spreading the word about thetournament and the fundraiser.
I will be happy to put all ofthese kind of contacts in the
show notes and, like I said, tryto spread the word and help
(35:33):
promote your tournament, brady'stournament, and try to help
make that a big success for youall.
Shane Swenson (35:38):
Yeah, I appreciate it.
Thank you so much.
Dr. Ayla Wolf (35:40):
Yeah, thanks for coming on the show and sharing
your story and Brady's storyAnytime.
Brady was on Cefapine antibiotic with the
PICC line that he had, you wouldhave to take these little balls
like the size of a I don't knowracquetball or tennis ball, and
they had to refrigerate them.
But you had to take them out anhour before you administered
them, and so we were on like Idon't know what time I can't
remember what the times butJacob would actually get up in
the morning and at four o'clockin the morning, come upstairs,
(00:24):
grab one of those little balls,put it on the countertop and
then go to bed so we, Jenny andI, could sleep.
Oh, wow, yeah, I mean, it'sjust the little things, right,
and he did that for two, twomonths.
Wow, Without question, likewithout question, yeah.
So yeah it, it, it takes, ittakes everybody, you know.
(00:44):
And he.
he definitely stepped up to thechallenge.
It takes it takes everybody,you know, and he definitely
stepped up to the challenge.
Dr. Ayla Wolf (00:51):
Welcome to Life After Impact the concussion
recovery podcast.
I'm Dr Ayla Wolf and I'll behosting today's episode, where
we help you navigate the oftenconfusing, frustrating and
overwhelming journey ofconcussion and brain injury
recovery.
This podcast is your go toresource for actionable
information, whether you'redealing with a recent concussion
, struggling withpost-concussion syndrome or just
feeling stuck in your healingprocess.
(01:12):
In each episode we dive deepinto the symptoms, testing,
treatments and neurologicalinsights that can help you move
forward with clarity andconfidence.
We bring you leading experts inthe world of brain health,
functional neurology andrehabilitation to share their
wisdom and strategies.
So if you're feeling lost,hopeless or like no one
(01:33):
understands what you're goingthrough, know that you are not
alone.
This podcast can be your guideand partner in recovery, helping
you build a better life afterimpact.
(01:55):
In 2019, shane and his son,brady, were hit by a drunk
driver driving 90 miles an hourin a 30 mile an hour speed zone
on their way to school.
This accident left Brady with atraumatic brain injury that
would change his life and thelife of his family forever.
In this interview, shane sharesBrady's story and how this
experience led him and hisfamily to start the Brady Finn
Foundation, an organization thatraises money to give back to
(02:18):
the communities andorganizations that supported
them during this crisis andafterward.
Thank you for joining me forepisode 17 of the Life After
Impact podcast, which is beingreleased on May 13, 2025, in
honor of Brady Swenson's luckynumber 13.
(02:40):
All right, welcome to the LifeAfter Impact podcast, and we
have a very special episodetoday where I have Shane Swenson
on and Shane is here to talkabout his son, brady Swenson,
and the story of Brady andeverything that his family has
been through with Brady'straumatic brain injury.
So, shane, welcome to the showoh, thanks for having me.
(03:18):
I'm really happy to be here andhow that's developed, and then
everything that you're doing nowas a result.
So why don't you start out andtell us a little bit about what
happened with Brady and how hegot his traumatic brain injury,
and we'll take it from there.
Shane Swenson (03:34):
Well, the data is very fresh in my mind.
It comes up a lot Most days ofmy life I think about it.
It happened on February 5th2019, about seven o'clock in the
morning.
Day was pretty typical.
We got up, got ready for workand school Brady hopped in the
car.
I drove him every morning toschool, to Sacred Heart Catholic
(03:55):
School in Robbinsdale,minnesota, and we had stopped
and got gas that morning and itwas a little icy for being
February in Minnesota and I hadpulled out and and, uh, had
driven down the road a bit andthere was this massive.
It felt like an explosion, to behonest with you.
The airbags deployed, um, andif you've never had that happen
(04:18):
to you, it stuns you Like you.
You lose feeling in your body.
