Anoxic Brain Injury

Anoxic brain injury occurs when the oxygen supply to the brain is shut off. A very similar condition is called hypoxic brain injury; it is caused by an inadequate supply of oxygen reaching the brain cells (neurons).

Dr. Frederick Klingbeil, medical director for pediatric rehabilitation and fitness as Children's Hospital of Wisconsin stated, "There is nothing worse than a near drowning. Nothing, and I've been at this for a lot of years."

Dr. Klingbeil explained that the cutoff of oxygen to the brain causes devastating global injuries that affect every area of the brain. Other causes of brain injury such as an accident or stroke usually affect a particular area of the brain which allows other areas to eventually compensate for the dead brain cells.

While near drowning is one of the causes of anoxic brain injury it is certainly not the only one or, even, the number one cause. That statistic goes to cardiac arrest. Near drowning is lumped in with other causes of asphyxia such as chest trauma, drug overdose and, even, severe bronchial asthma. Electrocution is another cause of oxygen not getting to the brain.

Acute Respiratory Distress Symdrome (ARDS) is another cause.

 ARDS can be caused by massive blood transfusions, sepsis (bacteria in the blood), drug overdose and other medical conditions that affect the lungs. It has been identified by American-European Consensus Conference as the most severe form of acute lung injury.

While ARDS usually begins to show symptoms within 12 to 24 hours following the triggering event, it can take days before it begins to shut down the body's internal organs. a multi-system organ failure is common.

Beth Jameson entered Baptist Memorial Hospital on July 31, 1990 for a routine surgery. Following the surgery her blood count remained low. She received transfusion after transfusion in an attempt to elevate the blood count. Unknown to anyone at the time, her gall bladder had been inadvertently sliced open during the surgery and was bleeding profusely.

A second surgery was performed 36 hours after the first during which the problem was discovered and fixed. But ARDS was lurking in the background. On the day she should have been released from the hospital following her routine surgery, she went into respiratory arrest. How long she lay in her hospital bed, unconsious and not breathing, is not known.

When a nurse discovered the reality of the situation a Code Blue was initiated. A lot of time was spent tracking down the surgeon who was on the golf course. A pulmonary specialist was called to the hospital. The lack of oxygen to the brain had already caused the damage that would change Beth's life forever.

Nicole Schroeder and Ronnie Reilly were driving home from a family trip to Dairy Queen with 5-year old Carmen secured in her car seat in the back seat of the car. An animal darted into the road and Nikki swerved the car to miss it. The tires went off the edge of the small two-lane road and the car flipped upside-down into a small channel of water.

In the dark, murky water Ronnie grabbed legs and pulled Nikki out of the car. She headed back to the road to summon help while Ronnie dove back down to get Carmen, but he couldn't unfasten the safety seat. Within minutes a firefighter arrived at the scene, dove into the water and cut the 5-year old free. Other rescue workers had arrived when the firefighter came from the water with the little girl, and CPR was begun. Carmen, however, had been under water for ten minutes.

Carmen arrived at the Children's Hospital of Wisconsin on August 22, 2007. She was put into a medically-induced coma to allow to giver her brain a chance to heal. On that date seventeen years earlier Beth Jameson had just awakened from a similar, induced coma.

Neither Beth nor Carmen were expected to survive, but they did.

Beth Jameson woke up in a new world. She did not remember her husband or, even, that she was married and had two children. Severe, debilitating headaches destroyed any normalcy that she tried to achieve. Each day brought new memory problems. She did not remember how to put on her makeup. She did not remember how to cook.

She had no peripheral vision and constantly walked into door facings or anything in her path that lay outside her straight-ahead vision. One night she offered to help her youngest son with his homework...and discovered she could no longer read. Her days consisted of periods of confusion, frustration, guilt and depression. No one had told her that she had a brain injury and, therefore, she had received no help for what was happening in her life.

Five-year old Carmen could not control her muscles. She could not respond to questions by blinking her eyes or squeezing someone's hand. She could not swallow.

Nikki and Ronnie, like the Jamesons, began learning all they could about how to provide care as they prepared for Life After Brain Injury. For the caretakers it is a life of isolation as every waking moment is spent trying to help the injured person.

Beth, almost 19 years out from her anoxic brain injury, has made tremendous progress due to her determined attitude and dozens of strategies she and her husband developed to compensate for her brain's shortcomings. Before being laid off in 2008, she had achieved a position as Strategic Sourcing Analyst for a Fortune 500 company. Folowing eight months of unemployment she was hired in the purchasing department for an international corporation.

Carmen is going to school! Yes, it's a specialized school with a curriculum designed especially for her, but the little princess is interacting with other people, even laughing at times.

Beth and her husband Larry are authors of Brain Injury Survivor's Guide and maintain two websites and a blog to provide assistance to others who are living with brain injury.