In the summer of 2004, Jason Crigler's life was pretty close to perfect. The 34-year-old was a successful guitarist in New York City, playing with the likes of Norah Jones and Marshall Crenshaw, and his new CD was about to be released. His wife, Monica, was pregnant with their first child. But on August 4th, while playing a gig, Jason's world came to a screeching halt. He suffered a near-fatal brain hemorrhage and went into a vegetative state.

The doctors said it didn't look good. He had suffered from an arteriovenous malformation hemorrhage, which are rare, but tend to occur most often in young people. They didn't know if Jason would live, and if he did, they didn't know what would be left of him -- the bleeding had been severe, and he didn't have very much brain function left.

Even though the prognosis was grim, Jason's family -- his parents, his wife and his sister -- refused to accept that he couldn't get better. They devoted themselves to round-the-clock care and rehabilitation. For the next year and a half Jason remained unconscious. When Jason was moved from St. Vincent's Hospital in New York City to Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital in Boston, his New York-based family moved with him. The progress was slow, but with each improvement -- the ability to blink, to swallow on his own, to say "Hi," and to take a step -- Jason began to defy what doctors thought his outcome would be.

Eventually, his family brought him home, where the intensive care continued. They dressed, fed and bathed him. They took him to therapy appointments and continued to try to stimulate his brain as much as possible. Slowly, pieces of the old Jason began to emerge. Today, nearly five years later, Jason has made a 90 percent recovery from his brain injury. His family rallied around him, and together they defied the medical odds stacked against them.

Jason's filmmaker friend, Eric Metzgar, documented this incredible journey in "Life. Support. Music.," which premiered last week on PBS. (Watch a preview of the film on the right). In it, you can see footage from Jason's earliest days at the rehabilitation hospital woven in with interviews of his family, with footage of Jason now. You can see the entire film here.

AOL spoke with Jason about his harrowing experience and how his life has changed since his brain injury.

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Click through the photo gallery below to learn more about Jason's recovery and what his life is like now. (Story continues below gallery.)

AOL Health: Before the night of August 4, 2004, when you had the brain hemorrhage, were there any warning signs? Did you have any symptoms, such as headaches?

Jason Crigler: Believe me when I tell you, there was nothing. I was doing yoga four days a week; I was in great shape and eating well. I had a very active professional life, playing music most nights of the week and touring. There was nothing. I was in a good state of mind, in a good mood and active in every way. Even the night it happened, I remember having dinner at a little place near the club and the sound check, and there was no problem whatsoever. It was like a lightening bolt out of the blue.

AOL Health: Do you remember actually having the hemorrhage?

Crigler: I remember running off stage in the middle of the set and grabbing my wife, Monica. I remember being outside and getting down on the sidewalk and being put in the ambulance, but from that point my memory is gone for about a year and a half. It's just gone.

AOL Health: You were in a vegetative state during that time. Did you have any sense of what was happening to you, or any feeling of wanting to communicate or move and being simply unable to?

Crigler: I was conscious at some points within that time, and later people would tell me about conversations I had with them, but I don't remember any of that. Over time, little bits and little fragments have poked through -- I remember taking a shower or being excited to walk to a certain point in a hallway. We know now that I was definitely taking stuff in. There was a particular CD that my mom purchased while I wasn't conscious. It was music from India, which I had never heard before that she would play every night before she left. Like a year after I had come home she put it in, and I knew every song on the CD, yet I don't remember hearing it.

AOL Health: Is it frustrating to lose such a large piece of your life?

Crigler: I wouldn't say it's frustrating, and a lot of my family says I wouldn't really want to remember it, because it was mostly lying in a hospital bed and not being able to do much. So it was actually probably better in the big picture.

AOL Health: Has seeing the film and getting to, in some way, be a part of that time been a positive thing for you?

Crigler: At first it was bizarre, but now I can feel proud more than anything because I'm at a point in recovery where if you were to see me and talk to me face-to-face you wouldn't know anything was wrong. When I see that footage of me from Spaulding [the rehabilitation hospital] it's a huge reality check, because I can clearly see how far I've come. So it makes me feel good in a weird way.

Continued: The Long Road To Recovery