The road to recovery

On April 24, 2016, everything changed for the May family.

Brooke May Taylor ’98 was driving in downtown Seattle when a city ambulance ran a red light, struck her car, and spun it into a traffic signal box and a tree. 

Brooke suffered a traumatic brain injury that interrupted her career as an award-winning intellectual property attorney, separated her from her young children, and sent her parents, Randy ’68, J.D.’71 and Laurie May ’71, P’96, P’98, scrambling to help her.

While Brooke wasn’t treated at Duke, the university played an important role in her recovery: The Mays reached out to Daniel Laskowitz M.D.’91, M.H.S.’03 of Duke Neurology for medical advice. Laskowitz and his research group study new approaches to caring for brain injured patients, focusing on the genetics and mechanisms that underlie the brain’s response to injury and degeneration. And in gratitude for the time spent consulting with them, the May family has made a planned gift to benefit Duke Neurology. This followed a lifelong history of giving to various Duke schools and programs, including the Duke University Medical Center. 

Laurie established a charitable giving annuity that transfers funds directly from her retirement account to Duke. This qualified charitable distribution (QCD), created a fund benefiting the Brain Injury Translation Research center run by Laskowitz.

“Because of our existing ties with Duke and our strong affiliation with Duke, when we were thinking, ‘How might we do our small part to help those who are victims of traumatic brain injuries?’” Randy says. “We said, ‘Duke's a place that likely would do some good.’”

A couple of years after Brooke’s accident, Randy and Laurie spoke with Laskowitz and asked his opinion on a cutting-edge laser light treatment known as photobiomodulation. Laskowitz consulted with his colleagues and advised them that it would be benign at worst and might help.

“Brooke started using it in 2019,” Laurie says. “Is that the reason that she’s done so much better than everyone said she would? We'll never know. But our discussions with Dr. Laskowitz gave us the comfort to push this and to at least try it.”

After the accident, Brooke steadily progressed through several brain rehabilitation centers to less and less involved home care. The Mays continued their conversations with Laskowitz, leading to a tour of the Brain Injury Translation Research center in Durham. They were excited by the fact that Laskowitz’s work could help patients with brain injuries both during the early stages of their recovery and later by possibly eliminating the seizures that can be common.

The Mays say that while the tax benefits of the QCD giving method spurred them to make their gift to Duke sooner, it was their confidence in the medical center that made it a slam dunk.

“We give to other organizations, but if I was going to give a bigger gift, I wanted to feel really positive about it,” Laurie says. “This is the organization that made me feel the most positive.”

The Mays received important support from other Duke connections, too. Randy’s classmate, the renowned PBS journalist Judy Woodruff ’68, a longtime friend in Washington, D.C., made a special effort to visit Brooke early in her recovery. Even Duke’s most famous former employee showed his concern. Mike Krzyzewski sent a note and a photo that remains displayed prominently in Brooke’s home. One day in 2018, Coach K called unprompted to check on her recovery. In 2021, Brooke and her parents were in Durham for a wedding and Krzyzewski invited them to visit him in the basketball practice gym, where they took photos and talked about determination. 

So, although life is different than it was before 2016, the May family looks forward with a positive mindset, knowing that they have turned their difficulties into a means to help other brain injury patients. And they always believe that better and better things are to come for Brooke.

“She'll just continue to recover and surpass any so-called plateaus,” Randy says, “to be able to enjoy a happy and productive life.”

MAY FAMILY MATTERS

• Not only is the Mays’ son, Josh ’96, an alumnus, there are 19 Duke degrees in their family including siblings, nieces and nephews.
• Randy and Laurie chaired the Alumni Admissions Advisory Committee in the Washington, D.C., area for many years.
• Randy was a member of the law school’s board of visitors.
• Both were on the Duke Alumni board and chaired several class reunions
• For their long-term commitment to the university, in 1996 the Mays won the Charles A. Dukes Award for Outstanding Volunteer Service.