www.roadtorecovery.net

You may've heard that neurons in your brain and spinal cord can't regenerate after injury. That's (mostly) true. But severed peripheral nerves, the kind in your arms and hands? They can. And it's wild.

As a medical illustration student at Johns Hopkins, I created this patient education website (in partnership with Dr. Gerald Brandacher) for hand transplant recipients, their families, and anyone curious about nerve regeneration and the road to recovery after hand transplant surgery.

The source files got lost at some point, so in April 2026 I used Claude Code to help me revive the site from a snapshot on the Wayback Machine. The intention was a faithful recreation of the first version, but I ended up adding some new features because.. it's so easy to do now! Especially with a solid, human-made foundation of original artwork to build upon.

What's the same:
· Hover-enabled nav (hold 2 seconds) and text links for accessibility
· Super cool interactive artwork and styling
· Much of the content and code [HTML: 85.4% · CSS: 14.6%]

What's new:
· A 60-question interactive quiz to check understanding
· Skip to Main Content, reduced motion option, screen reader features
· YouTube embeds to connect real patient stories across the site
· It's now hosted for free on GitHub Pages

Click on any of the following images to navigate to the website.

Bringing this project back to life reminded me that nerve regeneration seems like this impossible thing — and then it happens. Slowly. One millimeter a day. But the people it happens to get their lives back in meaningful ways. Transplant patients and their care teams are extraordinary people.

On AI/accessibility:
Sometimes accessibility seems like a "nice to have", but in the era of AI agents as users, it's a requirement. After tabbing through the site to test the features and using the Skip to Main Content links myself, I felt the benefit immediately.

Someone said
"AI to make better tools > Asking AI to design for you."

💯% agree.

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