On November 28, 2008, Philadelphian journalist Brian Hickey went to a bar in the city to meet up with some old friends. On his walk to the train station to return home, he was struck by a car and left for dead, unconscious, on the poorly-lit street. Luckily, a nearby resident heard the accident and called the police as the car sped off. Paramedics rushed him to Cooper University Hospital where he was immediately intubated and monitored for stability. Brian’s simple night out ended with him acquiring a traumatic brain injury or TBI, which would forever alter his life as he knew it.
The effects of a traumatic brain injury can vary from mild to severe, based upon both the location of the injury and the severity of the shock. Individuals with a mild TBI can experience headaches, confusion, blurred vision, fatigue, and changes in mood and behavior. However severe traumatic brain injuries, such as in Brian’s case, can cause nausea, seizures, slurred speech, loss of coordination, increased confusion, and even result in an unresponsive state as in a coma, where an individual can only be aroused for a short period time with a strong stimulus. The impact of Hickey’s accident caused his brain to swell up against his rigid skull and required the doctors to perform a double craniotomy to relieve some of the pressure. A craniotomy is the “surgical removal of part of …show more content…
Some cause permanent, and irreversible damage to its victims, leaving them in deprived or vegetative states. However, some TBI’s allow for full recovery naturally or with the intervention of rehabilitative therapy. Studying and researching various examples of TBI in recent articles and informative books, allowed me to realize how amazing and adaptive the brain actually is. Through growth or rewiring, the human brain it is able to preserve itself and find ways to restore different functions and
The effects of a traumatic brain injury can vary from mild to severe, based upon both the location of the injury and the severity of the shock. Individuals with a mild TBI can experience headaches, confusion, blurred vision, fatigue, and changes in mood and behavior. However severe traumatic brain injuries, such as in Brian’s case, can cause nausea, seizures, slurred speech, loss of coordination, increased confusion, and even result in an unresponsive state as in a coma, where an individual can only be aroused for a short period time with a strong stimulus. The impact of Hickey’s accident caused his brain to swell up against his rigid skull and required the doctors to perform a double craniotomy to relieve some of the pressure. A craniotomy is the “surgical removal of part of …show more content…
Some cause permanent, and irreversible damage to its victims, leaving them in deprived or vegetative states. However, some TBI’s allow for full recovery naturally or with the intervention of rehabilitative therapy. Studying and researching various examples of TBI in recent articles and informative books, allowed me to realize how amazing and adaptive the brain actually is. Through growth or rewiring, the human brain it is able to preserve itself and find ways to restore different functions and