Hi everyone, I'm just looking for a little advice and to blow off some steam I suppose. Apologies in advance for my tendency to ramble! I tried to be as thorough as possible but I go on a bit, sorry

In my frequent contemplation of the circumstances of my accident, and in light of what I've gleaned from research, I've become very frustrated and upset with how the treatment of my injuries that lead to my as-of-yet still not formally diagnosed TBI.

I feel as though it was very poorly handled by the hospital staff involved and that my health and wellbeing could be vastly different presently if my treatment had been of higher quality.

I know there are vastly differing opinions on the treatment of brain injury and a lot of scientific knowledge on TBI has only come to light recently, and my individual situation was somewhat ambiguous, so perhaps the response to my accident was reasonable/typical in the current medical landscape, and it's just bad luck.

However reading about how others have been treated and diagnosed and comparing that to my own experience has been incredibly frustrating so I guess I just want to understand the whole situation a little better... Anyhow, without further ado:


In January of 2013 at the age of 17 (I really don't want to think about how that's almost a year and a half ago now ) I had my first and only tonic/clonic (grand mal) seizure due to what was put down as hyponatraemia (acute water intoxication). I'd been at an outdoor music festival, completely sober, on an incredibly hot day. I'd gotten a headache at one stage, and as folk knowledge had taught me, there's nothing better for a headache than hydration .

I fell and hit my head, was knocked unconscious briefly and have a period of amnesia of roughly 10 hours following... I'm told I was dazed and pretty well incomprehensible during this period, and I have 'islands' of memory where I recall saying nonsense, trying to speak to the strangers who carried me to the medical tent, etc.. When I'd partially returned to myself, still quite unsteady and groggy, I was in the ER in the early morning.

All throughout this the primary assumption was that my condition/behaviour was due to an overdose or bad reaction to some kind of drug (given it had happened during a period when I was alone at a music festival), so that's what they were treating me for.

A CT scan was conducted during this period of amnesia which AFAIK came back normal. I think I passed the "what's the date, who's the prime minister, what's your name" etc. battery of questions (with some difficulty), but when they tested my vision they discovered a blind spot and decided to keep me in the hospital over the weekend. While in I spent most of the time sleeping. I was discharged on the Monday after a normal EEG and an MRI with a white spot indicative of "some damage typical of a bump to the head that should clear up in a couple of weeks but really nothing to worry about".

The thing is, throughout this whole episode there was no mention of a possible concussion or mTBI by any of the staff or the neurologist who oversaw me. All the focus was put on the seizure, and the whole ordeal was treated as something pretty minor. Having almost no knowledge of any of the stuff that had happened I and my family accepted this attitude and wrote off the whole episode as just one unpleasant weekend. I attributed all the unpleasant cognitive stuff that followed to pre-existing mental health issues I was experiencing and as a response to stresses of a coming return to school, etc. and never even thought that the whole incident could've had anything to do with it...

All year I was so sure that the seizure had hardly mattered that I just figured all my severe cognitive issues had to be prolonged symptoms of the couple of bad drug trips I'd had at the end of 2013, because it was the only possible explanation I could glean from my experiences. Now after all this research I'm inclined to think that this accident is likely the most significant factor in my ongoing poor cognitive state.

I now know that my response was highly atypical for even a worse tonic/clonic seizure than the one I had... while consciousness is generally lost, the postictal state of altered consciousness, amnesia, confusion, speech difficulties, bliss etc. typically ends after 30 minutes, with any persisting symptoms being fairly minor. This leads me to believe this likely had little to do with my condition.

It sounds far more like a typical response to a brain injury to me from what I've researched: hit my head, extended period of amnesia disorientiation (motor skills/cognition/speech), impaired vision hours after the fact, need for hospitalisation, as well as being told by friends and family in the days and weeks afterward that I seemed pretty "off".

I also know that people can experience concussions which have severe, lasting repercussions, (from incidents less drastic than falling whilst standing and smacking their head on asphalt whilst their brain was already swollen from water intoxication AND enduring an electric shitstorm) and retain consciousness, continuous memory, mobility, comprehensibility, etc, yet neverthless are nevertheless recognised, diagnosed, and treated. My immediate symptoms were far worse and it just seems like a no brainer (ha) that I was dealing with at least a concussion on top of the seizure. Most concussions don't even show up on an MRI the same day; I had evidence of damage on an MRI three days later.

Uhh, this is dragging on and I'm not sure if there's more to cover so I'll probably come back to it later... but my main concern and frustration is that, as far as I understand, treatment in the days/weeks/months after the accident is crucial in cases of brain injury, and even adhering to the most ideal treatment plan, there are no great guarantees... But I fear that because I wasn't diagnosed and treated, I permanently jeopardised my recovery...

In the days I was in hospital, when I was awake, I was watching TV shows on an iPad. When I left with no advice other than "don't drive for a couple of months just in case you have another seizure", I returned to being incredibly stressed and anxious about returning to school. Like, really, really stressed. A lot of self-loathing about my cognitive state. a lot of fear and frustration with myself and my family situation.

Additionally I slept poorly and on pretty awful hours... My dad always forced me to get up at daybreak regardless of how I'd slept. I jogged most days, and spent the bulk of my time staring at a computer screen or watching TV shows. Tried to force myself to read, etc. I didn't stop drinking until the start of this year; it wasn't super often but it was fairly regularly. Family dinners, in the company of my teenage peers, and while alone (on numerous occasions to excess).

I guess that's what my concerns come down to. Knowing now the typical regimen of REST, REST, REST, NO STRESS, DRUGS, NO EXERTION, etc. for brain-injury treatment, I now feel horrible reflecting on my life in that crucial recovery period. Had I and my family known that I'd almost inevitably suffered some kind of brain injury, we would have absolutely ensured that I adhered to this typical treatment plan as well as possible for as long as necessary. Lacking that, I fear I've caused permanent damage and lost vital opportunities to recover. This really, really seems like something a neurologist should have caught, yet they didn't... and it seems like because of that my quality of life has likely been permanently reduced.

But is it just tough luck, they did they're best, an understandable oversight, etc.? Or does this seem negligent? The last thing I want to do is get involved in a lawsuit, but if there's probable cause to do so here, I don't know...

Can evidence of concussions/mTBIs be conclusively found this long afterward?

Blah. Thanks so much to anyone who's managed to read through this, and any insights or anything really would be lovely. All the best.