32 year old Zach Brooks was an intelligence officer for the North Carolina Army National Guard. He was deployed to Kuwait back in 2016. However, during his deployment Brooks suffered from brain damage during an accident where he was t-boned by a bus on the way back to home back in Kuwait.
The accident caused Zach's lungs to collapse and the veins in his skull to burst, bleeding into his brain and causing his traumatic brain injury. Then suffering from a massive stroke, Brooks was stricken of both memory as well as motor functions and taken to the Walter Reen National Military Medical Center.
In the hospital, the amnesia stuck with him, leaving Zach unable to remember who he was or even how to complete simple daily tasks, such as even taking a shower. This forced Zach to have to take measures into his own hands, turning to Niantic's popular mobile game
Pokémon Go to help him regain his memory and brain function, playing the game from his hospital bed. Why did he choose Pokémon Go?
"I pretty much had to look at things and say, 'Okay brain, you can't do this anymore, but you can find a new way'. The main things in regrowing brain tissue [are] reading, hand-eye coordination, and problem-solving. Games have all of these. [Playing Pokémon Go is] like Intel. You have to look at [your] assets, look at your opponent's assests, determine your opponents main course of action, then execute." - Retired Army National Guard Captain Zach Brooks
This isn't the first time something like this has happened, either. In the past 18 years over 380,000 troops have also been diagnosed with TBI. The Veterans Administration as well as the Pentagon have both been investing in research for diagnosis and treatment. The Army awarded upwards of $4 million in contracts to small businesses to research and develop potential video game therapies for TBI between the years of 2009 and 2015.
Zach is happy to be able to spend time with his family, having a wife and two children, but is still limited to what he is able to do, and having to retire as a Captain from the army. His wife also quit to help take care of him with his long term stroke effects, but he continues to work with
Pokémon and other video game therapies to keep himself in the best shape possible. He hopes to one day also be a physical trainer so that he can shape real bodies in addition to those digital pocket monsters that he loves so much.
Get ready for an all-new Pokémon experience Pokémon Go opens a universe of Pokemon to find, catch, trade, and battle on your iPhone or Android device. With Pokémon Go, you'll discover Pokémon in a whole new world - your own!
Pokémon GO is currently available for Android and iOS devices.