Julli Medina-Walter’s twitch often invites unwanted comments from people on the bus. Some ask her if she’s on methamphetamine or if she has Parkinson’s disease.
In reality, Medina-Walter’s persistent movements are caused by tardive dyskinesia, a side effect from the high doses of medications she was put on after she survived a tragic accident.
On Jan. 24, 2007, Medina-Walter was exposed to a propane leak. She was unknowingly inhaling propane for 15 hours while she and her fiance, Trampis, were in their trailer in Alturas, Calif.
She wouldn’t be alive today if it wasn’t for her sons Philip and Brian, who called from Lakeview, Ore., to contact Medina-Walter’s neighbors to check on their mother when she wasn’t answering her phone.
By the time the neighbors got to Medina-Walter’s trailer, both she and her fiance were unconscious. The paramedics instructed the neighbors to pull out the bodies.
The accident left Medina-Walter in a coma for four months. Trampis did not survive.
Medina-Walter’s prolonged propane exposure resulted in asphyxiation, which took a large toll on her brain.
“My IQ level went down to less than 50 percent,” Medina-Walter said.
In the years since the accident, her IQ has returned to a level that’s above average.
To get her brain to start functioning again after the accident, Medina-Walter spent time with the local homeless community.
“The homeless people, they don’t know that I have a brain injury,” she said. “And they don’t treat me like such.”
The homeless taught Medina-Walter about every soup kitchen in town. Now she has all of the days and hours for each location memorized.
Medina-Walter has been frequenting FOOD for Lane County’s Dining Room four days a week since 2005. She particularly likes this soup kitchen because the staff caters to her needs. She has a protein deficiency, so the staff brings her PowerBars.
Medina-Walter doesn’t just go to a soup kitchen so she can eat; she goes so she doesn’t have to eat alone.
“Every now and then, I’ll get my kids to come in here and we’ll all eat as a family,” Medina-Walter said.
This doesn’t happen too often, though, because she’s usually running around town all day while her kids live their own lives.
Medina-Walter doesn’t remember anything from the accident. At the hospital, she recalls the doctors asking her if she knew what had happened. But Medina-Walter couldn’t respond because she found she was unable to speak.
When she woke up, Medina-Walter was in Oregon. How she got from California to Oregon, she can only imagine.
The propane accident has left her facing many challenges, both physically and emotionally.
Upon first hearing that her fiance was dead, Medina-Walter wouldn’t believe it. It only started setting in when she called a friend of hers to confirm that Trampis really was dead.
“When you love somebody like that … ” Medina-Walter said, her voice trailing off and her eyes beginning to well up with tears, “It’s just hard.”
At the time of Trampis’ death, he and Medina-Walter were set to get married in only six days.
After arriving at a hospital, Medina-Walter was put on suicide watch because she missed Trampis so much that she threatened to kill herself.
Aside from the heavy emotional strain of losing a loved one, Medina-Walter also suffers from multiple health problems caused by the accident.
“My heart’s failing, and I’m 46 years old,” she said.
Medina-Walter has congestive heart failure. Her restlessness also causes problems, and she is unable to remain still, even at night. She often wakes up with all her blankets thrown on the floor.
Today, Medina-Walter plans to get a job working retail for St. Vincent de Paul. Medina-Walter was once a nurse, but she retired in 2004. Since the accident, she has worked as a sign-waver for Liberty Tax.
Medina-Walter currently lives with her sons Philip, Brian and Marcus. Her 11-year-old daughter, whom she named Daphne Jasmine Sapphire Rose, was adopted shortly after Medina-Walter’s accident.
Medina-Walter says her children are very protective of her.
“My sons, because they almost lost me, they don’t ever want to take the chance of losing me again,” Medina-Walter said.
They do the dishes, cooking and grocery shopping for their mom.  
“My sons do everything for me,” she said.
When Medina-Walter rides the city bus, sometimes people notice her fidgeting and will ask her if she knows where they can score.
She responds, “Score what? What do you want to score?” Then usually the person will say, “Well, drugs. Aren’t you high?”
What angers Medina-Walter the most is people writing her off as a drug abuser based on her apparent restlessness.
“I cannot control the twitch. There’s an assumption that I’m on drugs, but I’m not,” she said.
She wishes people would ask her about what causes her to move around and act the way she does, instead of assuming the worst and judging her based on those assumptions.
She dreams of having the opportunity to tell people that the drugs she was given to save her mind are the real cause of her involuntary movements.
For Medina-Walter, positivity seems to be her guiding light. In spite of all that’s happened, she still wakes up in the morning with an energy for life that is unstoppable.
“I’m going back to work. I’m not stopping,” Medina-Walter said. “I’ve lost four months of my life. But you know what? I get up every morning, and any day is a good day. Put your feet on the ground and take a deep breath.”
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