Each room has it’s own story.
The brain mri is routine in determining what has happened inside the brain. I know of many patients who had a brain mri and now live in subacute on the fifth floor.
In one room there is the once upon a time charge nurse who bears an aneurysm in the middle of a night time shift. He is 35 years old and has worked on the floor for four years. He is rushed to the ER for a brain mri and becomes yet another patient, a neighbor to one of the patients who he once cared for. He is locked in, can’t move a muscle but retains full understanding of everything around him. His young wife is present before and after work and works diligently in the brain injury rehab process.
The next room houses a 21 year old man who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis at a very young age. He has been there for years with his parents by his side. They live and breathe there and the stress of it all shows on their faces.
Two doors down is a retired prominent district attorney who worked his entire life to seek a perfect retirement. The day of his long awaited retirement he is involved in a rollover car accident. Here he is and has been for the last five years.
And then there are the ones who are dropped off and never seen again by their loved ones.
The 21 year old who overdosed on cocaine and survived. She was left behind in the sub-acute unit and never seen again by her parents or family. She died at the age of 42, alone.
There are the rich who come here. I’ve seen $100,000.00 bed’s come and go.
And then there’s the young who say “It could never happen to me” and they too end up with a brain mri and/or brain scan.
John, age 19, showed up on the 5th floor after his brain images revealed a brain aneurysm. Angry as hell and after several months of brain injury rehab his mother opted to put him in a group home. He remains angry, pissed off and has severe spasticity.
There are among the patients the ones who have diseases. There are the ones who’s muscles dance all day and others who’s muscles who don’t dance at all.
You can walk up and down the hall and know that each room has a story of it’s own.
# 509 has it’s own story too.
Bed one lays a 32 year old who was hit by a car on his bicycle in a major supermarket parking lot. This patient lay after two surgeries (one to remove a portion of his skull to aid in the removal of a “bleed” and the second to reattach the saved skull.) (In some cases the “saved” skull is retained under the skin of the abdomen until it is needed) He is loved so much by his adopted father who waits by his side for any sign of recovery.
Bed two was home to our son.
Brain MRI are routinely done after brain injury and often shows damage to the cerebellum.
There is a main difference between where these patients remain and where others are sent after their brain mri..
The top ten 2008 brain injury rehab centers are:
The Rehabilitation Center of Chicago
The University of Washington Medical Center
The Kessler Institute of Rehabilitation in New Jersey
Memorial Hermann-TIRR
The Mayo Clinic’s Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Center
Craig Hospital in Denver
Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital in Boston
Rusk Institute of the NYU Medical Center
Shepherd Center
Ohio State University Hospital
Researchers believe that a victim’s type and quality of care determines the outcome of their condition.