Car Accidents falls, fire-arm-related injuries, assaults, forceful bumps, forceful blows, violent acts, stabs, wounds, bullet injuries, sports injuries, and jolts to the body or head are some of the main reasons which lead to traumatic brain injuries. All TBI cases lead to immediate hospitalisation and take a lot of time to recover from. At times, it may even lead to death. Injuries which occur at the moment of impact are known as the primary injury and often involve damage to specific lobes of the brain or at times the entire brain.
TBI often results in seizures, right after the injury or even months or years after the injury. The more severe the TBI is, the higher the chances are of developing epilepsy – a disorder of the brain that is characteristic of repeated seizures. Some of the other brain disorders include Alzheimer's disease, brain cancer, dementia, stroke, mental disorders, epilepsy and other seizure disorders, Parkinson's and other movement disorders, cerebral palsy and multiple sclerosis.
Traumatic brain injuries (TBI) at the base of the skull also may lead to cranial nerve damage which may lead to paralysis of facial muscles, loss of sensation in the face, loss or altered sense of smell or taste, loss of vision or double vision, swallowing problems, dizziness, ringing in the ear and hearing loss.
There are over 500 neurological diseases ranging from epilepsy, learning disorders, neuromuscular disorders, autism, ADD, brain tumours and cerebral palsy. While these neurodegenerative disorders all exist, there is sadly no treatment that can completely cure these problems. In addition to these brain disorders, some of the main mental conditions that may result from brain damage include bipolar disorder, anxiety disorders, depression, schizophrenia, obsessive-compulsive disorder OCD), eating disorders, post-traumatic stress disorders (PTSD) neurodevelopment disorders and disruptive behaviour and dissocial disorders. Many brain diseases are also known to cause death such as intracerebral haemorrhage, aneurysmal subarachnoid haemorrhage, ischemic stroke, epilepsy, brain tumours, and infectious causes.
Some of the cognitive symptoms of severe brain damage include Difficulty processing information, Difficulty expressing thoughts, Difficulty understanding others, Shortened attention span, Inability to understand abstract concepts, Impaired decision-making ability and memory loss.
There are also severe complications which occur immediately or soon after the traumatic brain injury (TBI) such as Coma, Vegetative State, Brain death and minimal conscious state. It may also lead to fluid build-up in the brain, infections, blood vessel damage, vertigo, seizures and headaches.
Having faced a severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) when I was nine years old, it resulted in chronic myoclonic epilepsy – a type of epilepsy which is characterised by getting brief, shock-like jerks of a muscle or a group of muscles. These seizures usually last for a second or so, but at times can cause severe damage if they happen on a staircase or in front of objects. Brain trauma leads to severe scarring on the brain cells and may even change the electrical signals being sent to the brain.
Epilepsy is a chronic brain disorder which is a neurological disorder as well. Tonic-clonic seizures (also known as grand mal seizures) are known to be the most harmful types of epilepsy which may even have seizures lasting for 5 minutes or longer. It can cause the body to stiffen up, abrupt loss of consciousness, twitching or shaking. It can also lead to loss of bladder control or biting of the tongue.
The most common form of treatment is to take anti-seizure medication (ASM) – also known as anti-epileptic drugs or AEDs. There are many triggers for seizures such as tiredness, lack of sleep stress, alcohol and not taking medication. There has been a minority of the people who suffer from epilepsy who have been able to become seizure-free. However, the remaining suffer from occasional breakthrough seizures, uncontrolled seizures and side effects of medicines.
Epilepsy is a very individual condition, where some people will suffer from it for the rest of their life, whereas others may only suffer from it for a period of their life till it goes away. Epilepsy may at times have no particular cause and can be traced to genetics, brain trauma, autoimmune disorders, metabolic issues or infectious diseases. Epilepsy is definitely something to worry about if you are suffering from it because it may even lead to premature death. Epilepsy in most people can get worse with age, but this is completely dependent on the lifestyle conditions.
Myoclonic seizures are brief and may also occur in clusters. They are classified as generalised seizures. When there is a cluster of myoclonic seizures which are continuous it may evolve into a tonic-clonic seizure. Theodore Roosevelt – the 26th US President suffered a lot because of his epilepsy and was prone to epileptic seizures. Some of the other well-known figures in history such as Socrates, Joan of Arc, Charles Dickens, Edgar Allen Poe, Elton John and Prince have all battled epilepsy and come out as successful with their lives.
I was just a nine-years old when my life turned upside down. Everything that I ever knew and everybody whom I met became such a blur and life began moving really fast. I am a survivor of a car accident that took place on June 7th, 1995 in which I lost my parents, one of my elder sister’s and my maternal grandmother. The results of which left me with a severe brain injury (Traumatic brain injury –TBI) and a number of health problems. Life can be pretty cruel at such times, taking away everything that is familiar to you.
All I can recall is waking up in a hospital in Los Angeles, California and being told that my parents were dead. I was sharing my room with a girl named Karen at that time. This hospital of course was not the first one that I had been in. I had been to the Parker Hospital in Arizona and then transferred to the University Medical Center of Las Vegas.
