Brain Injury Severity: Chris Part Two
Chris’s Mom struggled with understanding the brain injury severity because of the enormous amount of physical damage that had been caused by the accident.
Before her accident, Chris was a normal girl. Says her Mom:
She was a Sophomore in high school, typical, loved going to the mall, had lots of friends, had friends staying over, went to stay at friends’ house. (But for the accident) I think she would be very successful with a job, with a career. She wouldn’t be struggling the way she is now every day.
Chris’s coma lasted months because of the brain injury severity. She was left with severe physical problems, some from the blow of the pickup to the left side of her body, some from not using her muscles for the months that she was sleeping. Chris has no memory of being in her first two hospitals, spanning a period of at least four months. She also says she remembers nothing of her sophomore year in high school (accident happened in January of that year) and has little memory of her childhood. Due to her brain injury severity Mom explains that she does remember most of her childhood but corroborates that most of the year before the wreck is gone.
Chris has significant left sided problems. Her left arm is noticeably impaired. Chris attributes this to the severely broken arm she suffered in the wreck, but Mom explains the brain injury severity has do to with much of the limitations she had on her left side, not a specific physical injury. Balance is perhaps her most significant physical impairment. Says her Mom:
Well, she, she doesn’t have the balance that she used to. She’ll never be able to run. If you would ask her to stand on one foot and balance, I always get leery that, you know, she’s going to fall or get hurt.
Chris’s Understanding of the Severity of Brain Injury
Says Chris:
Well, I don’t, well I can’t, it’s hard to walk, kind of balance. I can’t really run that well. I can jog but not run. My left hand is just, I don’t know, it does not work well. It gets tight.
She receives Botox to help with the spasticity in that hand. She is supposed to get them every three months, but as so often happens, it has been a long time since she had one.
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