Two million Americans will sustain a traumatic brain injury this year. An estimated seventy-five percent will be mild traumatic injuries caused by a concussion, a blow or jolt to the head, or a penetrating injury. A significant number of people suffer physical, cognitive, emotional, social and behavioral symptoms, appearing weeks, months, or years later. Those symptoms may appear subtle and unrecognizable by others, yet they can persist for decades without proper treatment and rehabilitation.
Eudora Pickett-Nelson knows not only what it is like as a speech pathologist to treat the brain injured but she also knows what is like to "walk in their shoes." Having gone through five arduous decades of coping with her own undiagnosed brain injury, she wrote Broken Silence to help educate survivors, their families, friends, and caregivers. It also serves as a guide for healthcare providers, medical professionals, school administrators, educators, parents, and the general population.
In Broken Silence, the author reflects on her childhood brain injury, the symptoms she incurred following her accident, the compensatory strategies she employed to reverse her challenges, and the love and role her family played in her recovery, as well as the teachers who inspired her to reach her full potential.