Brain Injury: Shattering
the 24 Month Recovery Myth
By Marie A. DiCowden, Ph.D.

The Myth:

"In traumatic brain injury, the recovery achieved at two years post-injury is the maximum recovery you can expect.  You cannot expect any significant recovery beyond that point."

This mantra is repeated daily as an indisputable fact to survivors of traumatic brain injury and their families.  It is repeated as conventional wisdom based on the clinical practice of some medical doctors.  It is echoed as a financial justification by insurance companies to cut off benefits for continued rehabilitation for patients with traumatic brain injury. 

But ask Rusty a 34 year old traumatic brain injury survivor.  Rusty was injured in 1995 when he received a blow to the head and was in a coma for five days.  Rusty received over two years of holistic rehabilitation with periodic follow up treatment over the next three years.  Now, nine years later, Rusty has completed his certification as a heavy equipment operator and owns a small company with his family.  He subcontracts and oversees hauling, digging and debris removal at major construction sites for larger, heavy industrial construction companies.  He says with pride, “I just got a contract with FEMA for hurricane clean up and am doing very well.”

Current clinical research, evidence based practice data and the National Institutes of Health Consensus Report on Rehabilitation of Traumatic Brain Injury are all shattering the myth that recovery from traumatic brain injury plateaus after 24 months.  Physicians and insurance adjustors who adhere to the “24 month maximum recovery rule” are being challenged on this belief.

This article is reproduced by permission of the author. We are grateful to her for sharing this with us.