BIA writes on falls-related TBI for Aged Care INsite

Nick Rushworth writes on falls-related traumatic brain injury (TBI) in older Australians for Aged Care INsite - ‘Australia’s leading and highest circulating aged care newspaper’.

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One wrong step: my father’s fall

On October 26^th 2009 I returned home from a conference to find two ambulances on the street and my father, Dennis (aged 59), lying in a pool of blood on our driveway. Dad had fallen 3 metres off a ladder while connecting power on our roof. My husband was there, quite obviously distraught, and the ambulance officers were working on Dad, who was conscious, but writhing in pain. My Mum arrived soon after, and we were told Dad would be taken to the Royal Adelaide Hospital and that we were to follow. To this day, I do not remember driving to the hospital.

In the emergency room, my family waited anxiously for news, while comforting each other. A doctor soon came in to inform us that Dad had been given some drugs to relax him, and that he would be moved to the ICU [Intensive Care Unit] upstairs. My family and I rushed to the ICU to see Dad only to wait, yet again. After a few hours, we were allowed to see him in pairs. Even though I had seen Dad on the driveway hours earlier, covered in blood, nothing prepared me for what I saw when I walked into that ICU room. Dad was attached to every tube and machine possible, lying still on a bed in the middle of the room and large, black bruises had started to form on his face, not to mention the swollen eye where he hit the ground.

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Jess's Story

At the age of 22, I left my home town in the south of Sydney to move to London and travel the world. I had one great year from the end of 2004 to the end of 2005 when, after thinking I just had a typical London-winter-flu, I was diagnosed with Leukaemia. I completed nearly 9 months of inpatient treatment and when I was told I could leave the hospital and continue with daily outpatient appointments, I got a chest infection in August 2006. Thinking nothing of a little cough, I didn’t react quickly enough and the fungal chest infection spread to my brain. I was in a coma in the I.C.U. for 2 weeks.

Read more: Jess's Story

BIA’s plenary address to the Australasian Trauma Society Annual Scientific Meeting…

Nick Rushworth spoke to the Australasian Trauma Society’s Annual Scientific Meeting in Melbourne on 19 November; ”… I’ve been asked to ‘comment on the burden of injury and meaningful outcomes’. Well, I'm not going to do that…I'd rather talk briefly about two things: hope and the imagination. 

Read more: BIA’s plenary address to the Australasian Trauma Society Annual Scientific Meeting…