Posted on March 23, 2012 · Posted in TBI Voices
This entry is part 4 of 32 in the series Quinn

Retrograde Amnesia for Day of Traumatic Brain Injury: Quinn Part Four

 

As I have stated repeatedly throughout this project, the presence and length of retrograde amnesia is a particularly important diagnostic indicator with respect to the severity of brain injury.  Absence of memory for events before the trauma, retrograde amnesia, points to a more severe injury.

Was this a Saturday?  Do you remember what day it was?

Yeah, it was a weekend because  it was the kids’ games that I was work, that I was, that I was refereeing.  I don’t know if it was Saturday or Sunday.

Quinn’s’ Retrograde Amnesia

Do you remember the game?

No.

Do you remember the day?

I only remember… I remember before the hockey, I dropped off my wife at her dad’s house and I don’t remember from then on.  I drove to the right address.  I passed a friend who was going to  work at the emergency room that I got flown to a couple of hours later and he came out and told my wife we’re holding him down and so on.  I don’t remember that.

I don’t remember skating three games.  I don’t remember most of my hospital stay.  I do remember seeing some friends, some family.  I don’t remember all of them.  She wrote down names of people that visited, you know.  I’m shocked I don’t, I don’t remember seeing them.

Let’s go back.  Is it five hours before your accident that’s your last memory, that you remembered dropping your wife off at her dad’s?

Yeah, four or five hours.

Other Memory Problems than Retrograde Amnesia

What hospital did they take to you?  Where did they fly you to?

They flew me to Delray Hospital and I was in the ICU for I guess a day and I didn’t remember her.  I didn’t remember anybody.

Where’d you go from the ICU?

I don’t know if it’s the step, I don’t know if it’s called the step-down unit but I’m in, I was in Delray for about a week and they kicked me out too soon.

Where did you go from Delray?

Here (meaning home).

Do you remember being in Delray at all?

I don’t know. I remember seeing certain people.  I don’t remember.  I remember coming home.

Next in Part Five – Numbness is More Complex than Denial

By Attorney Gordon Johnson

800-992-9447

 

About the Author

Attorney Gordon S. Johnson, Jr.
Past Chair Traumatic Brain Injury Litigation Group, American Association of Justice
g@gordonjohnson.com :: 800-992-9447