Surviving Brain Damage After Assault

This is a most valuable and detailed account of delayed, gradual and continuing recovery after a very severe traumatic brain injury. The authors' thoughtful and detailed discussion of the reasons for such unexpected and prolonged improvement will be crucially important in the planning of rehabilitation research and in developing health service provision. - Lindsay McLellan, Formerly Europe Professor of Rehabilitation, University of Southampton, UK and Medical Adviser to the Brain Injury Group Wilson, Dhamapurkar and Rose present a fascinating, thought provoking yet scientific account of late recovery from the Minimally Conscious State. This challenges the concept of 'cut-off' after which recovery is unlikely. Family and client perspectives enhance the account. This informative book will be of interest to all working with people with long term Disorders of Consciousness. - Agnes Shiel, Professor of Occupational Therapy, National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland Wilson, Dhamapurkar and Rose present a fascinating, thought provoking yet scientific account of late recovery from the Minimally Conscious State. This challenges the concept of 'cut-off' after which recovery is unlikely. Family and client perspectives enhance the account. This informative book will be of interest to all working with people with long term Disorders of Consciousness. - Agnes Shiel, Professor of Occupational Therapy, National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland This is a most valuable and detailed account of delayed, gradual and continuing recovery after a very severe traumatic brain injury. The subject is a young man who has received excellent medical and surgical care and exemplary rehabilitation input from his family and the rehabilitation team involved over several years. The authors' thoughtful and detailed discussion of the reasons for such unexpected and prolonged improvement raise many questions. This case is a further example of the fact that people's brains are potentially able to acquire new patterns of activity and responsiveness when they undergo intensive training and acquire new skills - not only in those who are healthy, but also (to a proportional degree) after severe damage to the brain has occurred. The time course of these changes in such patients after brain injury mirrors that of active skill acquisition in normal adults, rather than passive 'spontaneous' recovery from injury. It is crucially important that this principle is recognised, both in the planning of rehabilitation research and in health service provision, if the mechanisms involved are to be fully understood and optimal recovery from brain injury is to be achieved for all. - Lindsay McLellan, Formerly Europe Professor of Rehabilitation, University of Southampton, UK and Medical Adviser to the Brain Injury Group