I’m Tony Baratta. Today, I want to talk to you about five therapies that every person who suffers a traumatic brain injury should have in order to achieve full recovery.
Did you know that there are 529,000 people currently in the state of Pennsylvania who have suffered an acquired brain injury? This is the kind of injury that someone suffers in a car accident, a fall, a traumatic event, or maybe even a stroke. And the key here is that the sooner a person gets treatment, the better the outcome is likely to be. And these five treatments that I’m going to talk to you about are necessary.
A client story
I recently represented a woman who was a competitive bike rider. She was in her mid 50s, and she was riding down the road, when a dog ran out from its owner’s driveway, and slammed into her bike. She was wearing a helmet, but she was slammed to the macadam and suffered a brain bleed. She was rushed to the hospital.
Fortunately, surgery was not necessary, but they monitored her brain bleed, and she had suffered the symptoms and the signs of a traumatic brain injury. She was confused. She had balance issues. She had sensitivity to light and sound. She had severe headaches. She was having nausea and vomiting. And these were continuing.
So she got some treatment after the hospitalization through a rehabilitation center. She received inpatient rehabilitation, and then additional outpatient rehabilitation. Specifically, she received the following five treatments.
Physical and occupational therapy
First, she received physical therapy, which helps improve your strength, your coordination and your flexibility. She also received occupational therapy that helps you improve the tasks of daily living, like bathing, dressing, cooking and cleaning.
Speech therapy
Then she also had speech therapy. And speech therapy is important for helping a patient form words and sentences, and even to use devices like cell phones, iPads or other communication devices.
Cognitive and psychological therapy
She also received cognitive and psychological therapy. Psychological therapy is so important in a traumatic brain injury because there are many mood changes and psychological changes that occur when a person suffers a traumatic brain injury.
A success story
So if a patient gets physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, cognitive therapy and psychological therapy, a patient is likely to have a much better chance of recovery. This woman, the bike rider, was able to go back to work after four months of this intensive treatment. And soon thereafter, she resumed her competitive bike riding as well.
Not every person has these kinds of dramatic, successful results. But if you’re going to have successful results, those five therapies are key. My name is Tony Baratta. And I hope this was helpful to you.