It's almost like timestampstill, and you have to wait for
the feeling to come back in yourbody.
It's almost like time standsstill and you have to wait for
the feeling to come back in yourbody before you can react to
what what just happened, and thereality sets in and then panic
ensues, right, and obviouslyBrady was my first priority and,
looking behind him, and he wasout cold.
(04:39):
He'd been knocked unconsciousand I got out and it was pretty.
I was pretty hysterical, as youcan imagine.
The impact was just incredible.
I've never experienced anythinglike that in my entire life.
And so first responders arrivedon the scene, got me to the
hospital, extracted Brady, gothim to the hospital and you know
(05:04):
it's hard to recall everythingthat happened in the way that
actually did happen, but youknow there's doctors, and then
my wife, jenny, came, and then Ihave two brothers locally that
showed up and they explained thesituation that he had.
Their biggest concern is one ofhis pupils had blown, which
means that there was pressure onthe brain and they needed to do
(05:26):
an emergency craniectomy to getthat bone off the skull off, so
he could let that brain swell.
So that's what happened andthey took him into surgery right
away while I was in the ERrecovering.
Dr. Ayla Wolf (05:42):
And you were rear-ended by a drunk driver,
correct?
That's what happened.
Shane Swenson (05:46):
Yeah yeah.
This is what blows a lot ofpeople away is that.
It was seven o'clock in themorning and, through back
channels and talking with thedetective from the New Hope
Police Department, his bloodalcohol level at 7 am was 0.319.
Dr. Ayla Wolf (06:02):
That's insane.
Shane Swenson (06:04):
That's yeah, that .
I mean.
That's almost four times thelegal limit at 7 am on a Tuesday
.
Dr. Ayla Wolf (06:10):
And now didn't he also have three previous DUIs
on his record too?
The person that hit you.
Shane Swenson (06:17):
Yeah, technically I think it was two and this
turned out to be his third one.
Yeah, but you know, just arepetitive behavior from this
man.
Dr. Ayla Wolf (06:29):
So you found yourself in the hospital.
Brady has to have emergencysurgery to relieve the pressure
on his brain.
Shane Swenson (06:35):
Yep, and they successfully removed it.
The surgery was fine.
I think they actually put theflap back on and were and we're
like wait and see.
You know, I don't think theprognosis was very good.
He was 12 years old and um heit was a very significant injury
(06:55):
.
Not only did he have atraumatic brain injury but he
had broken his jaw, um, in twoplaces and his right femur as
well.
So he was in pretty tough shapeand you know, next couple of
days, you know, he stabilizedand you know, and things were
going well.
But then I'll never forget this,the the crane cranial pressure.
(07:16):
They were always monitoring.
It was like a, like a tickingtime bomb.
You're just waiting to see.
Was it going to go up, was itgoing to go down?
And when I get it?
Just throughout the week gotworse, right?
So Saturday of that week theyactually ended up having to do
an emergency craniotomy.
So they had to remove it againto allow his brain to swell,
which, if you've never seen thatit's amazing that your body can
(07:40):
do that and recover from it.
I mean, at least you survived,know you survive that trauma.
So yeah, that that first weekwas pretty dicey, it was really
dicey.
Dr. Ayla Wolf (07:51):
And then after that he had some other
complications as well, right asfar as the the plate got
infected or there was anotherkind of infection.
Shane Swenson (08:02):
Yeah, so he ended up spending I don't remember
the exact amount of dates, Ithink it was 18 days in icu.
He spent another seven days, Ithink, and just like a like a
regular floor at at the at thehospital, before he was
transported over to saint paul,to gillette children's, where he
began in in-house rehab for thenext five months.
(08:22):
He lived there for five monthsto get the extensive rehab, and
so February was the accident,and then I know it was tax day
of 2019 that they brought himback to North Memorial, where he
had been to put the bone flapback on.
Everything was fine, but threeor four months later you could
actually tell that there wasparts of a skull that were
(08:46):
missing.
It was crazy because you couldfeel like a hole in his skull,
which was very traumatic as well.
What is going on here?
So we brought it in and turnsout it's a fairly common thing
that happens, and so they endedup having to take that it.
