Relearning life skills

In 2016, our brain injury survivor, sustained a life-changing brain injury during a violent assault.

As part of Headway's Action for Brain Injury Week 2023 Every 90 Seconds campaign, she and her husband, talk about her injury and how Headway has supported them. 

Due to her brain injury, our survivor cannot remember the events leading up to her assault. "I don't remember nothing, nothing at all," she said. "Apparently, I was out with my friends." 

However, her husband remembers the day very clearly and recounts receiving the terrible phone call to say what had happened.

"She was on the operating theatre for maybe 14 or 15 hours and was on a life support machine," he said. "But I was determined to get her back on her feet again." 

The severity of brain injury meant she had to re-learn many life skills, including how to walk again. However, she has difficulty remembering some of these huge milestones. 

"I don't remember a lot of things that happened for at least half a year. I would love to get back to where I used to be, but it is a struggle," she said. 

Headway has been supporting our survivor by providing her with a support volunteer to enable her to return to work and to help her to learn to read and write again. 

Her husband is keen for others to understand the need to be patient with people who have sustained a brain injury and that signs someone has a brain injury aren't always visible. 

"You've got to get to know a person to understand what they're actually going through," he said.