News
A Story of Recovery
Rolf B. Gainer, PhD
Its not often that a tragic story about brain injury and disability has a positive ending, but The Telegraph ran a story about Simon Lewis who experienced a devastating brain injury in a horrific car accident which killed his wife and he was mistaken for dead with a Glasgow Coma Scale of 3 at the time of his admission to the hospital. Lewis had just finished the film “Look Who’s Talking” with John Travolta and was embarking on a successful film career. Following coma and a difficult and prolonged medical hospitalization, Lewis was initially found to have sustained a huge loss of his intellectual performance. Subsequent testing saw him get to the low end of “normal” and his most recent testing puts him at the top of IQ scores. His recovery speaks to a process which cannot be measured in weeks or months. Clearly his recovery occurred over years.
Reading the story in The Telegraph, “The Man With the Missing Brain” made me want to share the story with our NeuroNotes readers. Simon Lewis’ recovery is a remarkable story. Sure, he has significant deficits in memory, vision and other areas, but he has and continues to fight, not only to get back, but to move forward with his life. For those of us who work in brain injury rehabilitation, these stories of recovery are important to help us keep a focus on the work we do. For people living with a brain injury and making their way on the road back a story like this shows that it can be done and that recovery is not limited by a period of months or years from the point of injury.
Way to go, Simon, and keep moving. Godspeed in your travels.
Click here to read the story about Simon Lewis from The Telegraph.