(09:06):
The bone basically dissolves.
It's like your body justrejects it.
After they put it back in, somet with a plastic surgeon his,
his neurosurgeon at gillette andthey had a 3d um.
I think it was a ct, could havebeen an MRI, I can't remember
and they send it off to a laband they print these things
prosthetic skulls, basically.
Dr. Ayla Wolf (09:27):
Like a custom fit based on the image.
Wow.
Shane Swenson (09:30):
Yep, based on the yep, based on the imaging, and
so then what they did was theyhad set them up for surgery.
This was in March of I think itwas 2021 or 2022.
I the years kind of just kindof get all jumbled together now,
but it was in March.
It maybe it was 2020 because Ithink it's.
(09:52):
I think it was right aroundCOVID that this happened.
And so he went in and hadsurgery, got him home,
everything was fine, and then hestarted like vomiting, like
like he'd eat vomit, you know,and didn't know what was going
on, went back to Gillette and itturned out he had an infection
in the underneath the skull cap.
(10:12):
There's a bacteria that theyhad found in there, so they had
to remove it again.
And so he and then he went on aeight week.
He had a pick line put in aneight week course of these
really, really strongantibiotics that we had to
administer through IV Um.
So Jenny and I did that everyeight hours for uh, on the eight
hours.
For two months we did this andthen in July of that year he
(10:37):
went back in and they make two,apparently, uh, in case
something happens with the firstone, so they put it on and
knock on wood, but everything'sbeen fine since then, so that
was quite an ordeal too.
Dr. Ayla Wolf (10:48):
That was really kind of a wow, yeah, and so at
this point he's, he's in awheelchair, he can't walk and he
can't speak, and he has afeeding tube, yep.
And so you guys have undergonea lot of different therapies, a
lot of rehab, but let's talkfirst about just the community
outreach and all of the supportthat you got after this happened
(11:10):
, because I know that was, youknow, so impactful after this
happened Cause I know that was,you know, so impactful.
Shane Swenson (11:19):
Yeah, you don't realize how many people are
there to help out until you'rein.
You know your most dire time ofneed, right it?
People that you, that you knewwere around, that you maybe knew
casually, were all all of asudden, um, the most important
people in your life.
You know.
When you're, when your son's in, you know, you know ICU he was
in an induced coma for eightdays.
You don't really feel likedoing anything.
(11:39):
Getting up and going to thehospital every morning was was
the only thing on our minds.
And we we have an older childtoo that still had to go to
school and you know we had toparticipate in those things.
But Brady and our older son,Jacob, had gone to, like I said,
sacred Heart Catholic Schooland I remember being in the
waiting room when Brady was insurgery and teachers, the
(12:02):
principal, the priests of theparish they were chief, we had
detectives from from the policedepartment that came and just
talked to us and just there andit just snowballed.
You know it.
Just, it started out just beingthere emotionally and then it
(12:22):
was what do you need?
Do you need food?
Do you need?
We had dogs at home and peoplewould go buy dog food and feed
our dogs twice a day.
Let them out, make sure thatthey they were taken care of.
Um, it was middle of winter,our driveway was always um, they
were taken care of.
It was middle of winter, ourdriveway was always plowed out.
We got a lot of snow that yeartoo, and just hot meals.
We didn't have to worry aboutanything, and that just made a
(12:45):
really hard situation just alittle bit easier to tolerate.
Dr. Ayla Wolf (12:50):
Yeah, the other thing is that you have to travel
for work as well, correct?
Mm-hmm, yeah, and so you alsodiscovered there's a place, I
mean.
So, so fast forward to you know, today, and Brady is still, you
know, in a wheelchair, needinga lot of support, and he was
going to school, but now he's,you know, essentially graduated,
(13:10):
correct?
And so.
so now he's, he's at home fulltime.
You have to travel for work,and so you guys have have also
discovered a place where, ifboth of you need to leave town,
you and your wife that there's aplace that can care for him,
called Crescent Cove, as well.
Shane Swenson (13:27):
Yep, yeah, that actually was interesting how
that came about.
