Thursday, September 16, 2010

I came across an interesting piece in the Sydney Morning Herald regarding brain injury as a result of severe head trauma:


"The ones with brain swelling, that's diffuse axonal injury, and that's bad news," says Rosenfeld, who steers the National Trauma Research Institute's neurotrauma evidence translation committee at the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne. In diffuse axonal injury, he explains, the whole brain is shaken up, creating many little tears in its inner structure.

Such patients undergo personality change, can contract epilepsy, and have difficulty controlling their anger. They might become unemployable. Depression is a common accompaniment to brain injury. Rosenfeld sees patients' families shattered, too. "They're never the same. It often leads to marriage disharmony and family breakdown."


This is no joke. Having spent time with someone suffering from this, I can say that it's more damaging than you could possibly imagine.