My brother was involved in head on collision. On Interstate going 80 plus mph.. The vehicle that hit him was on the opposite side of interstate. She swerved to miss a raccoon and lost control of the vehicle, came across the median and hit my brother head on. She passed away. My brother did not see it coming, which saved his life pretty much, so says the Dr's. cause he did not have time to tense up. He has many injuries. both legs shattered. Almost lost both of them. Lost top of left calf muscle and tendons. They had to pull lower calf muscle and tendons up and around to compensate and be able to graft skin on the open wounds. Left hand shattered. Diaphragm ruptured. lungs severely bruised. About the only thing they said he did not hurt was his brain. But he did have bruising all the way across his forehead..And on that note. He is not the same person he was before the accident. He is off all IV's. only pain meds he is on now is Oxycontin. he is being moved from ICU finally to regular room. My question is this, he did have bruising on his forehead. But no memory loss at all. He knows who everyone is.. My brother has always been a very caring loving husband and brother. But at the moment, he is not himself. He is being very hateful, thinking we are trying to kill him. He thinks his wife is cheating on him. Just overall not my brother..Does anyone know if Oxycontin could make him be this way, or could the impact of the crash, even though he had his seatbelt on and an airbag. could the brain hitting the skull of caused some frontal lobe damage that could change his personality?
I am really sorry to hear about the accident, though I would still say that it was fortunate that there was no brain injury. Regarding the symptoms, there could be a few things involved assuming there was no brain injury (as described by imaging studies/ CT-MRI), including post-traumatic stress, socio-psychological factors, medication side effect etc. I would suggest giving it time and waiting for this part of the phase to pass. Gradually when the physical injuries heal, we can start working on the psychological factors. I would suggest discussing with his treating doctor if a psychiatric consult would be required at this time or would it be better it to post-pone this by a few weeks. Hopefully he would recover well over the next few weeks.
Take care!