After a sudden brain injury, a father and husband is keeping his spirit alive through humor and humility
NEED TO KNOW
- After an anoxic brain injury, Kenny Thorley lost his ability to speak, walk and swallow
- Since then, his family has been rallying together to help support him through a difficult recovery journey
- Still, Thorley has maintained his sense of humor despite having to use an iPad to communicate
In January 2025, Madisen Franklin’s father, Kenny Thorley, suffered a massive heart attack, causing his heart to stop.
During those harrowing 45 minutes, the father of six and grandfather of seven from Mesa, Ariz., suffered an anoxic brain injury, resulting in the loss of his ability to speak, walk and swallow.
Once loud and bubbly, Thorley, 51, now mainly communicates by typing on an iPad, along with sign language.
“This has been an abrupt and very painful change in our family dynamic,” Franklin, 28, tells PEOPLE exclusively, revealing that her family has had to rely on each other a lot over the last nine months…