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So I am Thomas Harding. I'm a lawyer in Surrey British Columbia, which is near Vancouver.
I have been practicing for about 24 years. I do personal injury, brain injury cases. This
is Gordon Johnson. I'm a personal injury lawyer from Wisconsin. I focus my entire practice
on brain injury. Thomas, I understand your daughter had a concussion. Yes, this was about
3 years ago. She was riding her horse Monty in a competition and the grass was wet and
the horse slipped, my daughter came off, landed first on her shoulder then her head. She was
knocked out. She laid on the ground on her belly for a few moments and she had a convulsion
or seizure and she rolled completely over to her back and had a fairly rigid, arms down
by her side posture. Because I do brain injury cases I was very concerned as you can imagine.
Her mother was concerned. We went running out to her watching this convulsion happen
and the flip over. It was lucky that the competition was ten blocks from the best children's hospital
in British Columbia. So we just bundled her in the car and took her there directly rather
than wait for an ambulance. The whole route she kept asking where we were and why we were
going to the hospital because we would answer with we are going to the hospital. She couldn't
remember what day it was or why she was there.We got to the hospital and before I could even
finish checking her in the pediatric neurologist already had her in an examining room and was
doing a full exam. So that was great and then I went in and started talking to the doctor about
what had happened. Now you are a lawyer that does a lot of brain injury work. How is it
that you are able to assure the best care for your daughter because of your background?
Or experience with this? So the first thing I didn't want to do is be hysterical because
that wouldn't help. I wanted to give the doctor as much information as I could in a way that
would be useful to her. So I was talking to her and the admissions nurse before. Using
all the proper medical vocabulary. The timing of that she actually struck her head that
we saw her strike her head that she had some pre-trauma amnesia. She couldn't remember
the last couple of jumps before this had happened. She had post-trauma amnesia. She couldn't
remember the drive that took us ten minutes or so and she couldn't remember the drive
itself. She kept asking the same questions which was obviously confusion. But she kept
telling us the same thing also so that's called perseveration And I was using all the proper
vocabulary and telling the doctor the things that she would need to know to make a better
diagnosis. And so I thought that helped. Your daughter how has her recovery been? Oh shes
great. Partly because of what I do I had access personally to kind of all the top brain injury
doctors in the Province so I was on the phone before we even left the hospital asking them
what is the next thing to do. Not letting her watch TV or use a computer or a smart
phone. Keeping her in the dark, lights out. Rest as much as possible. Nourishment. You
know checking on her and asking her questions and stuff. How old is she when she gets hurt.
She's about sixteen, fifteen and a half, sixteen. She's eighteen now? Almost eighteen just coming
up. In terms of a concussion what you're describing is a relatively serious concussion. Well it
would be because of the length of her unconsciousness. A lot of concussions there is no obvious
unconsciousness. You know the hockey player the football player gets his bell rung. They
aren't obviously unconscious. They may be confused at the scene. But she was
out. She was completely non responsive. She also had a seizure? Yes, she had that one
seizure from going on her belly to flipping over on her back. Which is unusual and tends
to mean a worst outcome. She had what we would call retrograde amnesia event before she got
hurt. Yes, exactly. And she continued to have some amnesia afterwards. Which we call anterograde
amnesia. Or post traumatic amnesia. PTA as its sometimes called. All of those things
would push her into perhaps even a complicated mild category? Could. Depending on the outcome.
Because it is always about outcome. Where was it that you started to feel like her outcome was positive? So
we monitored her pretty carefully she wasn't allowed to do anything in the physical accept
go to the bathroom for a week. She had to be kept in a dark room. Reclining, nothing
that would raise her heart rate to put more pressure, blood pressure on her brain. We,
I forget now what vitamins that were a good idea. She wasn't severe enough that it made
sense to give her female hormones or birth control pills which is sometimes good for
bad injuries. And we were essentially testing her every few days and as time went on. Sent
her for a neuropsych work up with a psychiatrist I know who specializes in brain injuries.