Brain Injury Deficits in Being on Time

 

By Attorney Gordon Johnson
Call me at 800-992-9447

While not strictly a matter of executive function, being late is another common problem after TBI. Nancy was a nine year old when she suffered a skull fracture and severe brain injury. She was 18, set to graduate from high school when we interviewed her and her parents. From her Mom, on being late:

Getting ready and monitoring her on daily activities is difficult. I’ll go tell Nancy to go get dressed and, okay, and she’ll go in there.  Even if her clothes are laid out, but it will take an infinite amount of time.  It could take all day if I don’t interrupt her.

But if you tell her what to put on it’s a quick process?

It’s not so much what to put on it’s, okay let’s get ready.  Are you ready yet?  You know just reminding her what she’s doing.  And it’s not because she’s forgotten.  It’s because her attention has been taken away to, oh, look at, you know -  I forgot about that magazine and let’s sit down and read this magazine.  It’s, there’s no flow.

No concept of time?

Right.  Time is, time is toast I tell her.

See more about Nancy at http://tbilaw.com/tbivoices/nancy-winter-wreck-leaves-9-year-old-girl-with-skull-fracture/

Likewise for Chris, who lost a job because of being late. Chris is a survivor of severe brain injury, who early in her recovery, was able to go back to work. Even though her left hand is severely disabled, she was able to do the computer input job with one hand, four hours a day. She ultimately got fired because of attendance issues.

Because I would miss the bus, the city bus I had to take to get there. I would like always think, oh I have a couple of minutes yet I can do this or I can do that, but then it would take longer than I thought and I would never get there on time before the bus passed.

I’m always late for everything. I get distracted really bad, really bad. I can’t just stop and get ready. I have to play with the cat or pick something up or just little things like that they add up and make me late. Like to be ready to go somewhere, I always just keep putting stuff off and putting stuff off, thinking I’ll have time but I don’t.

Chris was early for our interview with her but she was accompanied by her Mom.

For the beginning of the Chris story, click here.

 

Contact Attorney Gordon Johnson: 1-800-992-9447

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