Need Answers Please
 

My Daughter in Law totaled her car about 3 mths ago, hitting a car (16 yr old talking on phone made left turn on red) she had grandson 2 in car seat in the back seat and her friend passenger. All went to Hospital w what seemed mild injury. She diagnosed mild concussion, passenger broken wrist and baby fine. She was normal self ,nothing seemed different. About 1 mth later she is pulled over driving wrong side of road. They took her to jail suspecting she on illegal drugs. Test are negative, now they think she is Mentally ill she talking bazaar , she is not aware she has a child which was in daycare at the time and was left there till after thy closed. She was excellent mother and this was not the girl i saw night before???
Since that incident she has lived in Mental Institutions, her parents have custody of her son and our whole family are cut off (my son is baby's biological father. She contacts my son and I daily. She is paranoid , she sounds normal about 1/4 of the time ,the rest of the time she is talking stuff not there, different reality's, and she cries asking me what's wrong w her? She tells big stories not true. she is delusional ALOT!!! Her family wont reveal anything scared my son wants to take baby. They cant handle her condition and mental wards are easier to put her in then face the problem. Is this what others experience? She told me tonight for example that her son(my grandson)is the son of God and comes to tell messages....My heart is broken ,I've just started reading the post but can anyone help me understand her thinking? Thank You God Bless our people on the board for helping people new to this challenge.

Hi again mominlaw,

That's really sad and now that you've posted more about her situation in this post it's very difficult for me to know what to suggest. She sounds much worse than I thought from your first post. You say that she changed immediately after the head injury so I'm wondering if you know if her doctors at the hospital where she's living know about her concussion and how different she suddenly became.

I also wonder if she's talking some type of medications in the hospital that don't suit her and maybe making her worse.

Personally she sounds as if she needs a thorough medical workup rather than just psychiatric care alone. It would be helpful if she was seen by a specialist knowledgeable about head injuries and onset of psychiatric symptoms associated with that.

Ugh, how sad a situation for her and you all.

I'll post some info. below and will post more if I find them.

http://www.brainline.org/content/201...in-injury.html
Hallucinations and Delusions After a Brain Injury

http://www.brainline.org/content/201...in-injury.html
What Is Confabulation and How Does It Relate to Brain Injury?

http://www.brainline.org/resources/index.php
Brain Injury Resource Directory

btw here is your other post. I'll pop it in here so you can have all the info. together.
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/thread221154.html

She sounds like she's having a psychotic episode. This happened to me.

Google psychosis after concussion. Damage to certain parts in the brain cause this.

A mental unit would be helpful. She needs antipsychotics like risperadal abilify or zyprexa.

It takes time to find the right dose and med.

The delusions may continue past the episode like mine. The Meds are something I may be on for life but they keep delusions to almost none.

Thank you all for your reply's. I am in tears ,frusterated . You all gave me answers to a lot of my questions. I am now going to follow the links ,gather as much info I can and email to her facility and pray someone there can help her. She was released today but made it to parking lot and said to her dad her son is the son of God and he committed her back in. She is distraut they now have her sedated and no phone calls accepted. She is a beautiful ,intelligent ,determined young girl. Good mom until now she is not able to care for him. We get no contact with her family or diagnosis since they moved her and baby out of state. She contacts us 3`4 times daily, its hard deciphering facts from her but she says CT scans normal and diagnosed "Somatic"? Her family don't have patience w her paranoia or dellusions is what Im guessing? I known her 6 yrs 3 she lived at my home NEVER seen this behavior with her. I want to help her as much input you give I am on it! Thank You all so much please pray for "K"

What state does she live in where her father, without a court's approval, can commit her to mental confinement ?

Does your state/community have any resources for the mentally ill ? She needs a guardian ad litem. She also needs a psychiatric and medical health case worker who can try to find proper help and diagnostics.

Is she still married to your son ? Does he have any influence over her care?

Do you have a neuro rehab hospital in the area ?

Repost with links:

This is horrible. Who knows what she is feeling, thinking or experiencing, but to her it's very very real.

It really sounds like she injured her brain in the car accident. Traumatic brain injury causes a very wide range of problems.

The psychiatric meds may help get her stabilised but it is not a fix, she needs to fix her brain.

The only treatment currently that I'm aware of that promotes brain repair after TBI is low pressure hyperbaric oxygen therapy. However, its unfortunately not yet generally accepted. There's currently a phase 3 HBOT TBI clinical trial going on in the USA, which means that there is a lot of evidence already and it is hopefully close to being added as an approved indication for HBOT:

https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02089594

Stem Cell treatments are currently being trialled, and I remember reading some early studies that show their effectiveness, however this is probably 10 years away from even early adoption by the medical profession.

Here are some papers regarding the effectiveness of HBOT for TBI:

http://journals.plos.org/plosone/art...l.pone.0079995
http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/pdf.../neu.2011.1895

The DOD studies showed similar results at the correct pressure, however the authors came to the wrong conclusions. Apparently it was a hatchet job so they don't have to pay for HBOT for all the veterans returning with TBI. Strange considering the liftetime costs of TBI disability are so high:

http://hbot.com/promo/department-def...ctiveness-hbot

Some HBOT Case Studies (Wide Range Of Conditions):

http://www.hyperbaricoxygentherapies...y0202_LHE2.pdf

If you can get her stabilised and out of the institution I would highly recommend getting her to New Orleans to see Dr Harch for HBOT. He saved my life that's for sure. There are other HBOT clinics around, though Dr Harch is the leading author and advocate for this therapy and has been for some time.

However, I think the biggest battle here is going to be legal and I'm really unable to help you here.