We've gotta talk...
This is the blog of the retired chief doctor for Formula 1 auto racing. Brilliant stuff, he's been on about Michael Schumacher's Mild Traumatic Brain Injury (MTBI). As he points out, there's nothing mild about TBI's and it sounds like there's a whole lot of insidious. Schumacher destroyed his helmet in the skiing accident, and still got up protesting that he was all right. At this writing, he's clearly not all right, and the good doctor is eloquent about outcomes, including the near impossibility of predicting them. (In one case he mentions that progress during certain phases of recovery will literally occlude every possibility of prognostication.)
As a motorcycle rider, I've got some concern for my loved ones understanding my position on treatment in the event of my injury. Do not resuscitate, palliative pain meds only, and assisted suicide if possible. After reading that these are the choices of most physicians, I'm going to go with their wisdom: the outcomes of most extreme injuries are poor. Forget every episode of “House” you've ever seen, no one that sick in Act 4 is ever walking out of any hospital again. One of the many reasons I gave up on that show, even though the little miniseries of him in the nut house ended with one of the best episodes in TV history.
But I need to discuss this with the daughter and my Shiny Wife. I heard once that an annual family game-night was a method of broaching the subject, might try that.
Post Script from 11 years in the future: it turned out to be far, far more serious than a “Mild TBI.”