Jenny had a, I believe was acousin that had passed away a
couple years ago ago and she wasat her funeral and I don't
remember how the conversationcame about.
But somebody had told Jennyabout this place called Crescent
Cove and we knew about itbecause it literally was
probably about two miles awayfrom where we lived in Crystal
(13:50):
for almost 20 years.
We knew it was there for almost20 years.
We knew it was there.
We didn't really know what itwas other than it was.
It was marketed as a um uh, arespite and end of life care for
kids, which is very uniquebecause this facility in the
Northwest part of Minneapolis isonly one of three in the entire
country.
Dr. Ayla Wolf (14:10):
Oh, wow.
Shane Swenson (14:11):
And yeah, so we contacted them.
You go through, I would say,kind of an interview process to
make sure that you know it's agood fit for Crescent Cove and
for Brady and it's a place thatwe can bring Brady, we schedule
time.
I had a time we get 15 nightsof respite care a year at no
(14:33):
charge, no cost to the familiesat all.
It's all donor funded care andit's amazing, yeah, and for a
family like us that you know wedon't have a lot of PCAs, we
don't have a lot of people thatcan come in and relieve us of
our responsibility that we havewith Brady.
(14:53):
So when we get theseopportunities, it's huge because
we can go away for a coupledays or three or four days or
whatever.
It's not a week or two weeks ata time, but you just get to step
back from the daily grind, Iguess, of life.
He requires full-time care.
We can't just leave him at homefor two hours and go out and
(15:16):
grab lunch, it just that.
That doesn't work for him.
He needs, he needs care all thetime.
Dr. Ayla Wolf (15:21):
And you've also had to make a lot of
modifications to your house andso you've had to kind of work
you know, a lot with insurancecompanies as well in terms of,
like getting equipment andgetting approvals for things,
and I know that has been a bitof a battle at times to like
even just getting the eye gazedevice to try to help them with
communicating via the eye gaze.
(15:42):
Do you want?
to talk a little bit about kindof that process too and the
different things that you've hadto kind of adjust and it's.
Shane Swenson (15:49):
it's always a challenge.
You know the the way thatinsurance companies view needs
of of people is kind ofincredible, but because they're
not the ones that are caring forhim and they have no idea what
his needs are, it's based off ofsomebody, what somebody else is
telling them that he may or maynot need.
So it's it's um, it'sfrustrating and it's challenging
(16:12):
, but for the most part it'sreally worked out pretty well.
You know, the state ofMinnesota has some really really
good programs out there thatare available to families that
have children with disabilitiesthat help us.
If insurance companies can'thelp out depending on what the
need or the ask is, they canstep in and help out financially
as well.
(16:32):
Because it's a, you know it'sjust not the trauma or the brain
injury as well.
Um, because it's a, you knowit's just not the trauma or the
brain injury.
I mean it's a huge financialburden to families that have
it's not just like brady, it'sfamilies that have children or
adults that have some type ofdisability.
You know it's.
We went, we tried, when bradycame home, to have a full-time
(16:52):
PCA in our house and it justdidn't work.
The best people that can carefor him are myself and Jen, and
so you know she had a greatcareer, had just started a new
job, her future was going placesand she decided it was in her
best interest and Brady's bestinterest to um to quit working
(17:13):
and and care for him full-time,best interest to um to quit
working and and care for himfull time.
So you lose a lot.
You don't just lose the childthat you knew or the life that
you knew.
There's so much more to it,yeah.
Dr. Ayla Wolf (17:24):
And I, I, I sense from Jen too.
I mean she's she's oftentalking about.
You know the Facebook groupsthat she's on and seeking out
information, and you knowfacebook groups that she's on
and seeking out information, andyou know, the thing that really
struck me from the beginning ofof meeting you two was just how
dedicated she was to tryinganything and everything under
the sun to help brady and uh, sothat's been, you know, just
(17:47):
inspiring to watch.
You know her endless search fortrying to to get him better,
and I know that she's.
Both of you have really alsofound that he struggled with
some of the medications that thedoctors had recommended and
found that he actually respondedreally well to a lot of the
natural therapies you know theherbs, the supplements, the
(18:09):
homeopathic remedies.
