My son received a severe traumatic brain
injury. He was in a coma for 3 weeks.
Within 5 weeks after the accident, he
started responding to commands. He
developed hydrocephalus and had to have a
ventricular shunt placement. After 4
months and 4 shunt revisions, he was not
able to respond to commands since before
the first shunt placement. An mri was
done and I was told that his basal ganglia
was damaged and this was the reason for
the lack of response to commands. When I
asked why he was able to respond to
commands only weeks after the accident and
before the shunt surgery, I was told that
the basal ganglia damage was still
progressing at that time. My question is
this: is it possible for traumatic damage
to the basal ganglia to continue to
increase several weeks after an accident?
The brain had stopped swelling within 2
weeks of the accident. My fear is that
he may have received the basal ganglia
damage due to negligence and the
undetected staph infection. He had a
staph infection of the cerebral spinal
fluid that was found 6 months after the
accident. He had complications with
infection and high wbc since the first
shunt placement that took place 7 weeks
after the accident. The cerebral spinal
fluid was never tested until 6 months
after the accident. I need to add that
the first shunt had to be removed because
it was "stopped up" and inoperable. Any
help or advice would be greatly
appreciated. My son has been left in a
semi-vegetative state due to this damage.
