Dear Mr. Grisham,
One of my staff, a big fan of your books, recently read your 2016 bestseller, The Whistler. While she thoroughly enjoyed your whodunit, she mentioned one particular incident in the story that caught her attention— a situation involving a concussion sustained by one of your main characters.
(Spoiler Alert to readers who haven’t read this book!)
In Chapter 12, a head-on car collision on a Monday night causes legal investigator Lacy Stoltz to bang her head on the ceiling of the car as it caves in, leaving a “nasty gash across her skull” that requires 24 stitches. Lacy is unconscious for 48 hours, part of which time she’s put in an induced coma to help her heal from the concussion that was causing swelling of the brain.
Lacy slowly wakes up Thursday morning. That evening, she’s watching multiple reruns of Friends “until she was exhausted.” She’s typing emails the next day. Then one of Lacy’s work colleagues advises her family that she needs to stimulate her brain.
“Get her some magazines and see if she’ll read. She loves old movies so watch them with her. Less sleep and more noise is what she needs.”
Lacy looks at work files and flips through magazines. She does nap, which is great, but she’s normally very active and therefore starting to get bored. So by Wednesday, less than a week after coming out of an induced coma with a concussion, she’s contemplating going back to work since her appetite is returning and she’s no longer on pain medication. She pushes herself in order to get back to work, starts driving and a few days later is back to work.
What Mac Alliance might have suggested:
While each injury and recovery timing is unique, and Lacy is seemingly on the road to recovery, we disagree with the work colleague who said Lacy should be reading more, and watching more TV.
Women are more likely to get concussions and more likely to have lasting effects. One theory is that women have less neck strength than men which makes a person more vulnerable to concussion. And slower healing after a concussion may be related to hormones.
Rest is important to everyone after a concussion, especially after being in a coma with a severe head injury. While recovery time varies by individual from days to months, the first three to four days after a severe head injury like the one Lacy sustained should be spent with near total mental rest followed by gradual return to normal activity.
We might not mind someone with a coma watching a half-hour episode of television for a brief distraction, but certainly not a marathon viewing period that causes exhaustion. Brain rest after a severe head injury should be enforced since the brain needs time to heal. Lacy is lucky; she doesn’t seem to suffer residual post-concussion side effects such as fogginess, headaches, sleep issues, anxiety, dizziness and nausea. But you can’t see concussion injuries. They exist and need to be cared for.
A reduction of cognitive exertion would be very important to help facilitate her recovery. We’d want Lacy to limit activities that required a lot of concentrating (i.e. her job).
Lacy should have been limiting her “thinking/remembering” activities (instead of trying to remember details of the accident) early on.
Have you suffered a concussion and think you are experiencing long-term side effects? Find a Mac Alliance location near you and find some answers!
