[Snuffycuts99]

I was in a car accident this past February and I can only remember certain details about the car accident I was in and what happened afterward. Does anyone know if there is any research as to why I can remember some things about that night and I can't remember others?

Does SCI somehow affect memory (at least memory of the time of the SCI?). Does anyone else remember only certain details from their accident? I can't seem to find anything about it online and I am just wondering if I'm the only one who forgets some details.

I found out about certain conversations I had with people immediately after I was injured and I can't remember the conversations minus one or two small details. I know it wasn't the medication I received for my SCI to lose my memory because I wasn't treated until 8-9 hours later (long, terrible story).

Any input?

[Wheelsonfire]

The mind is a funny thing.... it can shut out trauma.
Our psychology has a built in switch that turns on and off, some people never regain memory of a traumatic event.
Hypnosis can bring it back, but my advice is listen to what your brain is telling you, let sleeping dogs lye...

[pistol_pete]

I hardly remember anything about my accident. One minute I'm extinguishing a burning tree then I'm lying on my back on the back of the truck with my colleagues standing above me. I'm trying to get up but they won't let me. I ask them if i'm floating because I can't feel the hard metal under my body. Last thing I remember is the look on their faces when they realize I can't feel my legs. Then I wake up the next day in a hospital bed. I even missed the cool helicopter ride as they evac'd me to the city.

I don't think this is related to SCI specifically, as wheels said, we have a built in switch as a defence mechanism against serious trauma.
I for one am glad I don't remember much as the whole process to get me out from under the tree (chainsaws screaming next to my head) and off the truck and out of the bush was a pretty harrowing series of events according to my workmates.

I can see they are more affected by the memory of the events than I am. I'm living with the consequences which is obviuosly far worse, but they live with the memory of a bad bad day and tthe realization it could happen to anyone of them at any time.

[allis53ca]

it is the trauma auto defense, but its also those effed up drugs and they CAN wipe stuff even if administered hours later...i remember my wreck but not chopper ride or 1st hospital, and i didn't get the bad drugs for 12 hours

[wheeliebear75]

And also if you hit your head that could also play a roll........happens with many people who got their SCI from an auto accident.......it isn't uncommon to hit your head on the steering-wheel or the windshield or even the impact from the air-bag going off.

[topperf]

Remember everything from when I was injured until the paramedics showed up - they gave me something that partially knocked me out, never found out what, but wonder about it still, since I guess they could have shut down my breathing entirely.
On the other hand I was hit by a bus in Thailand, while sitting in a open Jeep, threw me 15 meters into a cornfield - I have absolutely no memory of the impact and about and hour forward. I was told I was conscious during everything later on. Maybe chock? I dunno.

[Apparelyzed]

I remember everything, all in slo-mo, thing is, I nearly always forget the anniversary every year, weird!

I either need therapy ((not(denial), I have a head injury, or I have other things to do, Where's that damn corkscrew gone!

Simon

[knightrider]

I was in a car accident and can remember everything up to the point the car hit me, then i was sparked out. I can remember waking up for a few seconds and feeling really ill and in pain, and someone asking me if i was alright then i was out again. They did give me Ketamine for pain so i must of woke up again at some point so maybe thats one of the reasons i can't remember too. Only little bits from the 1st week after i can.

For months after the accident i could remember in very good detail things leading up to the accident like the smell of my car, the feeling of the car sliding, the temperature coz i thought i slid on ice, the speed i was doing and the worst, remembering there was a car coming and looking to my left to see where it was and thinking it was still half a mile away but was literally about 2 feet away which was frickin scary and the feeling when i thought this is it with that horrible feeling when your heart sinks, then came the slow motion feeling like in movies lol, those months were horrible coz it was like i was reliving it all over and would freak me out, and especially being on Morphine lol.

As a few on here have mentioned, the brain will shut out major trauma, which if you think about it, is a good thing.
After my accident even just briefly thinking about it in the day would set off a panic attack later that night which were scary as hell. Thank they have gone!

[T11WALKER]

For me it felt like I was drunk for 3 weeks. I layed in bed and stared at the ceiling tiles, I even took pictures of them. I couldn't eat or sleep, people would visit and I'd talk like I was crazy. My wife would get mad at me because I would scratch my balls in front of everybody, pick my nose etc. I kept calling into work sick everyday to anyone. I called a friend to bring me a gun. Looking back I feel pretty fortunate, lucky and blessed.

