wnyc.org / 93.9fm / am 820

My mom and I lived in scenic Pennsylvania. I acted in local theaters and went to school. My mom worked in finance and ran her small business. All until September 2006 when my mom suffered a traumatic brain injury. ER Doctors chose not to treat her brain trauma and sent her home. Overnight she developed uncontrollable jerking movements, shakes, tremors and slurred speech. The community hospital doctors treated her symptoms, ignoring the cause, which was TBI. Medication they gave my mom “to stop shaking” caused her go into convulsions, coma, and a cardiac arrest. During CPR my mom’s heart was dislodged and turned around. After the cardiac arrest she wasn’t able to keep balance, walk or speak.

Our relatives and friends all around the world asked their neurologists about these symptoms. The communal wisdom was to start taking Piracetam or Levetiracetam for hypoxic-anoxic brain trauma and encephalopathy. My mom’s community hospital neurologist’s response was that he was not familiar with the foreign medications. After four long agonizing months my mom was diagnosed with action myoclonus and encephalopathy. A year later she developed a seizure disorder. Now she takes Keppra (Levetiracetam) for seizures and myoclonus, and Requip for parkinsonism, shakes and tremors and slurred speech. My mom’s story demonstrates that when it comes to Traumatic Brain Injures ignorance of American medical professionals is startling.

http://loveyourbrainnow.com/

The TED link:

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/229

Leonard,
You really need to see the 'talk' on TED.com, given by Dr.Bolte Taylor in March. She is a brain anatomist, who gives a talk about her stroke and her remembrance of that day. An inspiring and brave account of that day, the anatomy of our brain and how the left side and right side differ. It stimulates a different kind of conversation about who we are, and the choices we have and make, as we work together every day, to make this world a better place.

TBI is not an interesting topic unless it directly affects you...then it becomes an obsession. My dad had the encephalitis which was mentioned on today's show, herpes simplex encephalitis and luckily he was able to do his rehab at JFK Johnson's Brain Trauma Unit in Edison (where the HBO show COMA was recently filmed) they are brilliant. It was an experience that was both terrible and fascinating, and I often felt "wow, this needs to go into a book...or a film" so here we are.
But I am writing mostly for anyone who is affected in NJ and is not aware of the Traumatic Brain Injury Fund. NJ provides 15,000 a year for victims of both traumatic and acquired brain injury, the money comes from the Division of Motor Vehicles. It's pretty wonderful and so is the Brain Injury Association in Edison, they are so helpful.

I would not be satisfied if a neurologist cleared a patient of TBI. I would strongly recommend neuropsychological testing (not psychological testing but "neuro"psychological done by a qualified psychologist)and having an MRI done some time after the injury occurred (in addition to whatever was done at the time of injury). Most neurologists are not very well trained in evaluating less obvious cognitive deficits. I write this as a physician, disabled by TBI, who was repeatedly cleared despite many prominent symptoms including cognitive, affective, and personality changes; and despite walking around with multiple hemorrhages until correctly diagnosed well over a year later. I would also recommend a full endocrine evaluation some months after the injury since a reported majority of TBI patients have symptoms due to pituitary injury and the resultant problems in hormone production by various glands, but the majority of patients with these problems do not get correctly diagnosed or treated.

nice lunch talk, not.

I have a TBI.
Like many people who are not the most obviously severe, but never the less profoundly impacted, I received almost no insurance compensation (car injury). My attorney went for arbitration, as he said 99% of brain injury victims get nothing via a trial. The arbitrator said I did not have a brain injury, contrary to neurological findings.
This whole area is... well, I suspect many folks are being paid off by insurance companies, and I don't mean the people with the injury.
Although I've been fortunate to regain much of my cognitive abilities, I deal with fatigue, confusion, agitation, etc.

I have a relative who's a physiatrist (rehab) who says most every child has fallen on his/her head in the course of childhood

I long riding horses. But having fallen off twice and the last time receiving a concussion, I thought twice about it. After hearing your guest, I will probably never get on a horse again.

Is this the place to send questions that may be read on the air?

My question for Michael Paul Mason is: Do you have any thoughts about free will vs. determinism, if you find this issue interesting?

Thanks

Has there been any new research on the effect of long-suffered migraine headaches on brain function, or any theory as to their connection to a possible link to brain malfunction?

Is there a resource you can use with adults and children about wearing a helmut while snow boarding?

any brain exercises, to help with poor memory?

How much does it cost to treat these patients? For the rest of their lives?