“A traumatic brain injury is any injury to the brain which disrupts how the brain functions, usually they are caused by some outside force, such as a violent blow to the head,” Leeann Bryant said.
Bryant is an occupational therapist at Covenant.
“Symptoms can range anywhere from mild to severe, with mild being headaches, difficulty thinking, difficulty concentrating, all the way from complete unconsciousness and inability to perform your functional tasks,” she said.
Bryant works with patients during therapy. She said that’s about helping them get back to where they were before their injury.
“In acute care, which is in the hospital right after the injury occurs, we’re going to do the lower level things, just getting up on the edge of the bed, getting out of the bed, getting to a commode or a sink, putting your clothes on, doing your basic grooming,” she said.
“Moving on to rehab, it just gets harder and more high level, then on to out-patient, same thing, it just progresses each level, to where you’re in the outpatient or community re-entry program where you’re trying to get home, you’re trying to get back to a job, to where you can function independently and safely on your own,” Bryant added.
She said if you think you might have a brain injury, you should get it checked out.
“Some you may hit you head and think, ‘oh no big deal,’ but when you keep having the symptoms, like a headache or difficulty concentrating, you need to get that seen about,” she said. “Don’t just think, ‘oh, it’s not big problem.’ it will be better to be seen by a physician.”