[SandieT]

My son remembers every detail leading up to his accident, but nothing of the next 6/7 weeks he spent in ICU, other than some of the hallucinations he had. I think its just the body and minds way of dealing with immense trauma to the body.

[faribeauty]

I remember everything till the paramedics showed up and then I blacked out and continued to drift in and out for like ever. I remember some of the helicopter ride asking the lady to hold my hand. And I remember waking up in the hospital surrounded by doctors and nurses prepping me for surgery and the evil feeding tube they shoved down my nose.

I agree with everyone during something as tramatic as this our memories help protect us from experiencing it over and over. It could seriously do damage to your health reliving the event.

[Denny]

I remember every details of the accident that left me paralysed, however I had another accident in the past that I do not remember all of it. I was returning home on my bike and I remember crossing the road then I remember my friends supporting me and asks whether I am fine. Friends told me that my bike chain slipped and I fell off from bike. I was unconscious for about 10 minutes. I felt fine and biked 10 miles back home. I only remember part of journey home and when I reached home I was not sure what happened. It felt like a bad dream, I checked my cloths and they were dirty so I knew it was real.

[mcferguson]

I don't remember anything from right before my accident and for two days afterwords. Apparently I was lucid and making conversation, I just don't remember it. My first memory is waking up the day after my back surgery and my wife telling me I was paralyzed.

[Ratticis]

I have a very spotted memory of the first month or 2 after going to the hospital. I remember and a few days before (didn't go to the hospital till about 4 days after my injury when I woke up unable to move from my chest down). I remember coming to in the ICU with my family gathered around and wishing my sister a happy belated birthday, remember the look on my dads face after the 2nd surgery with that damn breathing tube down my throat and a bunch of IVs, those damn JP drains, tied to the table like a damn science experment, 3 in the freakin morning, just died, and my dad there practically in tears, already lost 1 son and damn near lost another. Then with what little strength I had I reached out and grabbed onto his hand and have it a little squeeze and we both knew it was going to be alright. And here I am 2 1/2 years later, after some 26 months in hospitals, 10 surgeries, countless doctors, numerous complications, months of sleepless nights, constant pain, 1 blood transfusion, dieing twice, relearning life, and no end in sight, I'm once again lying in a hospital bed with a damn tube down my throat and a BP of 90/45 and SPO2 of 85%, starving and sore, damn near ready to give up, I think back to that day and remember, it's going to be ok.
Sorry to ramble on, but it felt good to get that off my chest

[Hikkakaru]

I remember being hit, and not being able to get up. I also remember telling my friends whom were with me that if it ended up that I were paralyzed, to kill me. I don't remember much past that because I was given Versed, which is an amnestic, right away.

[dangerousdave]

It was horrific
It was painful

And the beuty is .. I can't remember it

As people have said .. Let sleeping dogs lie
Thank you brain for having a cut out switch

[chickadee]

Well, mine didn't come about suddenly - I fell, and then almost 2 weeks later, that's when I wound up on the operating table. I remember exactly what happened during the fall, for the rest of my vacation in Europe, the horrible pain on the flight home, being numb in Amsterdam airport and not being able to pee, and that entire day AFTER I got back when I was at work. I remember every agonizing moment - up until I got to the hospital after work. I kind of remember bits and bits, less and less as the night went on, first from Urgent Care, then to the MRI machine, then the ER, and then the OR. I vaguely remember what steps occurred while I was there - the last thing I remember was that I was talking to a doctor. And then nothing else until two days later, with one exception - when I woke up and saw my sister for the first time in almost 2 years - she had come home from teaching English abroad the day before I came home. Besides that, I slowly came out of a fog for the next six months. Obviously I remember more and more towards the end of that period, and less so while in the hospital, but still. It freaks me out a bit to know that I don't remember essentially the first half of last year.

I personally don't think it's really the actual trauma or pain or whatever that shuts off our brains, it's the more basal fears and anxieties and emotions that we can't put our fingers on to describe them. I think you're all right - let sleeping dogs lie. But I think that our brains have that coping mechanism, similar to fight-or-flight or things like that. And I'm pretty thankful for that, because I do remember this pretty clearly - it was hell.

[Nia]

i remember all the thing happened...

while i was lying down by the side of the road, afew car passed, doing nothing. passing, and seeing me from the car like i'm some kind of display...40 minutes passed and there was this guy in a bike asking

"what are u doing lying on the side of the road?"