Talk a little bit about thatpart of it the homeopathic
remedies.
Shane Swenson (18:16):
Talk a little bit about that part of it.
Yeah, so when, when you know hewas in rehab, you talk with all
kinds of doctors right andspecialists, and we actually
connected with a doctor atGillette that was, you know he
was more open to the idea of youknow natural medications, not
where where a lot of the otherdoctors and surgeons, it's like
you know their their pathforward is you know natural
medications, not where where alot of the other doctors and
surgeons it's like you knowtheir their path forward is you
(18:38):
know medication, drugs, you knowwhatever they can do to kind of
manage the situation.
And you know don't get me wrongthere were a lot of things that
that brady required, otherwisehe wouldn't have been alive, you
know so.
Um, the we just saw as timewent on they were trying certain
things and his body would reactto him.
You know things that, like kids, have been taken for years.
Like I remember Ritalin was,was something and I can't
(18:59):
remember why they had prescribedit for him.
He just rejected it all, likeacross the like he.
We had to take him offimmediately because he had such
an adverse effect to it.
Um, and you know so it's it'sbeen a slow progression, but
it's been a couple years since.
Jenny like it, you know she'sbeen a pretty, she's a bulldog
(19:20):
when it comes to this stuff.
She, you know, she's reading,like you said, on those groups
trying to find these things, andshe found us a line of
supplements that she reallylikes, that offer certain things
.
So we were actually able toremove medications that he was
taking to help him do just basiclife function and replace it
with a natural thing that didthe same exact thing.
(19:41):
It did the same same thing andit's non-toxic and that's as a,
as a parent.
That's great, because you don'twant to.
Just, you know that poor kid'sliver is probably, you know, in
really tough shape because ofall the medication that he has
to take.
I mean, he still takes um,keppra or levotricetam for um
for seizures, which he does havefrom time to time, Um, but
(20:03):
that's really like the, the only, like true hard drug that he
takes on a day-to-day basis.
Everything else is naturalremedies.
Dr. Ayla Wolf (20:12):
It's pretty incredible, yeah, yeah it is,
and then talk a little bit aboutthe fundraiser that you started
on behalf of Brady, the golftournament that happens every
fall.
Shane Swenson (20:24):
Yeah, yeah.
So it became really apparent tous quickly after Brady's
accident that the house that welived in wasn't going to be
adequate for him.
And you know, we had kind ofbeen looking at moving a little
bit here and there but thisreally like we didn't have a
choice, really Like he just hedidn't have any mobility in that
house.
So we ended up, um, and weended up building a new house
(20:48):
and where we can have big, youknow, wider doorways and just a
more open place for him to be.
Along with that comes making newfriends in the neighborhood and
with COVID we got really closeto people in this neighborhood
and I tell you it's probably nodifferent than a lot of other
neighborhoods, but all the menin the neighborhood are they're
golf nuts, right, we like togolf, we like to get together.
(21:10):
The first year we lived outhere we had a little
neighborhood golf tournamentthat there's 16 of us and one of
the neighbors I found outreally kind of interesting.
He's one of the founders of ourfoundation.
His name is Rich Conley and intalking and making small
conversation with them turns outhe went to Sacred Heart School,
(21:31):
just like Brady did years ago.
They both played basketball andthey both wore the number 13,
brady's lucky number, and theyalso share the same birthday,
october 13th.
Oh, crazy.
Yeah, it was really, reallycrazy.
And so just in talking withRich I'm like, hey, is there
something fun we could do?
(21:52):
You know, like 13th place getstheir entry feedback or
something like that.
So that's what we and we madesome hats and you know with with
Brady's name on it and we didthat for a couple of years and
it was a lot of fun.
And then Rich and I kind of gotto talking.
We're like you know what, maybewe should break this off from
the neighborhood and maybe weshould like see if we can put a
(22:13):
tournament together and we cangive money back to sacred heart.
So sacred hearts, a privateCatholic school that requires
tuition and it's hard for somepeople to pay that tuition even
though they want to theirchildren to have a Catholic
education.
