As a survivor of a traumatic brain injury and someone, who has recently written a book about her own experience, I started reading Michael Mason’s book, Head Cases, with a mixture of apprehension and hesitancy.  For starters, having lived with my own brain injury for over eighteen years and having fought my own struggles against the “forces of evil,” i.e. the medical and state bureaucracies, I wondered whether I would learn anything new from the book.  Secondly, over these past eighteen years, I have successfully managed to relegate the memories of my horrible ordeal to the recesses of my mind.  I was afraid those memories might resurface if I read Michael Mason’s book.  I am happy to say that neither fear was realized by reading Head Cases.

    On the contrary, Michael Mason’s Head Cases strikes just the right balance between analysis of how the brain works and repairs itself – an analysis, which I found to be extremely interesting and informative – and discussion of how brain injury affects not only its victims but all of those close to the victim.

    Head Cases is largely divided into individual case studies.  To the general reader, the case studies serve to inform the person of how varied are the causes of brain injury and how varied the outcomes can be.  To someone like me, the case studies in Head Cases were vivid illustrations of just how lucky I was and how valid Michael’s assertion is that immediate and appropriate medical care, proactive caretakers and a supportive network of friends are essential elements in a brain injury victim’s chance for recovery.  It is a point that I make as well in my book, Searching for the Open Door:  A Woman’s Struggle for Survival after a Traumatic Brain Injury.

    Of all the case studies that make up Head Cases, none struck so close to home as the story of Melissa Felteau in the chapter entitled, “In All Earnestness”.  Like Melissa, I was a mover and shaker before my brain injury.  I had the world in the palm of my hand.  Having lived in Washington, D. C. since 1989 and having attained my master’s degree there in May, 1994, I had all the contacts and educational background to embark on a successful career in international business.  I had dreams of traveling and working abroad, while meeting other successful and exciting people.  After the brain injury, it became quite clear early on, that none of those dreams were going to be possible because of the deficits – particularly cognitive deficits – I was dealing with. Many of those deficits are the same ones that Melissa is grappling with now.  It was liberating to read about someone else, who has experienced the same emotions I have.

    I believe reading Head Cases will serve two purposes.  For the reader, who is only a passive observer, he will come away with an understanding of the variety of causes of brain injury and how limited the treatment options are for some of its victims.  And for the reader, who has experienced a traumatic brain injury first-hand, I believe he will be comforted to know that everything is relative and there is always someone out there who is in far worse shape.

Cynthia Paddock Doroghazi is the author of Searching for the Open Door:  A Woman’s Struggle for Survival After a Traumatic Brain Injury.