If you were in a motor vehicle accident that caused a traumatic brain injury (TBI), your future could be very grim. While less serious TBIs like concussions may heal completely over time, others are far more devastating.
Patients can be left in minimally conscious states where their cognition is severely impaired. However, a recent article published in The New England Journal of Medicine may give some seriously injured TBI patients a flicker of hope.
A mom who refused to give up
One of the patients who participated in the landmark research study had been injured in a collision at the age of 17. Unable to speak, totally dependent on his mother and hired caregivers for his every need, the boy grew into a man while confined to his hospital bed.
His mother never gave up on her son. After three years, he spontaneously laughed at a game-show jingle. More laughter followed, often appropriately at adolescent jokes.
New tests provide hopeful results
By placing patients in fMRI machines and giving them verbal cues to think about different activities, e.g., playing tennis, doctors can observe the areas of the patients’ brains that light up. Because approximately a quarter of the patients studied exhibited illumination in the correct areas of the brain on command, this was a game-changer for those physicians treating TBI patients.
What is the takeaway?
While the study provides a glimmer of hope for cognitively impaired TBI sufferers, their futures still remain precarious. Even if they possess the cognition to understand and respond mentally to commands, their bodies are still trapped in their beds.
TBI patients require 24-hour care and all sorts of special equipment like Hoyer lifts to carry out the tasks that keep them alive. It’s an expense that few can afford. Most TBI patients will need an advocate to file their claims for damages against the at-fault parties who caused their wrecks.