I have been doing a Santa’s Wish list for brain injury advocacy for more than a decade. I regurgitate some of it from year to year, as the needs have changed little, the injury no less severe, the misdiagnosis as prevalent. This year my heart has been touched by a whole new group of survivors, and sadly, some who didn’t. Heading off this year’s list is one I haven’t used before:
I wish that all doctors who diagnose someone with brain injury, will take time to consider and treat the emotional vulnerability of the brain injured person. Brain injury comes with emotional injury. The more emotional a person was before the injury, the more significant that emotional injury will be. Yet emotional vulnerability cannot be ascertained in a 15 minute checkup, it requires listening and understanding the person who was hurt. And emotional injuries cannot be fully treated by passing pills.
Thus, my second wish is that a meaningful brain injury treatment program could be created so that if the physician identifies the needs for such program, those who get there get the intervention they need. There must be a thousand lists of brain injury symptoms on the web by now. I have had my own since 1996. Yet the most serious symptom of brain injury is almost never listed: suicide. The risk of a suicide attempt after a brain injury is quite significant. The risk of a successful suicide directly proportionate to the access of the brain injured person to a handgun. Of the 26,000 deaths in the United States each year from handguns, 17,000 are suicides.
So my third wish is that handguns be outlawed and that until they are, that all brain injury professionals make sure that their patients/clients, don’t have access to one.
My fourth wish is that with Health Care Reform we find the money, the priority, to get brain injury treatment programs in every state. It is hard to imagine our system has deteriorated to this, but the survivor of a severe brain injury, with catastrophic physical and mental impairments, may have no better treatment option in a given state than a nursing home. And once in a nursing home, they do not get the ongoing physical, cognitive and emotional therapy that they need.
As I look back at my past Santa’s Wish lists, I see that this year is not as cheery as some of those before. http://www.tbilaw.com/essays.santa.php Sometimes the emotional impact of brain injury also impacts the professional, too. It is hard to forget the story of a young husband, a young father who had a diagnosed brain injury and no treatment. His suicide will linger in my Christmas thoughts.
My first mild TBI case became a severe brain injury case because of a suicidal act. The challenge of representing Ritchie Clark almost two decades ago opened up the world of brain injury representation to me. After my representation had gotten him some justice, his untreated emotional injuries resulted in a catastrophic second injury, which ultimately cost him his life. My thirst to learn about brain injury came as a result of representing Ritchie. The motivation to do it better came from his death.
Once again I ponder how to get better, how to make a difference not just for my clients but for all those who impacted by this greatest life robber.
So this Christmas it is not a fairy tale list of wishes, but a promise to write more, to advocate harder and to be a better lawyer