This documentary follows the progression of ordinary people and their families as they recover from traumatic brain injuries in a New Jersey medical center.
The people got their head injuries in different ways. An energetic young man fell off a balcony just before he was to be married. A short order cook was in a car accident. A young man was thrown from a bridge by vandals. A young girl hit her head. All of them have sunk into comas, and the hospital staff is trying hard to wake them up.
"Waking up" means different things to different people. So much of what "conscious" means is determined by the Glasgow Coma scale that "awake" can be parsed into a dozen categories, all of which can mean anguish to the family.
This film shows the heroic efforts made by the staff, and the horror of what the family faces when expectations have to be "adjusted." It show the triumph when the loved one goes home, and the grieving loss when that happens in a box.
Ten years ago, one of my cousins left home sick with a migraine on a Tuesday night. When the headache didn't go away that night, she began to seizure. The next morning, a doctor told her she had brain cancer and planned for surgery the following Monday. My cousin seizured again during the surgery, and that's how my family learned what the "Glasgow Coma Scale" was. It took her months of coma to die.
This documentary captured that kind of ordeal, warts and all, for the audience. It caused me to weep with the heartbroken parents and cheer with the fellow who went home.
It is incredible, Bravo, Liz Garbus, Families, I still think of you.
The people got their head injuries in different ways. An energetic young man fell off a balcony just before he was to be married. A short order cook was in a car accident. A young man was thrown from a bridge by vandals. A young girl hit her head. All of them have sunk into comas, and the hospital staff is trying hard to wake them up.
"Waking up" means different things to different people. So much of what "conscious" means is determined by the Glasgow Coma scale that "awake" can be parsed into a dozen categories, all of which can mean anguish to the family.
This film shows the heroic efforts made by the staff, and the horror of what the family faces when expectations have to be "adjusted." It show the triumph when the loved one goes home, and the grieving loss when that happens in a box.
Ten years ago, one of my cousins left home sick with a migraine on a Tuesday night. When the headache didn't go away that night, she began to seizure. The next morning, a doctor told her she had brain cancer and planned for surgery the following Monday. My cousin seizured again during the surgery, and that's how my family learned what the "Glasgow Coma Scale" was. It took her months of coma to die.
This documentary captured that kind of ordeal, warts and all, for the audience. It caused me to weep with the heartbroken parents and cheer with the fellow who went home.
It is incredible, Bravo, Liz Garbus, Families, I still think of you.
