Insight: Mar 14

This week, Insight hears stories from Australian families dealing with life after an acquired brain injury.

Over 700,000 Australians have a brain injury.

Some of these injuries occur after birth – strokes, falls, accidents, assaults and more – and are known as acquired brain injuries (ABIs). The majority of people with these injuries acquired them before turning 25, and in many cases the primary responsibility of care has fallen upon their nearest and dearest.

What does it mean for a marriage, a family unit, or a friendship after a loved one sustains an ABI, especially when such an injury can dramatically alter personalities, personal relationships and physical and intellectual abilities?

To everyone else these injuries can go largely unnoticed, but to family and friends, it can be like losing a familiar, beloved person in their life.

Katie and Shane Cummins’s daughter, Isabelle, seems like an ordinary six year-old but her behaviour has changed since an operation to remove a cyst pressing against her brain. Isabelle can be unpredictable, aggressive and tires quickly.

Similarly, Leola Foon’s nature has changed significantly since she suffered an aneurysm a few years ago – though perhaps for the better, as her now-husband Mervin and parents will attest.

The emotional, physical and financial cost of looking after a loved one with an ABI can be high. Some estimate the costs of looking after someone with an ABI for their lifetime can be up to $5 million.

In 2015, Lisa Bryant’s 23 year-old daughter Rikki had a seizure and contracted encephalitis, a swelling of the brain, that caused irreparable damage. The independent woman who was studying for her Masters now requires full time care, and younger brother Zeke finds it hard to spend time with her, missing the person she once was. The family is also struggling financially, with Lisa unable to work the way she used to.

Shane
“[Isabelle’s] never going to be the way she was. That day I realised I’d lost my little girl. We’ve still got a beautiful daughter, don’t get me wrong, [but] …”

Katie
“We push the boundaries, so we don’t let her get away with anything … We do all these things to help her to make sure that she will be her potential.”

Leola
“Before the injury I was very complacent … and now I care passionately about things that I never thought I would care about before. This man here is the reason that I can still do this.”

Lisa
“I’m not going to give up on my daughter. She’s going to get better.”

Zeke
“My sister was probably the closest person to me in my life, and as my big sister she cared for me. And I guess in some ways it’s now the other way round. It’s been hard … it’s changed my life completely.”

Perminder, Neuropsychiatrist
“Many brain injury units focus a lot on physical rehabilitation but there is the other aspects of rehabilitation which relates to cognitive function and emotional function of the individual. Often that is not catered to as well.”

Tuesday at 8.30pm on SBS.