[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Have you ever known anyone who was mentally changed after head trauma? (Page 1 of 4)
Posted: 8/24/2017 9:23:31 PM EDT
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I work with a guy in his mid 40's. He is mentally slow. He is kind of a laborer or gopher in our shop. He can do simple tasks. Big guy. Strong as hell.
I've been working with him a while and figured he was born that way. Found out today he was in a bad vehicle wreck when he was in his early 20s. Suffered head trauma. Also lost his teeth. I guess he has never been the same since. He lives on his own but can't drive. Only allowed to work 5 hours a day. His paychecks go to someone else who pays his bills. He is The nicest and friendliest guy. But he comes up with stories about how he owns over 70 trucks, half dozen 18 wheelers... He is the first person, that I knew of, who was the way he was because of a trauma. Mentally, not physically. I imagine I've encountered more but never realized it. I realized today that the times I have encountered people with mental disorders, I always assumed they were born that way. How dumb of me. Just curious if any of you have had similar instances meeting people who have been mentally changed due to a head trauma or tbi. BTW, our company does employ people with disabilities, there is him and a guy missing a leg. I was told "it looks good to the government". |
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I knew a guy that had a head injury from a motorcycle wreck. It was touch and go for awhile but he was never the same. He became unbearable to be around. He talked non-stop and had some behavior that kind of reminded one of schizophrenia.
He broke up his brothers marriage with his drama. He was a totally different person from before the wreck. Brain damage is horrible. |
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I've known a few. A girl I went to high school with drove her car over an embankment reaching for a CD that had fallen in the floor of the passenger seat. She recovered, but only to about 75% of what she was before. Shame too, she was towards the top of the class.
Another old guy who was known for walking around our town constantly. He was supposedly in some sort of accident when he was in his 20s. His face was pretty jacked up so I believed. He was trouble, however. He was very unstable and eventually got himself arrested after throwing a huge temper tantrum in one of the gas stations and he's off in a hospital somewhere now. I've met others too as I'm in the medical profession but those are the ones that stand out to me. |
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Family member got into a bad wreck that messed up his frontal lobe. He doesn't have tourettes or anything, but he pretty much lost his mental filter. He's still probably my favorite Uncle.
My FIL claims to have fallen of his bike and hit his head decades ago. He saw it as a blessing in disguise because after the incident he couldn't drink alcohol without getting real sick. I guess he was somewhat of a heavy drinker. |
| Yep, but I'm in EMS so I've met a few. I had one in the family too before he passed away from some sort of complications years after the accident. The oldest son of the woman my grandfather married was a head injury survivor. From what I was told he was the front seat passenger after he and his college friends had been out partying. Supposedly a smart guy who was on track to graduate with an engineering degree but he was a bit of a simpleton by the time I met him. Nice guy who worked a government job in the mail room. He was actually able to learn to drive again and lived on his own in an apartment with his brother checking in on him weekly. |
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A friend I grew up with, went to boot camp with and was in his wedding, wrecked his Harley and was in a coma for about 2 weeks.
He sustained serious brain trauma. It took him almost 2 years to relearn to walk, eat, talk etc... He can't hold down a job. Luckily his wife stayed with him and does well financially. He requires a 4 hour nap in the middle of the day or he becomes disoriented. His long term memory is sharp but his short term is shit. Whenever I get back home I drop by to see him and he seems to be stable, no further decline. But it's depressing to see a lifelong friend like that. |
| I know a guy who had a wire strike in an OH58 and got a career ending brain injury. He was never the same. I know a cop who got hit in the head with a ball bat. Same. I know another guy that crashed his motorcycle. Same deal. All are functional, and living independently, but they all lost a bit of themselves. |
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Yes- head trauma can be a bitch.
Person was high functioning executive - creative and production. Lost the ability to recognize and follow inference and reference. Vocabulary was reduced, unconscious word substitutions, and memory issues. Inability to follow printed directions. Tells stories in a disjointed and tangental manner sort of like a drunk kindergartener. They thought they had completely recovered.... |
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Guy I used to work with and shoot with some. Fell out of a tree while hunting and landed on his head. Went from someone that you could talk to to someone with a unstable violent temper who would hold irrational grudges over the dumbest things for months, refuse to talk with you and then be perfectly fine with you one day. Got to the point where everyone just avoided him and coined him ''the guy most likely to go postal at work.''
