Times where I was in a situation, such as a car accident or a bike accident, where I would bang my head. Luckily, I can still remember each of these events and all of my memories are still intact. Until recently, I didn’t realize how truly lucky I was that I still had the ability to remember all of these events and the events prior to my injuries. Unfortunately, there are many individuals who suffer from Traumatic Brain Injuries (T.B.I.) due to being similar situations. According to reports from domestic emergency rooms, there are about 1.7 million T.B.I. diagnoses that occur every year. While about 52,000 of these individuals die, the rest can suffer from a variety effects including physical, cognitive, social, emotional, and behavioral disabilities that hinder them from living their everyday lives.
In the New York Time’s article, “ Starting Again After a Brain Injury ,” Jane Rosett talks about her own experience of recovering from a Traumatic Brain Injury. Rosett suffered from a T.B.I. because at the age of 45, she was involved in car accident where she hit her head on the car’s windshield. This injury left her with a head fracture and damage to the right temporal lobe. It also took away most of her memories prior to the injury, also known as retrograde amnesia.
It left her with the inability to recognize her family, friends, and certain objects. Even though T.B.I. took away most of her memories, some of them would slowly come back to her, as she describes, “Shards of memories pierce my consciousness before fragmenting and melting into fresh half-syllables.” Our brains’ ability to restructure itself, or neuroplasticity, is what allowed her to continue to function through life. This with some self therapy and therapy from the Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital allowed her to recover. Even though Jane Rosett was about to receive this treatment, very few people of those 1.7 million have the same opportunity. It is this that needs to change. I think Rosett says it best when she says, “It is a big deal to be somewhere where nobody will laugh at you for rediscovering gum at age 50.” We need to increase awareness of proper T.B.I. rehabilitation. When I broke my arm, I was given the red carpet treatment. I had a full access to a physician, surgeon, nurse, and most importantly a physical therapist. This is just not the cause for most brain injury patients, while they are helped through the injury, there is little to no effort put into rehabilitation. This effort starts with us; it starts with voicing our concerns with the current process.
You can begin to help by supporting the Brain Injury Association of America, click for more information. It is through this support that we will be able achieve proper rehabilitation of the 1.7 million.
I think one of the hardest things when addressing this issue is how to conceptualize a brain injury. Unlike breaking your arm, a brain injury happens below the surface and is often times not visible. It is hard to understand how a person is feeling when you can't even imagine it. I was shocked that Rosett felt a constant pain everyday that almost made her not want to live. Similarly, Alex Lemon in his lecture talked about how he still deals with vertigo on a day to day bases twenty years after his brain injury. Although the brain's plasticity can maintain some of its functioning, there are still lasting effects of a brain injury that can completely alter a person's life. Awareness is key to learning more about how to help people with brain injuries, and I think it would also be helpful to teach the family members and friends close to those with the brain injury how to deal with it. Rosett said at the end of the article that the best thing a person can do for her is just to be present. She won't remember instances of that person in the past or the way she was before her injury, but she's still alive and can create a new life and new relationships. Understanding how to react to brain injuries could be the most beneficial treatment.
ReplyDeleteI think a major influence in the lack of consistent rehabilitative care for patients with T.B.I might be that each case can be so incredibly different. Brain damage as we can see with patients like Phineas Gage and Tan, can cause effects that make one case unlike any other seen before. Often with damage caused by strokes, there can be areas of overlap of damage, but never the exact same regions. The effects of a brain injury often affect the rest of a person’s life. And I think most of the United States has the mentality that individuals should learn to adjust to work in society as opposed to society learning to work with a few unique individuals. This may be a harsh reality, but most people would probably say it is their job to learn to cope with their new disabilities like Alex Lemon or Rosett do. The assistance of their friends and family would be far more beneficial than the understanding of everyone in the community, because of the frequency of interaction. I do agree that awareness is important, but I believe there are other diseases, including neurological diseases that have a higher prevalence in society that should call for more awareness than T.B.I. One question I have: Are there different types of rehabilitation centers across the United States that specialize in damage to different areas of the brain?
ReplyDeleteThis is particularly interesting to me, especially after watching Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor's TED Talk on her stroke and subsequent recovery. Most recently, I was involved with a startup based out of California that marries the concept of video games and rehabilitation for injuries and illness and for example, have created a "path" to follow when you're recovering from a brain injury. You can read more about them here: https://www.superbetter.com/page/superbetter_story and if you actually sign up, you can get access to the specific "power packs" dealing with specific injuries. Cool stuff.
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