'Take Care Of It': Fort Carson Soldier Shares Experience With TBI

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (CBS4) - A soldier at Fort Carson shares his fight with a traumatic brain injury he sustained nearly 10 years ago.

Had it not been for Master Sgt. Bradley Lee's wife, he may have gotten much worse.

Lee started suffering memory loss, dizziness and frustration.

During the tour in Afghanistan in 2009, he and his fellow soldiers came under fire.

"I had a round bounce off my helmet," he said.

It wasn't until he was home on leave when his wife noticed something was wrong.

"I was trying to fake the funk as much as I could," Lee said.

His wife had the courage to go behind his back and tell his sergeant major, Lee wasn't acting like himself.

"God bless her for loving me enough to care," said Lee.

He was then diagnosed with TBI.

"My hand would keep going numb. There were periods I couldn't remember," he said.

Lee doesn't want to think about what might have happened if his wife didn't speak up, instead he wants to focus on his family and his work.

"Now I'm out here riding horses for the Army," he said.

Helping spread a powerful message for others.

"If something's not right, you need to take care of it. Eventually you're going to hang up the uniform, eventually you're going to have a different job. What do you want when it's over?"

LINK: A Head For The Future