Traumatic Brain Injury

8

Ta n ner, D. C.

Case Studies in Communication Sciences and Disorders,

Second Edition (pp. 147-165).

(^) © 2017 SLACK Incorporated.
Not a sentence or a word is in de pen dent of the circumstances under which it is uttered.
— Alfred North Whitehead
This chapter describes communication disorders resulting from traumatic brain injuries.
Open and closed head injuries are considered, as well as the communication disorders associated
with them. There is also a discussion of orientation, memory, and be hav ior prob lems typically
seen in patients with traumatic brain injury. Case studies include a 17- year- old girl with an open
head injury following a suicide attempt and two adults and a child who suffered brain damage
because of motor vehicle accidents. There is an account of response delay and long- term effects
of traumatic brain injury, as well as a case involving a motorcycle accident victim in an eye- open
vegetative state.
In the United States, there are about 500,000 traumatic brain injury hospitalizations each year
(Ylvisaker, Szekeres, & Feeney, 2001). Although some persons die of these injuries, many survive.
The survival rate has increased because of medical and technological advances. Today, there are
ambulance, he li cop ter, and airplane rapid transportation ser vices from accident sites to trauma
centers where doctors and nurses can relieve the dangerous pressure within the skull that often
develops with serious traumatic brain injury. According to Ghajar (2000), the improved outcome