So I thought, hey, if we canget give back to them, that
that'll ease somebody else'sburden.
We had kind of Jenny and I kindof flipped that switch from
(22:36):
asking people for help all thetime and we got so much help and
people were just there for usemotionally, like you know how
we talked about it's.
We let's see what we can do togive back now let's show our
appreciation in this method.
So the first year was a 2022.
Uh, we partnered with a golfcourse um, close was 2022.
(22:57):
We partnered with a golf courseclose in Maple Grove, minnesota
, and put on a golf tournament,made a ton of money and was able
to donate a bunch of money andeverybody had a great time.
Feedback was really good.
So we did it again in 2023.
Again, it was just perfect.
It was great.
We had a good time, goodturnout, able to raise a lot of
(23:17):
money for Sacred Heart.
In between that year and thislast year in 2024, that's when
we partnered up with CrescentCove.
Jenny and I had used CrescentCove services and thought this
is just the coolest thing.
It's privately funded, itdoesn't cost us anything, which
is great.
The average daily stay costs$2,500 per kid.
(23:39):
Wow, that's Brady needs.
Brady needs a little bit morethan that.
He's $3,500.
Wow, so it's that's.
It's incredible that they canoffer that at no charge to to
families.
It's.
It's a gift, it's an absolutegift that we otherwise I don't
know if we'd be able to get outand and have any kind of
(24:00):
normalcy in a marriage withoutit, to be able to just get away
for a couple of days, um and it.
So in our thinking.
We're like you know what, let'stake this to the next level,
right, let's?
Let's not stop.
We've got the momentum behindus.
So last year it's almost comingon a year now we founded the
Brady Finn foundation thatsupports Sacred Heart and
(24:24):
Crescent Cove, and so this iskind of our going on year two,
as with our foundation, andwe've got our tournament
scheduled again for October 11ththis year and change of venue,
which we're really excited about.
It can help accommodate us alittle bit better, I guess, for
lack of better description.
So, yeah, and we're just, we'rejust getting started, we know,
(24:48):
with some planning and you knowcertain things, and now we need
people to sign up and get outthere and come golf with us.
Dr. Ayla Wolf (24:55):
Yeah, okay.
Where is the golf course thatyou're at this year?
Shane Swenson (24:58):
So it's called um pheasant acres, which is in
Corcoran, minnesota, which is aneighbor of Maple world.
So it's right If you'refamiliar with this area, um,
we're physically in Maple Grove,rogers, corcoran area, um, so
that's where we kind of keep itout this way.
A beautiful golf course it's.
I can actually see it from mybackyard, if on a good day, I
(25:19):
can see across the where thegolf course is.
I love to play it.
Good staff, it's fun.
They got a great number 13 hole, which is kind of our, our, our
highlight, our feature hole,because Brady's favorite number
was 13.
So we incorporate that intoeverything that we do.
The golf tournament istechnically called the Lucky
(25:40):
Brady Swenson Lucky 13 GolfTournament.
That's put on every year.
So yeah, it's a great event.
I look forward to it every year.
Dr. Ayla Wolf (25:48):
Do you do other things in addition to the
tournament?
Shane Swenson (25:51):
Yeah, you know, we're very fortunate that,
through channels that we haveand people that we know, we're
able to get some really greatstuff from, whether it be the
Minnesota twins or the MinnesotaTimberwolves, the Minnesota
wild, um, the Vikings have havehave given us stuff, um, and we
have random people to that tosay, hey, here's a golf set here
(26:15):
, you go, go ahead and raffle itoff and we do silent auction,
we do um, we do a uh a raffle.
We also do 50 50 if you'refamiliar with that, which is a
fun thing, you know 50.
We take 50 of the, the uh, theproceeds that come in cash wise,
and one lucky winner gets theother 50 of that.
(26:35):
So the first year we did $3,000and somebody went away with
1500 bucks that day.
So, wow, yeah, we do a lot ofdifferent things.
You know it's it's going to befun.
Dr. Ayla Wolf (26:46):
Excellent, super Well.
I will include the informationin the show notes for how people
can sign up.
