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traumatic brain injury.

STORIES OF AMAZING RECOVERIES

Submitted By: Katie

My younger brother Andrew suffered a road traffic accident on the 9th August 2005. He was 23 at the time of the accident. To this day we do not know how he ended up in a ditch clinically dead at 2.55am that morning.

He had started a new job on the 8th August. It was a job that he had been hoping to get since he left unversity. Mum had given him her old car to use permantly, as his new job was a good 45 minute journey there and back. Mum was happy to do so as she was excited about the idea of getting a new car herself!

He arrived home at 7pm that evening, really happy and pleased that his 1st day at his new job went well and that everyone there seemed nice.

He had always been quite a night owl, and Mum and Dad had become used to his weekly comings and goings from the house. That night he decided to go out with friends for one drink to celebrate his new job. He left the house at about 9pm on the 8th of August and hasnt been home since.

He was found by a passer by in his car in a ditch down a country road 2 miles from Mum and Dad's house. The fire brigade were called along with an ambulance and the police. He was cut out of the car and rushed to hospital.

The Police went round to Mum and Dad's house at 4am to inform them of their son's accident.

I recieved a histerical call from Mum around 5am. (I live about a 2 >hour drive away in London). I was at the hospital by 9am.

He had broken every bone in his body. His ribs, jaw, cheekbones, eye sockets, arm, colar bone and his vertibra. I will never get the image out of my head of the first time I saw him in the ICU surrounded by wires and beeping noises.

It was touch and go for the first 2 weeks in ICU. We were told that he might not make it. Thank god he did. He spent 6 weeks in ICU and during this time had a traciotomy to help him breath (apologies for my spelling!) and a tube fed into his stomach so he could recieve fluids.

I took 3 weeks off from work and was by his bed everyday without fail. Mum and dad were there all day and night every day. Sometimes he would squeeze your hand and at other times he wouldnt. There was no consistency in any of his movements. He was twitching his legs by this stage also.

The doctors told us things we didnt want to hear and in abrupt manors as if they had forgot we were human. Very black and white. They told us he had a severe Brain injury and he would need 24 hour care and rehabilitation for the rest of his life.

He eventually left the hospital 6 weeks later and was placed in a rehabilitaion hospital . By the time he left ICU all of his broken bones had healed and he looked like Andrew again. He had lost a tremendous amount of weight. His legs and arms were so skinny.

I had to go back to work or i wouldnt have been able to pay my rent, but made sure that i went up to see him every weekend. Mum and dad were there every day. They were phisically and emotionally exhausted. I had such feelings of guilt that i could not be with him everyday like Mum and dad. I think i still do really.

It is a strange feeling to grieve over somebody who is not dead. I have never cried so much in my life.

The days in Rehab involved Andrew sitting in a wheel chair with a head rest (He could not support his own head at this point.) and dribbling.

He said his first word since the accident on the 27th december 2005. It was amazing to hear his voice agian. Amazing. We all cried. We were so happy and began to see a future.

This lasted for 2 days and litereally overnight, he snapped, and his personalitly became really aggressive. He bit staff, hit out with his working arm (his right side is very slow and his right arm is constantly at a right angle and unable to do much), tried to bite me, Mum and dad as well as attempted strangulation of us all. Basically anyone who came near him he attacked them. It was a horrible horrible time. the only words he spoke were swear words. Mostly the 'f' word. My 81 year old granmother found this period very hard to cope with, as we all did.

Eventually after 8 months in the rehab hospital the Doctors and nurses all agreed that Andrew needed to go to a rehab hospital that specifically cared for young people with serious agressional and behavioural problems, as they no longer wnated to put their staff at risk. Again, Me, Mum and Dad were all haeartbroken. the light at the end of the tunnel was nowhere in sight.

He has now been living at the new rehab place since May 2006. They only have 15 residents, all with aggrssion and bahavior problems. All the doors are locked, you have to sign in and to visit. It can sometimes be a little lively to say the least!!

When he moved in we were advised that we could only visit twice a week as they wanted to get Andrew involved in a routine. Mum was devestated. She had been with him everyday since 9th August 2005. It took a while for her to adapt. we were told by staff that he would stay in this new place for up to 2 years minimum.

Since andrew has been there his speech has improved dramatically, (it is slurred and at time he is incoherent) his tollorance levels have got better and they have started to feed him proper food once a week (all liquidated , but its a start). He is still incontinent and is still fed through his tube in his stomach, and still uses his wheel chair (He is getting better at using his wheelchair now.) to get around. But for the first time since that fateful day i am beginning to see a future for Andrew. It has been a horiffic emotional journey for all of us and i'm afraid it hasnt finished yet. I still see him every saturday and wouldnt have it any other way. Mum calls the rehab place every night and religiously goes every wednesday and saturday. It is the hardest thing any of us have had to cope with. I cannot begin to imagine how it is for Andrew.

It took me a year to accept Andrews accident and the position that it has left him in. It has broken a piece of my heart.

Now I have accepted it, it is easier to be positive about his eventual outcome, whatever this will be. I will never stop incouraging him and believeing in him. TBI It is such a painstakingly frustrating slow process, a real test of patience and faith. I am a stronger person now, and so are my Mum and Dad, and even my little old Nan.

I really can empathise with any relative who has or who are going through this and my heart goes out to all of you.