• 03
  • May
    2011

"Closed head injury" is a broad term with several synonyms. Another name for it is mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI). Another is post-concussion syndrome.

Whatever one calls it, the effects are serious and potentially life-changing. To call it "mid" is often misnomer. Whether the head injury occurred in an accident, due to a fall, or from some other cause, it can lead to distinct cognitive challenges, memory problems, and recurring pain. It also can result in unpredictable emotional and personality changes.

When an injury like this occurs, the effects on the injured person's family, particularly the spouse, can be profound as well. One such spouse, Lorraine Devon Wilke, recently shared her story in The Huffington Post.

Three years ago, Wilke's husband, Pete, an attorney, was stopped in his car at a crosswalk when a distracted driver rear-ended him. The impact of the collision caused extensive damage to the right frontal lobe of Pete's brain, resulting in a closed head injury.

traumatic brain injury because the injured person can still walk and talk. But the impact of the injury on Pete Wilke's life has been the opposite of mild.

The harsh fact is that Pete has not been the same since the injury. An active man who had hiked the Grand Canyon almost every year and hunted pheasants in the depths of Montana has had that life taken from him. In its place has been a seemingly endless succession of hospital visits, cognitive difficulties, and terribly excruciating pain.

The effect of all this on Lorraine and Pete's marriage, as described by Lorraine, will give anyone who reads her account pause to reflect on how vulnerable all of us are. And how much suffering there is that usually goes unspoken.

Source: "Love in the Age of Mild Traumatic Brain Injury," Huffington Post, 4-9-2011