TY - BOOK AU - McCullagh, Peter AB - This book recounts some experiences of young Australians with catastrophic brain injuries, their families and the medical system which they encountered. Whilst most of the events described occurred two to three decades ago they raise questions relevant to contemporary medical practice. The patients whose stories are told were deemed to be ‘unsuitable for rehabilitation’ and their early placement in nursing homes was recommended. In 2013, it is time to acknowledge that the adage of ‘one size fits all’ has no place in rehabilitation in response to severe brain injury. Domiciliary rehabilitation, when practicable, may be optimal with the alternative of slow stream rehabilitation designed to facilitate re-entry into the community. Patients’ families were impelled to undertake heroic carers’ commitments as a reaction to nihilistic medical prognoses. It is time for the Australian health care system to acknowledge those commitments, and the budgetary burden which they lift from the system by providing family members with support to retrieve career opportunities, most notably in education and employment, which have been foregone in caring. Medical attendants repeatedly issued negative prognoses which were often confounded by the patient’s long term progress. Hopefully, those undertaking the acute care of young people with severe brain injury will strive to acquire an open mind and recognise that a prognosis based on a snapshot observation of the patient, without any longer term contact provides a flawed basis for a prognosis. The story of these patients and of Dr Ted Freeman has wider implications. DO - 10.26530/OAPEN_459991 ID - OAPEN ID: 459991 ID - OAPEN ID: OCN: 849317095 KW - doctor-patient relations KW - medical history KW - Brain damage KW - Business in the Community KW - Coma KW - Family (biology) KW - Nursing home care KW - Persistent vegetative state KW - Theodore Freeman KW - Traumatic brain injury L1 - https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/id/01c09763-7581-4091-a302-20191c99c873/459991.pdf LA - English LK - http://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/33533 PB - ANU Press PP - Canberra PY - 2013 TI - Ted Freeman and the Battle for the Injured Brain: A case history of professional prejudicenull ER -