Brain Injury: Head injuries disrupt millions of lives in the US, and each presents unique complications
Reprinted with permission of
The Herald Journal
By Brittny Goodsell Jones
Published:
Tuesday, May 12, 2009 3:15 AM CDT
About 14 years ago, Lee Brown's life changed in a split second. He was riding as a passenger in a car when another driver ran a stop sign. Brown, 24 at the time, was thrown from the vehicle. The car slid over his body. After being taken by ambulance to Logan Regional Hospital he was air lifted to McKay Dee Hospital in Ogden, where he remained in a coma for two weeks before waking up.
His father, Bill Brown of Hyrum, said Lee was never the same.
"You see things on TV where people just suddenly wake up from a coma and start asking questions and usually that's not the way it is," Bill said. "He was confused. He was disoriented, babbling. He didn't make sense at all for a month or two. They have, at McKay Dee, an upper floor that is a lockdown facility where they treat patients that need to be restricted, and he did."
Lee suffered a traumatic brain injury (TBI) in the accident. After being at McKay Dee, Lee was sent to a brain trauma facility in Denver for a few months.
A TBI is a head injury that can be diagnosed as mild, moderate or severe. Common causes of TBIs are car accidents, falls and being assaulted. Car accidents, however, account for the highest numbers of deaths and hospitalizations, according to the Brain Injury Association of America.
About 5.3 million Americans currently deal with TBI difficulties and more than 50,000 people die from them each year. Bill said he didn't know much about brain injuries before Lee's accident but he found out that Lee's frontal lobe "the part that controls judgment, reason, and impulse control" was damaged the most. So although Lee didn't look physically different after the brain injury, Bill said people could tell there was something a bit different in the way Lee talked to people.
"Even if you didn't know him before, you would say there is something very different about this young man and you wouldn't be able to put your finger on what it was," Bill said.
Lee became irritated at small things. He couldn't handle noise or commotion, Bill said. It was hard to focus and he got easily distracted. On top of that, Lee experienced outbursts of anger that were hard to control.
"Because of brain injury he never got back to normal," Bill said.
Outbursts of rage aren't what every person with a brain injury will experience. Each brain injury is different and affects different lobes of the brain. Often, people suffer brain injuries and aren't aware of it, Bill noted. Even a mild injury can have lasting effects.
"Take a head injury seriously," Bill said. "If someone is even knocked unconscious for a brief period of time get it checked out. A small injury can cause damage. If it's caught early it can be less serious."
Wearing helmets on a bike or seatbelts in a car is critical, Bill said. Doing those "common sense things" can prevent head injuries. For whatever reason, Bill said Lee wasn't wearing a seat belt at the time of the accident even though Lee wore his seat belt all the time; maybe Lee took his seatbelt off for just a minute to get something in the back seat, Bill said. Whatever the reason, to this day Bill wonders what difference it would have made.
After the accident, Lee's wife drove to Salt Lake City to take part in group meetings for individuals affected by TBI. Cache Valley residents also had to travel to Ogden or SLC for TBI treatment.
Bill worked as a licensed professional counselor and visited with TBI patients before a work group existed here. He didn't call himself an expert, he said, but there wasn't anyone else in the valley with TBI expertise until a few years ago.
A work group was able to start in Cache Valley through the Center for Persons with Disabilities, said Sue Dubois, employee of the CPD. Bill became part of the group a few months after its inception. Dubois said Bill's been a major player in contributing to the work group in a personal way and contributing by identifying areas of need.
"Let me tell you, this is where you talk about passion and compassion because it takes people like Bill that bring that side of humanity to this disability," she said. "What happened with his son has happened time and time again with other families but when you're in it--when you're family--nothing is more devastating.
"Think about it, you have a son who is functioning, his life is going on normal, and then in a split second his whole world changed. It wasn't just his son, but his son's family. It's these things you see you need to do something about it."
Dubois said Cache County has been designated as Utah's lead community TBI site. Many other sites in the state have used products developed by the local work group, said Dubois, the traumatic brain injury community pilot work group coordinator.
Her initial role was to start a local work group made up of individuals with TBI, families and community members. Today, Dubois oversees monthly work group meetings in three different counties, she said, and helps plan public awareness events, trainings, and gathers resources about TBI.
"It's definitely made me aware of the challenges that rural communities are faced with regarding accessing services or information regarding TBI," she said. "Individuals who serve on the work groups are passionate. To some, this disability has changed their life in a most profound and unexpected manner impacting their personal life, family, and employment. It makes you want to do a better job. It's inspiring but it makes you want to work harder."
Bill said the work group has been good for him because he's been able to share his story to others and talk to people affected by TBI. Although Lee passed away in 1999. But Bill still remembers the power of the work group to help him heal.
"The main thing is that I was frustrated," he said. "Lee was out of control, and there weren't resources to help him. So when I heard about the work group, I said 'I want to be on that.' It's been rewarding."