{what are u blind?cant u see my bike over there?i'm dying for god sake} in my mind...

"owh god.u crashed?"

"yeah...i cant move my leg..." i was like {yeah damnit!!!and i cant even move my f*@king legs!} in my mind...but since he stopped to help...

he called an ambulan. and several bikers stopped to see what happen. no car will ever stop.they just wouldnt...i constantly asked for drink, and no one gave me.i screamed, and no one seem to hear...

and there's a time when i'm about to passed out.i think it's death...i surrender...i gave up....when suddenly an old guy slapped me. "keep ur conscious up"

an hour later, an ambulan arrives.yes, i waited for 2 hours for the ambulan to come...and awake all along....

at the hospital, i still ask for some water, and the doctor said "ur ribs broken and it stabbed ur lung, so we cant give u any drink for a while.and dont dare cheating it.u might die..."

....and i didnt drink for whold week, as they put a tube in my lungs to get the blood out.

my accident happened at 11 am, and i passed out at 10pm.i remember pretty much all of it, even the whole slo-mo scene when i crashed.

[goldnucs]

I remember mine like it was yesterday (even though it was 32 years ago).

[Aussawa A]

I do remember every second when it was happened. It looked like bad dream and I wanted to wake up.

[edlee]

I can remember nothing for the first month and a half. I'm told I was awake and lucid, a lot of the time,, discussing my situation with doctors and my wife,, but I remember none of it till around New Year's day.

I, apparantly, had a number of fractures around my right eye, which leads me to believe there was a bit of concussion involved. My ear drum was punctured allowing drainage, so they didn't have to drill any holes to relieve the pressure. My wife was told that it might have helped to prevent brain damage. She says my brain was damaged long before that accident,,, but what does she know???
ed

[Zoo]

I can remember the wreck like it was a movie in slow-mo, Downshift grab the front brake Wham. Laying on the ground, Old lady telling me to get up, that I wasnt hurt. Rippin my own helmet off. Waitin on the ambulance,emergency room walls staring to drip. Pain meds must have been good eh

[qbounce]

My accident was in slow motion frames too. But afterward the ride in the ambulance and entering the hospital everything tends to get a little murky. My body went into a kind of shock, where I was less aware of what was going on and the sequence of events.

All I know is the female EMT couldn't wait to cut my clothes completely off with scissors. haha

[S&W Winger]

My only helicopter ride and I don't remember it! The guy who found me told the 911 dispatcher that I said I could not move at all and to please take me down from the fence as my back hurt...what with multiple fractured vertebrae, countless ribs broken, left arm @ shoulder and right arm @ elbow hanging off, collapsed lungs from the ribs, etc.... but guess the blood pouring from my mouth finally clued them in to call TraumaHawk to fly me to a real Trauma center AFTER they had loaded me into the local wagon and they had me enroute to some rinky dink hospital...


...no recall on my part, but family said I was "lucid" and speaking in ER, telling everyone I was going to ride again! ...up until the five surgeries in a row (nine hour spine, couple more hours each for shoulder, elbow, lungs, something else)...then the four weeks of twilight time...


...of the accident itself, I remember purposely riding my motorcycle onto the grass, casually thinking I'll get back on the pavement after I get around "it" but didn't know it was a cow until I heard the 911 tape...someone had removed my helmet and my mesh, armored jacket...all my other clothes were dutifully cut-up to shreds...


...during the six weeks in ICU, I have various memories of them telling me I had a 0-1% chance of walking again...also vividly remember that a new nurse crashed me, and they used the paddles (no "Light" but I was standing behind myself, watching them bring me back to Life)...an entire six weeks on a ventilator AND the hospital had received a copy of my advance directive stating for NO artificial means of Life support for more than two days, and no resuscitation at all, IF...


...vent...feeding tube four months...whatever I forgot...all else and it was those d@mn chest tubes that really bugged me!

...also missing memories from the weeks before the accident, and some short-term issues now...BTW, full face helmet and no head injury!! In fact, not a scratch on me, as I wore full gear...

...do remember looking down at my contracture-booted feet, wondering why the heck those darned people had those heavy, concrete boots on my feet - as if that was why I could not pick up my legs...

This post has been edited by S&W Winger: 21 January 2010 - 07:09 AM

[Travelling Blackbird]

Ah, memory. We rely on it so much, and it really is a bit crap.

