Current Cognitive Functioning After Coma

What is Kevin’s Current Cognitive Functioning After Coma?

Kevin Part Eight

By Attorney Gordon Johnson

Kevin still struggled with some areas of cognitive functioning after coma. One example of this is his difficulty with short-term memory.

Kevin’s memory for things as important to him as sporting events is good. However, Kevin’s world is not just spectating. He still has many areas where his cognitive functioning after coma is limited and causes him difficulty. He still has problems with his short-term memory. “Like I want to say something, then I forget what I’m going to say.”

His concentration is fairly good, since he likes to read books like the famous legal thrillers penned by John Grisham. It would take him about a week to finish a couple hundred page book. He prefers a quiet environment to read in without distractions.

He said he doesn’t have as much trouble with listening as speaking. He did demonstrate good listening skills during the interview. Only a formal evaluation could determine if his listening challenges were as minimal as he said.

A Normal Day In His Life

To continue our assessment, we asked him about his daily functioning. His normal day included going to Paragon Industries, a program designed to serve people with disabilities.

He said he usually wakes up at six-thirty in the morning. His ride come picks him up after eight. At Paragon, he takes out the trash. He said he feels OCD about items in the trash that belong in the recycling. This may have gotten worse since the accident. He also feels OCD about sweeping the floor. These are what he called his chores at Paragon.

In addition to chores, he brought a 1,000-piece puzzle to complete. He listens to music and news. He works on the computer.

What else does he do? Well, on the weekends he said he likes to workout, focusing on his upper body, and will eventually work on his lower body. To keep his heart strong, he wants to start walking. See our next post on mood, medication, and frontal lobe functioning.

Gordon Johnson

Attorney Gordon Johnson is one of the nations leading brain injury advocates. He is Past-Chair of the TBILG, a national group of more than 150 brain injury advocates. He has spoken at numerous brain injury seminars and is the author of some of the most read brain injury web pages on the internet.