He ended up going off on some kind of disability, don't know if it was workmans comp type though. |
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My former boss's son was reduced to the mental age of a pre-teen after a bad wreck. He was able to drive and work, but he was slow.
My wife's cousin was assaulted with a ball-peen hammer. He was finishing up his degree and very gifted young man. He suffered massive head trauma and will deal with the after effects for the rest of his life. He struggles with alcohol/drug addiction and is obviously not at the same mental capacity. It's especially noticeable because he has a twin, that was similar in all respects before the assault. |
| I was in a bad car accident rolled 6 times in a car. I have speech problem where words in my sentences do not make sense randomly, I see stars often, my left hand will tremble out of no where and I do not notice it. Was comatose for 3 days after nearly died of blood loss. |
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Buddy of mine wrecked his 4wheeler a few miles from my house, I saw the helicopter land that took him away.
He was already not that sharp, but it dulled him down quite a bit more. He just got engaged, and I think unless you knew him before it's not immediately obvious. |
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Quoted:
I knew a guy that had a head injury from a motorcycle wreck. It was touch and go for awhile but he was never the same. He became unbearable to be around. He talked non-stop and had some behavior that kind of reminded one of schizophrenia. He broke up his brothers marriage with his drama. He was a totally different person from before the wreck. Brain damage is horrible. TBI is a bitch. |
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me a little. in 2011, i got hit in the head with a 250 pound piece of steel. messed me up pretty good. was out of work for 2 + years with migraines, a little vertigo, lights bothered me, loud noises, ect......
got better, went to school because dic said not to work under cars anymore. A little more cranky now than I used to be. memory isnt as sharp, things piss me off a lot faster, especially when employers in my shitty state break my balls for being out of work for 2 years with an injury..... but hey... im 90% there  could have been much worse
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| Yea, classmate of mine in prep school. He was riding a dirt bike through the woods and hit a tree head on. He was out of school for 6 months and was "slow" after that. He was able to go on to college but his speech was slow and he was given extra time on tests etc. |
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My wife's friend had a car accident right after college and suffered head trauma. After her recovery, the biggest thing I notice is her conversation patterns. She will change the topic quickly to get thoughts out. It's minor enough that people that know her after the accident would just think it's normal, but to those that knew her before it's noticeable.
I know a lot of TBI cases from the military and the biggest thing I see is impulse control and mood swings. |
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Kid I grew up with got messed up in a motorcycle accident. Prior to the accident he was fun to hang out with. After he recovered he was dull and mentally slow. He ended up becoming a vagrant and last I heard that he had passed on.
Also knew a bright young woman that was severely injured in a car crash. She was on a fast track towards the executive suite in a large corporation. After the crash she had zero personality and no longer had any drive. Last I heard she was a recluse. |
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Quoted:
I work with a guy in his mid 40's. He is mentally slow. He is kind of a laborer or gopher in our shop. He can do simple tasks. Big guy. Strong as hell. I've been working with him a while and figured he was born that way. Found out today he was in a bad vehicle wreck when he was in his early 20s. Suffered head trauma. Also lost his teeth. I guess he has never been the same since. He lives on his own but can't drive. Only allowed to work 5 hours a day. His paychecks go to someone else who pays his bills. He is The nicest and friendliest guy. But he comes up with stories about how he owns over 70 trucks, half dozen 18 wheelers... He is the first person, that I knew of, who was the way he was because of a trauma. Mentally, not physically. I imagine I've encountered more but never realized it. I realized today that the times I have encountered people with mental disorders, I always assumed they were born that way. How dumb of me. Just curious if any of you have had similar instances meeting people who have been mentally changed due to a head trauma or tbi. BTW, our company does employ people with disabilities, there is him and a guy missing a leg. I was told "it looks good to the government". Might not count but my grand dad had brain surgery to repair two aneurysms years ago. It didn't make him slow or reduce his mental faculties but his personality did change. Nothing bad, but it was definitely noticeable. ETA: well, I will have to say he gambled a little more, but he already gambled enough before that it wasn't particularly notable at first. |