By the time I was discharged from every single hospital that I had been admitted to, I was handicapped for a period of time. During the days and months that followed, it was as if I was reborn again, for I had no memory of the life I had lived before. I had no memory of my parents, my friends, the life I used to live back in Indiana or pretty much anything at all.
The brain injury resulted in a chronic neurological disorder, epilepsy that is characteristic of recurrent and unprovoked seizures. To be explicitly precise, it is known as Myoclonic seizures that fall under the broad spectrum of idiopathic generalized epilepsy.
My elder sister, who also survived the accident and who was conscious through it all was just twelve years old. I can only imagine how traumatic it must have been for her to witness everything. Besides this, my paternal grandmother was also injured in the accident as well.
Los Angeles also happens to be the place where my dad’s sister lives, so we lived with her for a few months after the accident. It was only towards the end of 1995 did we made a shift that changed our lives- we moved to Mumbai, India. Our maternal uncle became our legal guardian and the past had to be put behind us. Our house in Indiana was sold, and friends and memories left behind.
Much of my knowledge about my injuries have all been passed down to me through medical records that I have had to keep for safeguarding. After all, how much can a nine-year-old really understand? So, here I am now, 22 years later, writing about how life has been. So here is my story and how it all began.
I was found about 50 feet away from the car.
It was clearly a very tragic site, something I hate to create even in my imagination. I had a depressed skull fracture and an open compound skull fracture on the right. Words that I had never even heard of before suddenly became a part of my vocabulary as I was diagnosed with conditions such as cerebral contusion (a bruise of the brain tissue), cricothyrotomy (incision through the skin and cricothyroid membrane to secure a patent airway for emergency relief of upper airway).
I was found with facial lacerations on my lip and lacerations on my left forearm. If this was not enough I also had right pneumothorax (collapsed lung) and a pelvic fracture. It was like there was certainly no way I could get out of this and survive it all! This is not all. I was found with one pupil (the right) bigger than the other (the left). My duration of hospitalisation was rather long and even endured an episode of pneumonia while at the hospital. A significant amount of my stay in the hospital was because I was placed in a pentobarbital coma.
However, it is not just these injuries that occurred to me as a result of that car accident that affects me now but more so the consequences of the brain injury. It’s not easy to start your life all over again when there is so much loss to digest and so much to cope with, but life is life and there are no escapes for anyone.
I missed out on attending the majority of my 4th grade because I joined the school only in the third semester. My grit and perseverance proved that good marks, even if it was just in one semester were enough to push me forward to the next grade. However, life was challenging, emotionally, socially and mentally. I suffered from severe depression, anxiety and irritability. It wasn't easy for me to get along with people or make friends and thus it made me feel all the more lonely.
Growing up has been hard for me because a brain injury creates not only physical problems but also many cognitive, behavioural and emotional problems as well. Whether it's been irritability (for no reason), heightened emotions/reaction, increased levels of aggressiveness to even reduced tolerance to stress I have experienced it all. I often find myself finding it hard to process information (from conversations), understand abstract concepts, have difficulty in expressing myself and understanding others and even have the ability to make decisions. My attention span has always been short and this has been a great disadvantage for me.
It was tough getting through school, but I guess I just managed to do it. When I got to college it was just after my first year in degree college that I made a trip back to the US to get an evaluation done by a brain disorder specialist, Dr Daniel Amen. An evaluation was conducted to seek the long-term effects of the head trauma and also to seek treatment to improve my interpersonal skills and my mood. The results of which were magnifying as signs of ADHD, Generalised Anxiety Disorder, Obsessive Compulsive tendencies, Social Phobia and Bipolar tendencies were recorded. There were no doubt significant problems. However, college was college and the pace of life picked up. I guess I just had to move on and cope to the best of my ability.
2007, the year of graduation; was truly an achievement for me and also the time for me to step into the real world. I graduated with a bachelor of arts, psychology being my major. However, life didn't suddenly become easy for me. I didn't know what to work as and a road of struggle lay ahead of me. Moreover, there was one thing that was really missing in my life and that was true happiness. I have always felt this void within me, an emptiness, a lack of meaning and purpose. I felt really numb within.
By this time, I had stopped comparing my life and had accepted my fate; that my life is what it was and nothing and no one could be held accountable for it. Every time I felt deprived of something I just tried to remind myself of how grateful I should be.
Here I am, 37 years of age literally reflecting back on my life. All of the past arguments that I have had with colleagues, with friends and with family. I know everything could have been just a bit different, had my temperament been in check. I wish it was but it wasn't.
Despite my problems and all that I have gone through, I have come out as an emotionally sensitive person and I think that in today’s time and age, that's what’s really lacking. It's so easy for people to give up on others in just a flash of a second. It's so easy to “not pay attention.”
The only thing which I have been able to learn over time is to be self-reliant. I have never relied on anybody for my happiness. There have been many times when I have felt lonely, angry, miserable and even sad but I have learned that the only way we can overcome any of these feelings is by overcoming our own demons.
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