Memory is faulty at the best of times, but when significant physical or emotional trauma is involved, it may cut out completely. It is often called a defense mechanism, with the mind seen as choosing to suppress or not to record the traumatic events, but it can also be seen as a sort of physical or electrical overload. The brain functions via chemical and electrical processes, and they can be disrupted by physical or emotional shock. "It seemed like time stood still"; "I don't remember anything except leaving the house and then waking up in hospital"; "It's a blur."; "I know I must've gotten home but I don't remember how."

I don't remember anything of the first time I got injured. I only know what happened from eyewitness accounts and the doctor's reports. I remember getting on a bus in Dublin 4 to head into the city centre, and then I remember being in hospital and having trouble speaking. The main injury was to my head, so memory loss was to be expected.

Weirdly, I have very distinct memories of the operation they had to do - I was awake for it - BUT my memories and what the neurosurgeon says actually happened have almost nothing in common. More faulty memory.

I remember the start and end of the second incident where I got injured, but I don't remember the part where, again, my head was hit.

So there we have it: some people do remember parts or all of their trauma, some people don't. Head injuries are very good at wiping memory, but so is shock and emotional trauma. And while there is no guaranteed link between a spinal injury and memory loss, the likelihood is that the trauma will disrupt the electrical and chemical process.

[Heather1984]

I don't remember anything about my accident. I remember leaving my house and just a few minutes after that. I only remember bits and pieces about being in the ER. I honestly don't want to remember any of it. In a way i'm glad I can't remember any of it. I got to see pictures of the vehicle I was in and have heard what all happend and it sounds horrible. My husband remembers everything that happened and I kinda feel sorry for him.

[Quad65]

I don't recall much. I was at the beach and we were going to leave when the lifeguards went off duty in the evening. The lifeguards whistled for everyone to get out of the water for the 'swim at your own risk' speech. A friend and I decide to take a few dives off the ladder of a slide they had in shallow water, then go home. We dived a couple times off the ladder into chest-deep water with no problem. I took one more dive and found myself floating face-down in the water. I don't remember hitting bottom. What was so eerie was the silence and lack of feeling from my neck down. I felt like a floating head bobbing around, looking at the light filtering through the water. My friend saw me, but didn't realize something was wrong. He thought I was just trying to shake the sand out of my hair after scraping the lake bottom. I was drowning, trying to hold my breath as long as I could. After a couple minutes under water, I opened my mouth and inhaled--nothing but water. I was pissed and knew I was going to die. Next thing I knew, I was lying on the beach, coughing up water with people all around me. The ambulance ride was a blur, all I recall is it was bumpy and the crew was talking about what they were going to do that week-end. At the hospital, I must have been shocky because I was puking all over from swallowing and inhaling so much water. They cut my trunks off in X-ray and I don't know how long I was out after that. I came to with clarity seeing an orderly standing over me spoon-feeding me some custard. I get depressed thinking about it all.

[Fazer386]

Flashes in Slow-Mo, like a slide show.

I missed the entire helicopter ride. In the ER, I see the bright lights and remember answering questions. I'm told I was cracking jokes with the staff, then apologizing to my family. Things went bad real quick.

ICU, three weeks of blurr. I didn't realize I was on a ventilator. I just thought no one could hear me.

Year-half post and some things are clear, but sometimes it feels like a life time ago.

[nitrosport_5]

I don't remember much about my accident. The only thing i remember was telling my friend to try to take my dirt bike(which i just wrecked and it was done) because his wouldn't run, and i remember telling him to put the spark arrester back in the exhaust so my dad wouldn't get mad.. It is weird the things our minds remember and the things we block out.

[Soryfam]

I remember collapsing and waiting for the ambulance. I just barely remember arriving at the hospital, and then just a few spotty things here and there that day. They took me into surgery, which I don't remember at all, and the next real memory I have is a month later. I was being wheeled out of ICU to the Ortho floor and I was crying like a baby telling my husband and daughter to never desert me again. It was like a switch turned on all of the sudden. I have no idea why it turned on then.
I have hallucination type ,e,ories from ICU where things that happened around me were incorporated into nightmares. It felt like I was being held against my will for the whole month I was in ICU. I wish I didn't have those memories. They are very scary and sad. Glad I don't remember anything about the surgeries or being in the special bed they had me in. It sounds awful. And THANK GOD I don't remember them putting the tube down my nose. I've been awake for that nefore and I swear I'll attack the next person who ever triesthat on me again.

Sandy