Brain Injuries and Heartbreaks

In today's class we began to learn about traumatic and non-traumatic brain injuries. Brain injuries can be caused by a variety of factors and can affect a victim in numerous ways. It can be very difficult to work with a brain injury patient because oftentimes they do not show physical symptoms, but instead emotional, social, and/or cognitive symptoms. It is fascinating to me how a brain injury can completely change a person's personality, however; this is what also makes this type of injury most traumatic for the loved ones of the victim. When you have a loved one who has suffered from a brain injury, it is possible that he or she is altogether not the same person you have always known. Though physically they may look the same, they are not emotionally or socially the person you loved before. We listened to a podcast before class about a nurse named Dawn who was attacked by a hospital patient, resulting in a TBI. The would lash out in frustrating situations and also had terrible memory loss. In the interview, the husband was asked if he would marry Dawn again knowing that this accident would happen. His answer was "probably not." Though you might think that this is a selfish, heartless response, it is real. We have no idea how we would actually deal with a situation like this. Dawn's story helped me understand the true heartbreak behind brain injuries. I am glad to have this knowledge leading up to my future career as an OT so that I can have an understanding of what these patient's and their loved ones are experiencing.