Alan Crimmins: A Case Study
Cathy and Alan Crimmins thought they were going to spend a relaxing family vacation with their seven year old daughter (Kelly) and some close friends, on a lake in Canada. However, on the last day of their vacation Alan and Kelly are returning their friends to shore in a small boat, when the boat was struck by another boat. Kelly and the friends are shaken up but have little physical damage. Alan was not as lucky. He sustained substantial damage to the left side of his body, including his head.
Despite receiving immediate medical attention (there was a nurse on the other boat) Alan’s injuries almost take his life. He suffered a grand mal seizure in the helicopter on the way to the hospital and the crew had to revive him. When he entered the hospital he was given a 1 to 3 on the Glasgow Coma Scale test. A normal, conscious brain would receive a score of 15. In order to keep the swelling down on his brain, a normal reaction after a traumatic brain injury (TBI), he was placed in a drug induced coma where he remained for several days. Upon waking up Alan was officially diagnosed with diffused axonal injury, with subdural hematomas in the frontal lobe including damage to his right side motor strip. …show more content…
Over the next few months she must deal with an incompetent HMO system, and the frustration of little communication and continuity between professionals in the medical field and the health insurance company. Alan spent the next year moving from Canada to a hospital in the US then from an inpatient to an outpatient rehabilitation center. Though Alan was back at work within one year of the accident, the Crimmins lives were not back to normal. As Cathy puts it at the end of the book, “We have a reasonable facsimile of our
Despite receiving immediate medical attention (there was a nurse on the other boat) Alan’s injuries almost take his life. He suffered a grand mal seizure in the helicopter on the way to the hospital and the crew had to revive him. When he entered the hospital he was given a 1 to 3 on the Glasgow Coma Scale test. A normal, conscious brain would receive a score of 15. In order to keep the swelling down on his brain, a normal reaction after a traumatic brain injury (TBI), he was placed in a drug induced coma where he remained for several days. Upon waking up Alan was officially diagnosed with diffused axonal injury, with subdural hematomas in the frontal lobe including damage to his right side motor strip. …show more content…
Over the next few months she must deal with an incompetent HMO system, and the frustration of little communication and continuity between professionals in the medical field and the health insurance company. Alan spent the next year moving from Canada to a hospital in the US then from an inpatient to an outpatient rehabilitation center. Though Alan was back at work within one year of the accident, the Crimmins lives were not back to normal. As Cathy puts it at the end of the book, “We have a reasonable facsimile of our