A medical, legal, and
informational resource
for persons dealing with
traumatic brain injury.

STORIES OF AMAZING RECOVERIES

Submitted By: Hizer Mahmood
Email: hizer@live.co.uk

I am 20 years old at the time of my accident I was 19 and I am a head injury patient I used to study Pharmacy. One day I was doing a u-turn on a 30mph main road when this idiot hit me at very high speeds way above the limit as I am told by my family and now confirmed by the police. I can't remember anything from the accident to me one day I woke up not being able to do anything, with this huge 'cage' screwed into my head (fixator/halo) I thought I was dreaming for over a month because when ever I went to sleep I had no recollection of the day before. I remained unconscious for approximately just over two months.

Reality only set in when they returned my capacity and I was deemed fit to make my own decisions and the first thing I asked for is to let me go home for a visit and I went initially every day for three days until the doctor decided I was not allowed to go again because I am a halo patient and in the accident I fractured my spine (c1, c2), he believed the journey home could do damage to my spine, ironic when you consider the fact that they allowed me to fall three times while I was unconscious (semi coma), completely displacing my minor fracture to a major fracture less than millimetres away from me being paralysed all just to save money, even after being directly handed over to the care of the nurses the second and third time and all they had to do was provide me with a floored bed which they did not provide me with until after the third fall and my spine was severely displaced.

I don't know how it affected my mind but I feel I have less than 20 percent of the brain power I had before and I forget things within an hour. So I started doing some research about my condition to find out why the right side of my body is not functional. I used to be right handed so I am unable to write and I walk 'drunk' unable to walk in a straight line. From my research I found out I have damage to the left side of my brain because he hit me on the drivers side ricocheting my brain causing the greatest injuries to the left side of my brain.

As I dwelled deeper into my research I realised due to the effect of ricocheting I have a diffused axonal injury (throughout my brain) with the greatest injuries to the left temporal lobe. So you can imagine the frustration I feel, at least if I could remember the events which happened before I became stationary at least I would have closure and not as many questions.

To conclude my story I will briefly write out the severity of my head injuries, but with the grace of God they will improve maybe not to a 100% but nevertheless improve. Minimum function to the right side of my body (hemiparesis), slowed thinking (cognitive), mental and physical fatigue, impaired vision, lack of concentration, headaches, constant anger and frustration leading to anxiety, short term memory and long term memory is virtually non existent (immediate memory is still in tacked) symptoms of dyslexia, slurred and slow speech resulting from head injury and difficulty in taking the same volumes of air into my lungs (possibly due to my right lung injury). Emotional or behavioural effects, such as feelings of restlessness, irritability, stubbornness, no motivation and a tendency to laugh more than before. In spite of all this the team still saved my life for which I have much gratitude although their may be some obnoxious 'scum' amongst them and I hate to endeavour to think of those individuals providing care to severely head injured patients and I shudder to think of them providing care to unconscious patients.

Despite all of this the root cause and the main problem is the NHS remains under funded and under staffed and we must resolve this before somebody has to live with tremendous injuries through no fault of their own, and I count myself lucky, with the grace of God I am still hear and able to speak out, maybe not as eloquently as prior to my accident but regardless I still have a voice. Thank you for taking the time to read my story and I hope it has raised some awareness towards the problems which we still have to overcome within the NHS because this directly has an effect on all of our lives.