Recovery of Consciousness After Traumatic Brain Injury Levels 1-3

Recovery from traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a complex neurological process. Severe injuries commonly result in a wide range of impaired consciousness. Consciousness refers often to a person’s awareness of self and their interactions with their environment. Mild injuries may sometimes cause brief timeframes of impaired consciousness such as confusion or disorientation. However, severe injuries may have a period of time whereby they have complete unconsciousness and no awareness of themselves or the world around them. Terms such as Coma, Vegetative State, Minimal Conscious State, Emerging Consciousness and Post-Traumatic Confusion or Post Traumatic Amnesia are often used by professionals caring for your family member but can be confusing to understand.

This video presentation is intended to demonstrate general patterns of improving consciousness and cognition following severe TBI. In this video, you may learn basic anatomy of TBI and what happens behaviorally step-by-step with improving consciousness. Your family member may not follow this sequence exactly and may skip steps depending on their more specific type of injury. Furthermore, as consciousness improves your family member may also have different types of impairments in their thinking abilities, referred to as Cognition. This presentation will highlight a step wise sequence of improving cognition and offer you as family members helpful suggestions on how to better assist your loved one during the rehabilitation process.

This resource is provided as a courtesy of Craig Hospital. For more information, contact the Craig Hospital Nurse Advice Line at 1-800-247-0257.

Disclaimer: The content in this document is intended for general informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice or treatment for specific medical conditions. No professional relationship is implied or otherwise established by reading this document. You should not use this information to diagnose or treat a health problem or disease without consulting with a qualified healthcare provider. Many of the resources references are not affiliated with Craig Hospital. Craig Hospital assumes no liability for any third party material or for any action or inaction taken as a result of any content or any suggestions made in this document and should not be relied upon without independent investigation. The information on this page is a public service provided by Craig Hospital and in no way represents a recommendation or endorsement by Craig Hospital.