Film Title: Post Concussion (1999)

Rating: PG 13

Type of Film: Indie Feature

Awards: Taos Land Grant award & Best Feature Film Taos Film Festival 2000

Story line: A young San Francisco management consultant is struck by a car
& sustains a serious concussion. Due to severe post concussion syndrome,
he is Terminated by his employer & dumped by his girlfriend. He is left to
rediscover himself, his family and the meaning of true friendship.

Accuracy: Highly accurate account of TBI. The filmmaker wrote, shot and
edited the film after he was struck by a car and suffered a severe post concussive
syndrome. The film does an excellent job of taking the viewer into a day in the life
account of coping with TBI. The viewer is shown neuropsychological exams, battles
with insurance companies to receive disability and botched attempts at healing
via complimentary medicine.

The film also illustrates many symptoms TBI survivors suffer, such as head aches,
confusion, nightmares, memory lapses, inattention, troubled speech, inappropriate
behavior, mood swings and difficulty with visual processing.

Post Concussion is an affirming film that acknowledges and gives justice to the
experience and aftermath of head injury. For more on the film & filmmakers back-story
go tobluewaterfilms.com.

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Team Sisson met with Constance Miller
Of Head injury Hotline (Seattle WA) a nonprofit
organization founded and operated by head
injury activists since 1985.

Their website is an outstanding source of
Information headinjury.com.

Among TBI topics discussed, TBI in the
Entertainment industry came up as one of the
largest hinderances to public awarness of the
aftermath of brain injury. Many films, TV shows
and cartoons portray an unrealistic picture of
recovery and coping with TBI. For example,
many times the fix for a bump on the head is
another bump on the head – and the character
resumes prior functioning. Some sufferers of TBI’s
are knocked unconscious and wake up to normal
Functioning – or can function with new powers.

These ubiquitous fallacies hinder the public's
understanding of brain trauma and place TBI injury
in the realm of comedy and fantasy, rather than
documenting a serious debilitating epidemic.

Film Title: Finding Nemo
Rating: G
Type of Film: Animated Feature
Awards: Oscar for best-animated film (2003). 3 other Oscar nominations


Story line: Timid father journeys to find his lost son. Accompanied by Dory, a fish with short-term memory loss (retrograde amnesia).

Quotes: Dory: “ I think I lost somebody, but I can’t remember.”

Accuracy: Accurate account of TBI and retrograde amnesia. Dory cannot learn or retain new information. Dory cannot recall names, where she is going or what she is doing.

Finding Nemo portrays the frustration others may feel when dealing with TBI deficits. It also portrays other's acceptance of those with memory loss and positive contributions they have to offer.

At the worst times Dory is lost, alone and confused. In the best times Dory is eternally present, exuberant and fearless.


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Film Title: Memento

Rating: R for violence, language & some drug content

Type of Film: Thriller

Awards: nominated for two Oscars

Story line: A man suffering from TBI & subsequent severe anterograde
amnesia uses notes and tattoos to hunt down his wife’s killer.

Quotes: Leonard: “I use habit and routine to make my life possible.”

Leonard: “I have to believe my actions still have meaning, even if I
can’t remember them.”

Accuracy: Very accurate portrayal of memory loss due to TBI. Additionally
the film addresses anger, guilt (depression) and confusion commonly
experienced after brain injury.

Further, this film accurately portrays how others often take advantage of
persons suffering from brain injury.

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For an excellent review of amnesia
in the movies click above title. More
on TBI in the movies to come, including
movie reviews, with specific attention
to the accuracy of the films portrayal
of TBI survivors.

If you've seen a movie involving a
Brain injured person please share
your comments on the film. Or
recommend a film to be reviewed.

The July 2005 cover story of
National Geographic is an
outstanding overview of stem
cell research and treatment.

There is hope for those with
TBI - as mending damaged
nerve cells is, in fact, possible.

Click on the title of this blog
for a preview of the article.

The above link lists the best medical
centers in the country, according to US News/world report
magazine.

TBI patients face a multitude of traumas that no one doctor
can treat. Going to a good medical center, like the ones listed
may increase your chance of getting comprehensive care, from
a medical team. That medical team will most likely include a staff member
(medical social worker) who will coordinate your care.

For those of you who have attended these centers
please comment on your experience. How would
you rate the medical care recieved there or elsewhere
for TBI related issues?

What is it like to be a comepletely different person, a stranger to yourself within an instant? One moment you and your wife are driving on a road that you travel every day. The next moment, the very next second -- a car runs the light, slams into you head on...

and you are never the same. You may not even know what it is exactly that's changed.

Oliver Sacks, the Nuerologist wrote of his patients:

they are great heros sent to a place we would not otherwise see or understand.

What happens when you lose abilities you once took for granted?

• The ability to talk, smell, taste?
• The ability to follow a conversation?
• The ability to remember days, old times,
  what you just said a minute before?
  

What is it like to know there is a cure?

Before we judge people on the morality of seeking stem cell treatment, it's important to listen to them.

Listen... listen...

Most will go anywhere, do anything to know themselves as they once were.

Here are some of their voices:

http://www.biausa.org/Pages/personal_stories.html

http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=521075

http://www.als.net/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=17&whichpage=4