my son has a TBI
 

MY name is Gail Dudley, I am an Osteopathic physician . My son suffered anoxic electroencephalography in 2009 after his roommate left him to lie thee for three days before he called 911, he thought Josh was "sleeping it off". Friday to Monday. He had done drugs, including shooting up a crushed Xanax. At some point during those 3 days, either at the start or when EMS came to get him, he suffered a large head wound. He stroked out his entire brain except the brain stem, suffered a heart attack, was in kidney failure, etc. HE was in a coma. HE was in the hospital for a month after surviving the ventilator and coma. HE was to go to a nursing home and all docs said he would die, or live in an LTCF . I took him to the nursing home whee I saw patients and everyone there did their best to save his life. They did. He has the TBI and worsened attention and impulse control. He has suffered multiple injuries since then, but continues to try to live a normal life. I am at a loss as to how to help others realize the extent of his issues. They don't understand and it causes problems continuously. HE lives in Colorado now and I live in Florida.
I'm worn out. I have provided here only the subject line to his life since 2009.

Hi Gail

Welcome to NeuroTalk; I hope that you will find the community both knowledgeable and supportive :).

I am very sorry to read about your son. You could also introduce yourself in the TBI forum here. It is very active so other members may be able to offer you helpful suggestions.

All the best.

this is Gail Dudley I'm new to this and am having difficulty navigating around. I don't know how to answer a post
can anyone hep me? might have to go to my other email address as I can't find my way here;

Hello Gail
You answered here ok :)
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my son has a TBI
 

I don't remember if I spoke after initially joining. Things have been crazy with my son these last few months. Josh was arrested after he and his girlfriend had an argument. Her way of ending the argument was to call 911 and instead of a social worker or health care provider coming with the police, he was arrested for domestic violence. For an argument. Trying to get through to the medical staff at the jail was more of a nightmare. They don't care, you can't speak to a medical person--and I'm a doctor but that didn't even help. When I did speak with someone I tried to give pertinent medical info about his TBI and asked for the psychiatrist to see him. I was told the NP would see him and if she thought she needed the psychiatrist she would call him. I'm sorry but 2 years of NP school vs 4 years and then 5 years residency for the doc.... Anyway, he got out, lost his job, had already crashed his car, got into another argument and she called the police again. there was no physical violence of any type. I was able to talk to is public defender, a nice female who seemed to care. God bless for that. So these kinds of problems are not addressed much that I am aware of.

Welcome GailJDud69. :welcome_sign:

Kitt

Welcome, GailJDud69,

I'm not experienced enough in the type of problems you've described (I hang out mainly on the MS forum here) but your son's situation sounds very troubling and severe. You seem to be doing your best to navigate your way through a very complex system.

I do know something about complex systems and how much patience is often required to deal with them, after 40 years with MS. You do have to keep making calls, keeping appointments, filling out forms that seem unnecessary, and on and on, but if you keep at it diligently, you can often find your way to someone helpful who knows what to do next.

I hope you can stay in contact with the public defender. And if you run into a roadblock with an employee in a hospital or in the social services system, dealing with someone who doesn't seem inclined to do anything but brush you off, by all means ask to know how to reach that person's supervisor. It won't endear you to that particular employee but you can often get better results that way.