Is there a website that youhave up right now or, as far as
registration, yeah, it's a, it'slucky13golfnet.
Great.
I'll include that in the shownotes.
Shane Swenson (27:02):
Yeah, there's great information out there too.
As far as about the tournament,a little bit more on Brady's
story, some pictures of him,some pictures of the golf
tournament, past sponsors.
So if you're just curious tosee what we're all about, and go
and check it out.
Dr. Ayla Wolf (27:15):
Yeah Well, I'm afraid I'm not a golfer,
otherwise I'd sign up.
I'll contribute to the raffle,since I can't swing a club.
How does that sound?
Shane Swenson (27:26):
Perfect, we'll take everything we can get,
thank you.
Dr. Ayla Wolf (27:29):
Well, is there anything else that we, you know
we haven't covered or that you'dlike to talk about in terms of
just, you know, brady'sexperience?
Shane Swenson (27:36):
I really appreciate you having me on and
and we had talked during one ofBrady's acupuncture sessions
about when you, when you have afoundation and a golf tournament
.
Golf tournaments are a dime, adozen, they're.
They're all over the place,they're.
Everybody does them.
We're no different.
It's not unique, but it'sunique to our situation.
(27:57):
But what we find reallydifficult is getting people
outside of our umbrella ofpeople that we know and that
participate to, to pay attentionto what we're doing.
You know there are so many ofthese, these golf tournaments
that give to the American cancersociety or they give to
diabetes.
You know these golf tournamentsthat give to the American
(28:17):
cancer society or they give todiabetes organizations or
research on this or that and theother thing.
But we feel that what we'redoing is no less important than
any of that.
And they're getting millionsand millions and millions of
dollars, you know, every year.
And that's great.
You know I don't begrudge themfor that.
I would just trying to get themessage out.
That's the hardest thing isoutreach, just to get somebody
(28:38):
to listen, just to bend an earand say you know what are you
guys doing?
Or take a moment, look at SacredHeart Catholic School.
I could go on and on and onabout, not just about how they
supported Brady, but how theysupported our family.
We have an older son, jacob,who's 22 years old, went through
that school.
Jacob is on the autism spectrum, struggled in the public school
(29:00):
.
I think it was because theydidn't have enough resources to
help him.
And so I reached out to theprincipal at Sacred Heart Her
name is Karen Bursey, who hasbeen a great asset to us and our
foundation and being a part ofthe golf tournament and getting
the word out for us on the onthe the school side and I just
(29:21):
said, hey, he was in the thirdgrade, can we see, can we just
try, can we just see how it goes?
And she said, let's do it.
And it was a struggle.
It was hard.
You know, children on theautism spectrum struggle in so
many aspects, and academics wasnever Jacob's like strong suit.
But he worked really hard.
(29:42):
The school worked really,really hard to accommodate him
with like a small percentage ofthe resources that a regular
public school has, and he gotthrough it and he he went on and
had a very successful highschool career.
He ran cross country, he waswell-respected, he was adored by
(30:03):
his coaches and his teammates,and now he's at the University
of Iowa attending a specialprogram called UI Reach for kids
with intellectual disabilities,that they go to this major
university and they get aspecialized education to help
them be very productive peoplein life.
(30:24):
And it's no small miracle,honestly, that Jacob's there
going through his story and justeven now remembering how hard
that was for him and us in theschool.
But that's where it all started,right, sacred heart, we have so
much to be thankful for that.
(30:44):
We got connected to thatcommunity and that community
goes back to Jenny's family,like to the thirties, the 1930s.
So it's like this, the snowballeffect that it's, it's coming
to a head.
So, um, and, and I want to makesure that kids that, and for
families that can't afford that,that we're doing something to
help them, and then also for thefamilies that are in our
(31:08):
situation to help them get toCrescent Cove and get that much
needed respite that they deserveto have.
So that's my biggest hurdleright now is just getting
somebody that just really buyinto what we're doing.
You know, because it all takesus, somebody that to relay that
message to somebody else andthen to the next person and the
next thing.
You know, you know we we have awide netcast and we're
(31:33):
expanding.
It's interesting, too, thinkingback.
