memory loss after head trama

three years ago, my son was found with a brain tumnor which consumed his petuitary gland.  it waS REMOVED SUCCESSFULLY, he went through direct radiation trewatments, 30 straight days and has no sign of the tumor returning.  He is on hormone replacement drugs, and growth hormones, trying to catch up after losing almost all his teen years to illness, headaches, etc.  Like I said, it's been 3 yrs.  Last week at work, he droped.   He was out bcak in a auto wrecking yard and hit his head on a caliper, went inside to talk to a fellow co-worker and standing in front of his toolbox, he just rolled his eyes up in his head and droped.  When i got ther 3-5 min. after it happend, He coulndt taLK, WAS UNCONCIOUSE, AS HE STARTED MOVING AROUND, HE JUST LOOKED PAST ME. I WAS TERRIFIED! The ambulance was also, the sedated him and lifeflighted him to legacy emanuel in portland Or. All the blood work was ok, he was a little low on potasium, but the mri showed no bleeding, they had not answers for me!  Im scared. Now it appears he has a memory problem.  I asked him to meet me today, with his sister at a store where we met just yesterday and he replied,"I was'nt there". Totaly not remembering any of it. are we missing something? could the bump on the head outside cause him to collapse when he walked inside? then the blow to the back of his head cause the most treama? Please help.

[Abhijeet Deshmukh, MD]

Hello.

You may be right. He may be going through a concussion syndrome. And possibly will go through a post concussion syndrome. There are transient memory loss phases.

Is he on any medicines currently ?

Regards

[pacificagreyghost]

Get him an appointment with a neuropsychologist for neuropsych testing.  It usually involves about 4 hours of written and verbal testing that can show what area of the brain is not working properly.  He should also have a neurological workup to see if he has anything organic in his brain.  I have post concussive syndrome from a car accident with mild cognitive, balance and memory problems.  Neurology did not believe my symptoms at first and instead of referring me to a neuropsychologist, they said that I was exaggerating!  Every head injury is different with varying degrees of impairment.  Find the best head injury specialists you can for your area.  You can recover some brain loss with rehab and some things you have to learn to compensate for.  Also, some head injury symtpoms get better as the brain heals, usually over the first year after the injury.  You can find information about brain injury by contacting your state Brain Injury Association website.  There are TBI (traumatic brain injury) model hospitals that are excellent at assessing head injuries and in providing treatment.  Just google TBI model hospital for the area that you live in and see if there is one that is close.  That would be my first recommendation, even if you only go to them for an evaluation for him.  They can sometimes suggest more local treatment options once you do have confirmation that it is head injury related.  You can also look at a symptom list by googling traumatic brain injury and see which symptoms he has that are common with head injury.  It was my experience that many doctors, even in emergency rooms and trauma units, do not correctly diagnose mild head injury, especially if an MRI does not indicate anything or if the symptoms are subtle.  My best to you.  Do get him evaluated quickly in case he has other medical issues from the head trauma.