On Thu, 10 May 2007, Wesley Parish wrote:
FWIW, I've been through this sort of thing myself. A major part of my surviving I credit to finding a book called "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat", by Oliver Sacks. It gave me some perspective on the whole issue of brain injury, which is what a coma is. It's not anywhere near as bad as a traumatic brain injury, which is what I lived through, but the whole thing is I suspect, scary for anyone who's never been through it before. (A coma's not life-threatening, as far as I know, but if you don't know what's happening, it can scare you.)
What happened to you? My interest (and hence knowledge) of these things was stimulated by a large 4x4 doing a U turn directly in front of my car on the way home from Hanmer....
And for the person in the coma, when they wake, the last thing they'll need is to be cossetted. While at the same time they can't be pushed, either. (I can tell you though, that in the early stages, getting up can sometimes be tiring enough an activity for an entire day. Catch the wave, don't let it dump you. ;)
From the resulting TBI my wife still (over a year later) "quacks" (her
speech goes weird) when she is tired or stressed...
There was a Head Injury group in Christchurch that I was aware of in the late nineties - I don't know if they're still around, but if they are, Ben's family should be able to get quality information from them.
Sometimes I think I should gently nudge my wife to join. John Carter Phone : (64)(3) 358 6639 Tait Electronics Fax : (64)(3) 359 4632 PO Box 1645 Christchurch Email : [EMAIL PROTECTED] New Zealand