| Was good friends with a guy that had a lady pull out in front of him on his motorcycle. He got most of the way stopped, but still flew over the hood. Had his helmet on but it still messed him up, needed one side of the frontal lobe removed and damaged the other side. He was still a good looking guy afterwards and always did well with the women, but he became a cold blooded woman destroying machine afterwards. He had zero problems lying and making up any story that would get him laid and would drop them like a fucking hot rock when he was done with them. Would knock them up and not give a rat shit about it. He quickly maxed out child support deductions and would laugh when he would put out another kid and all the rest had to take a hair cut. Would call them any kind of racist term he could think of... was frequently telling them he was coming over for a bean dip. Whats fucked up is the women loved it and loved him. He could slide back to any one of them on a dry night. He made one call him daddy at all times... like, he would meet someone and introduce himself as daddy and when they were like... your name isn't daddy... he would be like "the fuck it isn't... and would speaker phone the one girl and if she didn't answer "hi daddy" he would be like "whats my name baby?" And she would be like "daddddddy" fucked up but hilarious. Other than that he wad unchanged in the intellect department - we both had jobs that required autonomy and ability to think amd problem solve. He was just more cold blooded afterwards and i would almost say more charming. |
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Local neurosurgeon hit some gravel on his bike and landed in a tree. If he hadn't been wearing a helmet he probably would have died. As it is he needs 24/7/365 since he is near vegetative.
There was a big dropoff in local middle age bikers after that. Quoted:
A guy I used to know took a foul ball to the head while going to watch his son's baseball game. He had to retire from work in his mid 40s. He lost about 60% of his communication skills, and his affect was completely flat after the injury. There's no telling what I could have accomplished. I coulda been somebody. I coulda been a contender. 
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Yes. A Supervisor of mine ~15yrs ago.
He got in a hit and run road rage incident on his motorcycle at 4th and Market Sts in downtown 'Frisco, going 10~12mph. He was wearing one of those little plastic beanie helmets that just shattered on impact, so he ended up bouncing his head a couple times. He came back to work after 'recovery' but he was never really the same and he couldn't really couldn't keep up with the work pace anymore. He lasted about 3 years before taking a partial disability retirement. He was a good guy. 
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| Several. One that sticks out occurred about a month and a half or two months ago. Gangbanger kid I know gets blasted during a driveby. Despite the thug lifestyle he had always been reasonably honest and upfront about his dealings and generally easy to get along with. He caught a bullet to the head which entered his brain in some way or another. He still recognizes me and can speak, but he went from kinda dumb to barely conscious. It's actually amazing he's alive. What sucks is that a previously completely unproductive member of society is now going to be paid for for the rest of his life by the taxpayers. |
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Guilty. Got blown up a few times in Iraq and Afghanistan. I have seen a lot of differences in how I interact with others. I no longer have a filter when it comes to honesty. Sounds weird but true. I feel like Jim Carey in Liar Liar. My wife is my handler in some situations where I shouldn't be so honest. I've also noticed thought processes are more difficult and take a lot more time depending on the complexity. It can, and has caused depression and anxiety because I dont know how to control it.
All that, still retired from the Army, and still not sucking the government tit... |
| Yep. Knew a very clean-cut guy who had his life in order, good career, family, etc.. He was in a bad car accident and had severe head trauma and brain damage that kept him in an out of the hospital for years. Came out a completely different person after the wreck and now he is a registered sex offender. |
| Two. A guy I commanded with was in a bad motorcycle wreck. He is basically a ghost of what he used to be. Barely recognizes his wife and kids. The other is my father in law. He survived an aneurism a decade ago. Some days he has absolutely no idea who he is or what is going on, other days he tells plausible tales that if you didn't know him you would think they are real but they are complete fabrications. However he thinks they are true due due to the damage that he suffered during the aneurism. |
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A family member of mine worked at a TBI shop, it's basically everyone relating to TBI injuries who works there and has a chance to actually just do some physical work to keep them occupied. There was so many TBI "employees" that they constantly had to expand. I met hundreds of them.... it's really sad.
It's way more prevalent than you think. Of course and then I know someone who tried to eat their gun but didn't complete that and is now basically a vegetable. Some guys were millionaires and one car accident later, nothing more than very limited and inmobile. Walk of life didn't matter, life came at them no matter what their titles were. |