The Never Ending Journey: Living with Brain Injury

?My operation was booked for the morning of 25 February 1995. This is the day when my journey began: a journey I had not signed up to; a journey in which for many years I was a bemused and reluctant follower, led by health professionals and family; a journey from which I could not take my leave or turn back.? As a child Antoinette had suffered many years of physical ill health. Now it seemed that her life was finally coming together, and she was going to enjoy every minute of it. Antoinette was a bright, fun-loving medical student living in the vibrant West End of London. When, at the age of twenty-one, she suffered a prolonged cardiac arrest during a routine tonsil operation, her family expected her to be left in a permanent vegetative state. Following her miraculous physical recovery, she and those close to her have had to slowly come to terms with the subtle yet pervasive changes that the lack of oxygen to her brain has inflicted on her memory. Antoinette describes with candour and humour how these changes have affected her personality and relationships, forcing her to leave behind her medical ambitions and to etch out a new identity for herself.