Traumatic Brain Injury Case Summary

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An Analysis of Adolescent Traumatic Brain Injury: Case Study Description “A Slippery Descent: Adolescent Traumatic Brain Injury" by Peter L. Stavinoha chronicles the events of 15 year old Judy who suffered from a traumatic brain injury, an injury caused by outside force, while working at an annual fall carnival. Judy was working at the top of an inflatable slide when a large gust of wind hit resulting in Judy dropping 25 feet and landing on an awning from a nearby trailer. The terrifying blow immediately knocked Judy unconscious, and a once good natured, pleasant, bubbly, and active teenage girl changed in an instant (Apps, Newby, & Roberts, 2010). Paramedics arrived to the scene and rushed Judy to the hospital, and only 15 minutes post-incident…show more content…
Her parents described her as going from bursts of being irritable and agitated to becoming loud, obnoxious, and lacking modesty. She was also sleeping 14 hours a day. These problems with self-monitoring, self-regulation, and changing personality stem from the injury to Judy’s right frontal lobe; an area associated with impulse control, judgment, emotion, and personality, and the sleeping problems are common in all types of traumatic brain injury (Apps, Newby, & Roberts,…show more content…
They took her to a neuropsychologist who administered the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children to assess specific areas of Judy’s intelligence across numerous areas post-injury. These tests are not always given due to stability issues but the doctor felt it was important to receive a baseline for comparisons and educational planning in the future. The results of the test showed Judy scored average on verbal and nonverbal domains, but she demonstrated verbal difficulty with increased expressive language demand, low auditory working memory, and low nonverbal information processing. It also showed she had problems with problem solving, long-term retention, and receptive language skills. A trend among most tests showed Judy experienced increasing difficultly on questions where time demands increased and structure of questions decreased. During and after testing Judy also complained of continuous headaches, nausea, and dizziness while the doctor noted disparities in Judy’s behavior. The injury to the left temporal lobe explains the loss of memory function and expressive and receptive language, the right frontal lobe injury explains the problem solving problems, and the general brain trauma explains attention, concentration, cognitive speed, efficiency problems, and the headaches, dizziness, and nausea (Apps, Newby, & Roberts,

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