Brad Makowski's Life with Traumatic
Brain Injury
On 7/10/03 my stepson Brad Makowski
was involved in a motorcycle accident and sustained a (TBI)
Traumatic Brain Injury. Brad's life
since that time revolves around striving to regain independence and
understanding. No two brain injuries are the same and each differs in
resulting effects. Brad deals with both TBI physical and mental
constraints.
Ongoing fighting in
Iraq and Afghanistan has resulted in a flood of new TBI injuries.
Along with this has come added knowledge and focus on how to deal with TBI
both from an emergency trauma and long term rehabilitation standpoint.
I wish this new knowledge had been in use at the time of Brad's accident.
I am very happy however, for recently discovered techniques immediately
applied to new TBI victims. Now immediate treatments can result in
long term effects from TBI that are much reduced in many cases. This
is in marked contrast to the "relieve pressure and wait" techniques used
when Brad suffered his accident.
Physically, Brad's
primary symptoms are
spasticity &
contracture of the legs and restrictions of motion range in one shoulder.
Over time this has resulted in reduced ability to stand straight and walk.
Regular injections of Botox help but Brad has inability to walk further then
very short distances and only with the aid of a walker. Mentally, the
transition from short term memory into long term memory is impaired.
This results many times with the inability to retain what occurred
yesterday, especially with common non-emotional memories. Retention is
largely restricted along with confusion as to when pre and post TBI events
actually occurred. Brad has adapted but frustration often surfaces
when dealing with such errors in thinking. Things like what you had or
if you had breakfast can be unknown. How long ago you last spoke with
someone can be forgotten or confused. Finding the correct words for
common items can difficult, especially when fatigued.
Brad has endured a series of physical
procedures resulting from the accident. As recently as 2008 surgery
was required to deal with leftover accident injuries. If you wish to
know more about Brad's timeline of injuries, information can be found by
clicking here.
Traumatic Brain
Injury is fascinating in the way it effects the human brain. It is
also heart breaking in the results. In Brad's case it has taken a
Northwest Missouri State University
1997 graduate who had a promising full life ahead of him, and confined his
world to that of trying to understand and cope with his limitations.
If you are interested, I have captured my
observation over the years since
this injury, in hopes it will help others who have loved ones going through
a similar ordeal.
Recovery continues more than
six years after the accident. Years of help Brad has received in daily
in home physical, occupational, cognitive, & transitional living therapies from
Community Works Inc. &
Minds Matter LLC and through the
Kansas Brain Injury Waiver helped significantly but has come to and end.
Daily care giver help continues through a different Medicaid program, the
Kansas
Physical Disability Waiver. We now face days where Brad does
not have much to fill his time and he is becoming physically less active and
has much more unoccupied time on his hands.
Bradley Makowski
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