TBI Rehabilitation Comment
I received a comment on my blog entry titled "TBI Rehabilitation" posted on by attorney Steve Doroghazi. His wife Cynthia underwent surgery in 1990 that left her permanently brain injured.
Fortunately Cynthia went on to recover from many of her impairments and graduated college some years later.
Cynthia has written a book which can be reviewed at http://www.newriverpublications.com/Searching_for_the_Open_Door.html.
I am always appreciative and very interested in the writing and publication efforts of those who suffer brain injury. Please take a look at Cynthia's work.
Thank you Steve for sharing this wonderful comment:
As an attorney and husband of a medical malpractice TBI PATIENT, I agree with your observations completely. My wife, Cynthia suffered a traumatic brain injury during a routine operation at George Washington University Medical Center in May 1990. That operation was designed to correct a condition known as hydrocephalus (water on the brain), by inserting a VP shunt in the meninges of her brain, thereby relieving intracranial pressure caused by the hydrocephalus. Unfortunately, a bleed occurred during the operation and went undetected long enough for her brain to begin collapsing in on itself, long enough for her to experience respiratory failure, and long enough for her to suffer permanent neurological damage.
After spending three months in the hospital, Cynthia was transferred by ambulance to Magee Rehabilitation hospital (Magee) in Philadelphia. After three months of intensive therapy at Magee, she was able to walk, with a quad cane, about sixty feet at a time. While she still wore diapers, her feeding tube had been removed, and she was beginning to communicate on an adult level, although with a flat affect to her speech. You can see from the photos on her web site that Cynthia has progressed far beyond this point, and far beyond all doctors' predictions.
Twenty-two months after her release from Magee, Cynthia resumed her master's program at The Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies(SAIS)as a Philip Merrill fellow. She graduated in 1994; and, in 1995, her medical malpractice case was tried before the Superior Court of the District of Columbia.
Wanting to tell her amazing story and, simultaneously, communicate her messages of hope, inspiration and the overall power of family, friends and prayer, Cynthia has written a book - Searching For The Open Door, A Woman's Struggle For Survival After A Traumatic Brain Injury. Cynthia plans to donate ten to twenty percent of book sales to Magee. This is her attempt to "give back" and provide others with the hope and inspiration to put up a good fight. To read a sample chapter of Cynthia's book, go to: http://www.newriverpublications.com/Searching_for_the_Open_Door.html
