Life After Brain Injury

There is life after brain injury  but it may be a different life than what you’ve known. Your loved one may have changed as a result of an injury to his/her brain – a complex system that controls everything we think, do and say. In some cases, brain injury causes severe changes to physical, thinking, communication and emotional capabilities while in other cases the changes may be relatively minor.

When will my loved one recover?

No one can yet predict with absolute certainty a brain injury survivor’s capacity to relearn or adapt to lost skills or how long it will take. Health care professionals will typically provide a prognosis – how well and how quickly they believe the survivor will recover. The medical prognosis takes into consideration the severity of the brain injury, whether it’s mild, moderate or severe.

Definition

Acquired Brain Injury: A mild, moderate or severe brain injury caused by a medical condition or trauma occurring anytime in a person’s life after their birth is called an “acquired brain injury.” However, the term acquired brain injury DOES NOT include brain damage resulting from genetic causes or things that may happen to the developing brain before the time of birth. It also does not include degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s, dementia and other conditions that become worse over time.