Head Injury Resources

[awanderingbard]

While I was writing "Lost for Words", I did a whole bunch of research on head injuries, aphasia and hemiparesis. A lot of it came from the medical professional in my family, but I have a few links gathered as well, so I thought I'd share them, because someone else will probably find them useful.



Symptoms of Aphasia (breaks down the various forms and types of speech problems, with examples)
Wiki's Aphasia Entry (as always, to be taken with a grain of salt, but extremely informative, with links to various types of Aphasia)
Sarah Scott's Youtube Page (Sarah Scott is a young British woman, who had a stroke in her teens. Her mother recorded conversations with her at various intervals during her recovery, to track her progress and provide information about the condition. It's an excellent way to get a feel of how a person with aphasia speaks, as well as very inspiring to watch how she's improved over the years)
National Aphasia Association's Website (a good place to start, with a great guide for people interacting with those with communication disorders)
Burr Hole Drainage video (an animation of how a burr hole procedure is done. Not graphic, so a good way to watch without being grossed out.)
Wiki's Page on Subdural Haematomas
Wiki's Page on Traumatic Brain Injury (you can get links to pretty much everything you need from this one page)
Physiotherapy exercises.com (in beta stages, so can be dodgy, but a good reference for excercises by type of injury, with diagrams)

Comments

[aeron-lanart.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the links!

One thing I never got round to telling you, which I meant to, was that the hospital where I work is in the same grounds as The Walton Centre (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walton_Centre) which is the only specialist neurosciences hospital in the UK - and the most dangerous hospital in Merseyside and Cheshire counties to work in, in terms of assaults on staff by patients.

Personally, I've never done neruo as the hospital I trained in specialised in cardiothoracic medicine and surgery - which is what I went into after qualifying and I haven't done anything else since. Brains are a mystery to me!

Funnily enough, one of my current patients is dysphasic.

[awanderingbard.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's cool! I decided not to try and put Sherlock in a specific hospital so I wouldn't have to fuss about service and layouts, but if he'd decided not to go home, I bet that's where John would have sent him for further rehab. Or I would have had John send him. Because I am theoretically in charge of the characters.

My mum worked in the cardiac recovery unit for a bit, and ICU. She's worked in PACU since before I was born, though. My sister-in-law is a nurse in training, and she was working as a PCA on the geriatric ward when I was writing the story, so she was working with people who had had strokes. They are both very useful to have around. Especially my mum, who answers all my questions patiently as though it were perfectly normal to ask what would be the best treatment if a monster bit off your fingers.