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Yvonne Nelison: No facilities in
north for head injury victims.

Three years ago, Terrace resi-
dent Yvonne Nielson was in-
volved in a serious automobile
accident. She remembers noth-
ing about the accident itself, but
among her injuries was one that

wasn’t quite so apparent — she.

suffered a head injury.

For the past two years she has
‘been fighting to make people in
the north more aware of head in-
jury and brain damage victims
and their problems. It has been a
frustrating experience, since
very few people seem aware of
what exactly a head injury in-
volves. As far as she knows,
there are no help or treatment
facilities in the north for head
injury victims.

Nielson says the biggest pro-
blem with head injuries is that
the damage isn’t always noti-
ceable. The changes that result
can be subtle. Persons suffering
from head injury often have a
completely normal IQ when

"el een cng

tested. .

We take for granted that the
Skull safely protects the brain
from all but the most serious of
accidents, but as was pointed
out during a video (distributed
by the B.C. Head Injury Associ-
ation) shown at Northwest Com-
munity College recently, just a
hard bump on the head can seri-
ously affect the brain’s ability to
function normally.

One head injury victim shown
in the video bumped her head on
the meter when the taxi she was
riding in stopped suddenly. She
didn’t lose consciousness, but
later had problems doing simple
things, such as putting on her
shoes, because she couldn’t
understand how to perform that
simple function. She suffered a
complete personality change.

Basically, head injury and
brain damage includes every-
thing from a mild scalp wound
to lack of oxygen during a car-
diac arrest. We think of people
suffering brain damage as hav-

.ing been unconscious or in a

coma for hours or days. But loss
of consciousness for as little as
15 minutes after an injury has
been associated with subtle -in-
tellectual and behavioural pro-
blems that can last a year or
more.

A simple blow to the head can .

cause bleeding between the skull
and the outer layer of the brain,
or within the brain itself. Even a
minimal amount of bleeding
within the brain (visible only
with a microscope) can disrupt

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Head injury victims |
seek support, awareness

by Harriett Fjaagesund

the normal nerve pathways and
cause a compression of tissue.
It is now known that the brain
does have some capacity to
recover from less serious injury,
but exactly how it does is
unclear. One theory is that the
brain is able to find nerve

pathways alternate to those that’

have been injured. Improve-
ments can be seen for as long as
five years or more after an in-
jury, but the greatest recovery
occurs in the first six months to
one year.

The brain is an extremely
complex organ, and regulates all
basic life functions — breathing;
heartbeat; movement and sensa-
tion; all of the senses such as:
smell and vision; our ability to
communicate; intellectual func-
tions of thinking and memory;
emotional control and behavior.
In short, everything you are,
your entire being, is hidden in-
side your brain.

It’s easier to understand if you
think of the brain as a giant fac-
tory where the chain of com-
mand begins with the president
and ends with the workers. In
several vice
presidents, managers, foreman,
and finally the workers. them-
selves.

Information to ‘keep the fac-
tory running smoothly and at
peak efficiency flows along a
network from the workers on up
to the president, and vice versa.

-In a brain injury, somebody at

the factory gets fired, and the
flow of information is inter-
rupted.

Nielson says that people suf-
fering from head injury are
often mistakenly regarded as be-
ing retarded because they may
no longer have complete control
of their emotions, or they have
slowed responses or poor con-
centration.

New advance in medical tech-
nology have resulted in more
and more people surviving
following a head injury. For ex-
in British Columbia,

year who survive head injuries

' resulting from automobile ac-

cidents alone, and who are left
with some form of permanent
problem. Seventy percent of all
the people in B.C. suffering
from head injury are under the
age of 35. Many of these people
do not receive any assistance
from any government agency or
other organization.

_ Traumatic head injury is
known as the ‘Silent
Epidemic’’, and is the fastest
growing health problem in
North America. The B.C. Head
Injury Association was formed
in 1982 by concerned families
and professionals to provide a
network. of information and
resources for the head injured
and their families.

If you’d like more informa-
tion about head injury/brain
damage, contact:

B.C, Head Injury Association
201-421A Sixth Street

New Westminster, B.C. .
V3L3BIl. |

_ The Emergency Response.
_ Telephone . number is.
~ 520-3221.

(604)

The Terrace Rotary Club has been a strong supporter of the
Science Fair held annually in Terrace schools for the past two
years. Rotary representative Dr. Dennis Fisher recently presented
Science Fair coordinator John Chen-Wing with a donation towards
the 1991 events.

Next school Science
Fair already in
works for spring

Contributed by Nancy Bose

The 26th Terrace Science Fair
will be held at Caledonia Senior
Secondary School on Saturday,
April 27, 1991, starting at 9:30
a.m. The Science Pair is organ-
ized by the Terrace Science Fair

Committee, a volunteer group

of teachers who plan and
organize this annual event. Stu-
dents from public and private
schools in Terrace and Thornhilt
are eligible to participate.

The Terrace Science Fair com-
mittee has arranged for George
Vander Kuur, a physicist and
now head master of Holy Trinity
School in Richmond Hill, On-
tario, to be the key resource per-
son, He comes to us ‘‘highly rec-
ommended” and was formerly
associated with the Ontario

Science Centre.

Vander Kuur will be putting
on very stimulating and in-
teresting science demonstrations
at the R.E.M. Lee Theatre from

Wednesday, April 24 to Satur-
day, April 27. Mr. Vander Kuur
has a great deal of experience
putting on very successful
science demonstrations through-
out Canada and is able to

motivate students to attain.

greater interest in science.

The Terrace Science Fair com-
mittee has also arranged for 30
Science Discovery Boxes to be
brought to Terrace and Thorn-
hill schools from Science World
in Vancouver for the three weeks
preceding the Science Fair. Both
teachers and students look for-
ward with keen anticipation to
working with these Science
Discovery Boxes.

Major funding for the Science
Fair is provided by Terrace
District Teachers’ Association,
Terrace School Board, Terrace
Rotary Club, community groups
and area public and private
schools.

Al ie Toop = Continued from page B10

icecubes. Let stand for 3 hours
and drain well. Mix 3 cups of
vinegar,
5 cups of sugar
1% tsp. tumeric
1% tsp. celery seed
2 tbsp. mustard seed

Bring to a boil. Then add the
vegetables and bring to boiling
point. Pack in jars and seal.
Happy Pickling!

It won’t be long until we'll
be hearing that it is only xxx
days "til Christmas. We want to
get Hallowe’en out of the way
first, but it is coming you
know!

To me, the time between Oc-
tober and Christmas day seems
about one week. It always goes_
by too fast. Baking Christmas
cakes and other Christmas

specialties is one of the things’ °°

that is going to keep us busy. I
just stocked up on cranberries.
Cranberries are a staple in my
house during the season. Not
having cranberries in the
freezer is like not having milk
in the fridge. Cranberries can
be substituted for blueberries in
blueberry muffins. A handful
of cranberries in your apple pie
is delicious, or rhubarb and
cranberries is also a great com-
bination.

Do you have a favorite

something you cook or bake at
Christmas time? If you would

like to share your favorite
recipe with our readers, please
give me a call or drop me a

_ line, I'd like to do a column on |

your favorite Christmas .

recipes. I look forward to} hear-

ing from all of you.

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