I was thinking this morningabout helping Brady get ready
for his day, and to me one ofthe tragic parts of the whole
story is how Brady wasdefinitely there for Jacob all
the time, helping him navigatethrough school or just hanging
(31:55):
out with people or doing certainthings, and then Brady has an
accident and all of a suddenthat role gets reversed.
So for the longest time when,when Brady first came home from
rehab, jacob was there like hewas helping me transfer, getting
him in and out of bed, gettinghim cleaned up, getting him
dressed, getting him like he wasthere, like he would clean
(32:17):
Brady's room, he would tidy itup, he would make his bed, and
that role just kind of justflipped like on a dime.
It was just amazing to see that.
I mean, I didn't have to ask it, it was just a very fluid thing
that he would just all right,it's time to get Brady ready for
bed, let's do it.
And it's awesome when you thinkback about that.
It's just the little thingslike that that make a really
(32:40):
tough situation just a littlebit easier to tolerate.
Dr. Ayla Wolf (32:43):
Yeah Well, just really incredible when you see
people rise to the challenge andtake it on and do the hard work
.
Shane Swenson (32:51):
Yeah, yeah, he, definitely he was one of them.
I mean, I just I can't evenremember.
You know, the unfortunate thingof trauma is that I forget a
lot of the stuff that that we'vegone through.
You know, I used to have amemory that I couldn't remember
anything, and now it's astruggle just because I'm more
concerned about.
My focus is on Brady and whathis day is and I forget about
(33:14):
something like that.
I was.
He had in Brady's room.
There's a little, um, a littlepicture that, um, Jacob had
drawn, I think right after hegot hurt, cause Jacob was 15 at
the time, and it said on there acouple of stick people and it
said best friends, forever onthere, and that's what triggered
that.
That's what triggered thatmemory, as I was like, oh my God
, that's right.
I forgot about how he, and inwhen I was telling you about how
(33:36):
he Brady cefepine antibioticwith the PICC line that he had,
you would have to take theselittle balls like the size of a
racquetball or tennis ball andthey had to refrigerate them,
but you had to take them out anhour before you administered
them, and so we were on like Idon't know what time I can't
remember what the times, butJacob would actually get up in
(33:57):
the morning and at four o'clockin the morning come upstairs,
grab one of those little balls,put it on the countertop and
then go to bed.
So we, jenny and I, could sleep.
So we could just I mean, yeah, Imean it's just the little
things right, and he did thatfor two, two months without
(34:22):
question, like without question,yeah.
So yeah, it, it, it takes, ittakes everybody, you know.
And he, he definitely steppedup to the challenge and and I'm
not surprised now looking at howhe's doing, he's just about
ready to finish up his firstyear.
He comes home next weekend, um,and how he's excelled.
And you know his future, hissky's the limit, in my opinion.
Dr. Ayla Wolf (34:37):
Yeah, yeah, no, I was.
I was so happy to hear that hegot that scholarship and was
able to do that program, becauseit sounds amazing and like he's
been able to make a lot offriends and, you know, take part
in all kinds of cool activitiesand yeah, sounds really cool.
Shane Swenson (34:51):
I think he's actually kind of dreading coming
home, which is when he left.
I think he was like what did Iget myself into?
Can I really do this?
And now at the end of he's likeI'm kind of bummed out that I'm
having to come home.
Yeah, I'm like wow, what achange.
I mean so, but he's veryexcited to go back in the fall
already.
Dr. Ayla Wolf (35:10):
So Well, and I just think it's so amazing, with
everything you've been through,that you're taking that
experience and you're saying howcan we give back to all the
people who supported us?
So I think that's incredibleand I hope I can help in
spreading the word about thetournament and the fundraiser.
I will be happy to put all ofthese kind of contacts in the
show notes and, like I said, tryto spread the word and help
(35:33):
promote your tournament, brady'stournament, and try to help
make that a big success for youall.
Shane Swenson (35:38):
Yeah, I appreciate it.
Thank you so much.
Dr. Ayla Wolf (35:40):
Yeah, thanks for coming on the show and sharing
your story and Brady's storyAnytime.
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