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| From: | Ken (ool-18b96c9b.dyn.optonline.net)
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| Subject: | Everyone just needs to get cracked in the skull! |
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Date: | June 30, 2007 at 7:29 am PST |
At 16, Dana Kiger suffered a head injury and forgot everything — even what food was. [now if someone had just waved juicy fruit in front of her when she came to]
after accident, forgets food, plays soccer much better
“I really don’t want to remember back. I’m doing fine right now. I’d rather go forward.”
Memories gone, future's bright
BY DENISE SMITH AMOS | DAMOS@ENQUIRER.COM
When Dana Kiger woke up at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center two years ago, she didn’t know how she got there or who the people were standing around her hospital bed.
They were her parents.
Kiger was 16 at the time she fell and hit her head during a soccer game. The first few days after her fall, the Colerain Township teen didn’t know who she was or what had happened to her.
Her brain injury led to a form of amnesia that is rare in its severity.
Two years later, Dana still can’t remember her childhood or her early teen years. But she has rebuilt her life, rekindling relationships and re-learning some of her academics.
She’ll graduate from Colerain High in two weeks and is determined not to dwell on what she has forgotten.
“People say, ‘Don’t you want your memory back?’ I can’t answer that, because I don’t know what my life was like back then,” she said.
“I really don’t want to remember back. I’m doing fine right now. I’d rather go forward.”
For Dana, those first few days without her memories were frightening and confusing.
At 16, Dana was a soccer standout on her high school and club teams. On March 5, 2005, she was playing on a club team when she either tripped or was hit from behind, her head banging on the turf.
As coaches helped her up, “she came off the field like a rag doll, real rubbery,” said Terry Kiger, Dana’s father.
At Children’s, Dana said, “I didn’t know my mom or dad. I didn’t know I had a brother and sister. I didn’t even know I have a cat.”
Her MRI and CT scans showed no visible damage to her brain, no bleeding or swelling. Doctors predicted that would regain her memory.
Dana went home after several days with parents she barely knew.
Most cases of amnesia resulting from concussion or moderate brain trauma are short-term and affect memories surrounding the trauma, not years before the trauma, said Dr. Linda Michaud, director of pediatric rehabilitation at Children’s Hospital.
She didn’t treat Dana, but Dana’s doctor there declined to comment.
“I don’t think I have had a single patient (like Kiger), and this has been my specialty for 15 years,” Michaud said.
Other factors may affect brain function and memory, she added.
Dana’s friends and family say it’s obvious that the honors student has lost some of her basic memories.
Dana didn’t know what food she liked. Her first day out of the hospital, her father, Terry Kiger, took her to a buffet to reacquaint her with a variety of foods, telling her what a carrot was.
Later, he introduced her to McDonald’s and Skyline, restaurants her teenage peers frequent.
Dana didn’t remember she liked spaghetti, but after her mother showed her how to eat it, it has become a favorite again.
She retained some skills, but with important gaps.
She could drive, but forgot what green and red lights mean. She could read and write, but the honors student had comprehension challenges and struggled to put thoughts on paper.
She played basketball for years, but she forgot basic rules after the accident.
She didn’t remember her childhood trips to the circus, the beach and Disney World.
At home, Dana’s older brother and sister were upset when they realized she didn’t know them, said Jill Kiger, Dana’s mother. Looking through photo albums didn’t help.
“She handled it so well that she helped me and my wife handle it,” Terry Kiger said.
“I’d almost start crying, showing her pictures and knowing she didn’t remember… We wouldn’t want her to get frustrated or depressed. Finally, we quit showing her stuff from her past.”
Each afternoon, dozens of Dana’s friends visited, re-introducing themselves, forging new memories.
“It was hard at first,” said Cortney Coombs, an 18-year-old friend at Colerain High. “But she’s still the same person. She’s fun, extremely bright, athletic and mature.”
Dana’s friends and family say she acts the same, shows the same wit, though she may be more laid back. She’s always been outgoing.
Not all of Dana’s relationships survived. She broke up with a boyfriend shortly after the accident. She lost memories of a grandmother who died after the accident.
At school, she had to re-take Algebra I and a test preparation course to pass the Ohio Graduation Test.
She dropped French, after almost three years of classes, because she couldn’t remember any of it. Friends and teachers helped Dana through her other classes, tutoring her on their own time, and providing context to the lessons.
She stayed on the honor roll, but had to work hard to keep up, said Peggy Schmucker, her school counselor.
Frequent headaches the first few months meant Dana had to lie down in Schmucker’s office. The counselor brought in a collection of Magic School Bus books, which Dana devoured.
The books, written for children, are packed with facts about history, science and other subjects.
Little things continued to stump and sometimes delight Dana.
Friends used to take her around school to her classes, but a fire alarm one day panicked her because she didn’t know what was happening.
Her “first” winter was magic.
“The most exciting thing I’ve ever seen is snow,” she said, recalling how she stood transfixed as it came down at school. She didn’t remember ice skating or playing in the snow as a child.
She helped her family decorate their Christmas tree, but she gazed in awe at trees in a mall, realizing that Christmas trees are decorated differently.
Christmas carols sound new to her. She enjoyed the Christmas Eve service and opening presents the next morning as if those weren’t her family’s annual traditions.
Even soccer – Dana’s passion – has failed to trigger old memories.
When Dana came home from the hospital, she was awed by her bedroom, with its soccer posters and trophies. The girl who first played Lollypop soccer at 4 had to ask her father what soccer was.
Over the next five months, she begged to play.
“After I first touched a soccer ball, I felt fine,” Dana said. “I watched the soccer channel 24/7. I thought, ‘That’s real cool. Put me in. I’m playing.”
Doctors let her to play soccer after five months. Her soccer skills returned, coaches said. She wore headgear for half the season, but her parents still winced when she hit the ball with her head.
“I was not scared at all,” she said. “I didn’t remember the pain I was in when I hit my head. I didn’t want this to stop me from living my life.”
Christel Schiering, a teacher, assistant soccer coach and friend, said Dana is still a mentally tough player who had to rebuild her stamina.
She was so talented that Slippery Rock University in Pennsylvania gave Dana a soccer scholarship before coaches knew about her accident.
Now that they know, they’re still excited she’s coming, said Noreen Herlihy, Slippery Rock’s women’s soccer coach.
“It’s a wonderful story of courage and success,” she said. Dana plans to major in physical therapy, so she can help others recover.
Amnesia “has made me stronger,” Dana said.
“Knowing that you’re just one play away from losing it all, knowing that you can’t remember anything, makes you want to work real hard for the things you do remember.”
http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070517/NEWS01/305170034/-1/BACK
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