Traumatic Brain Injury Handbook

March 15, 2016

In 2012, Healy, a private school public relations director, fell, hit his head on the ground, and ended up in a coma, close to death, for 20 days. When he woke up, he was told he had suffered a traumatic brain injury (TBI). A few weeks in a rehabilitation center, with intensive occupational, physical, and speech/language therapy allowed Healy to return home, but he was not ready to go back to work. Two years later, he started writing this book, incorporating his research on TBI--extensive reading of medical texts, head-injury studies, and databases, exploring damages associated with sports and recreation, and military service-related TBI--with an account of his own experience. VERDICT This title serves best as a moving, insightful memoir of a well-educated person struggling to communicate yet slowly overcoming his TBI. For an injury handbook consider instead Vani Rao & Sandeep Vaishnavi's The Traumatized Brain: A Family Guide to Understanding Mood, Memory, and Behavior After Brain Injury.--Marcia G. Welsh, Dartmouth Coll. Lib., Hanover, NH

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 1, 2016
Mess with the brain, and you're royally screwed, Healy declares in this memoir about the impact of his traumatic brain injury (TBI) in 2012. The 44-year-old attempted to rescue the family's black cat when it was perched in a tree. Healy still cannot remember whether he fell off the extension ladder or from the tree, but it was nearly three weeks before he regained consciousness after the accident. He suffered intracranial hemorrhages (these did not require surgery) and a dislocated wrist. He recounts his treatment, especially an intense rehab program. Healy's discussion of TBIs includes symptoms, disabilities that might result, and long-term consequences. Depression and lack of impulse control can be serious sequelae. Post-traumatic amnesia, neuroplasticity, and the role of caregivers are addressed. Healy's main focus is on recovery. And that process requires patience, perseverance, and a positive attitude. He extols the benefits of meditation. Working his way back toward normalcy, he acquires an expanded appreciation of ordinary life. A contemplative and emotional story that details the frustrations and elation of rebounding from brain injury.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)