Fans of Coronation Street will have watched the character Nick Tilsley’s storyline with interest, as the once balanced, mild mannered young man has become angry and aggressive following a serious car accident where he was left with a brain injury.
For people affected by brain injury though, this sadly rings true. “I went from being easy-going to an aggressive bully over night’ said Simon Stevens, 43, from Bishops Stortford, Herts, who was brain injured after he was knocked off his motorbike by a car.
Simon suffered multiple injuries in the accident, and had to be airlifted to Adddenbrokes hospital, where he was in a coma for three days. His wife Tanya was initially told he might not survive, but he did pull through and was eventually discharged from hospital.
He experienced double vision though, and a brain scan later revealed he had suffered a subdural haematoma – a bleed on the brain. The part of his brain affected can result in personality changes, and while his body slowly healed, the effects from his head injury remained. They impacted on many different aspects of Simon’s life, from struggling to run his business, to becoming snappy and short-tempered with his two boys, Jacob, nine, and Reuben, five, and almost led to the breakdown of his marriage too.
Several years on, Simon is now trying to rebuild his life, and is being represented by one of our specialist brain injury solicitors, Ben Posford of Osbornes Solicitors LLP, who is fighting for compensation that will help to replace lost income and pay for the neuropsychological input both Simon and his family need to establish, implement and monitor the coping mechanisms required to help them all adjust to Simon’s personality change.
Simon is supportive of the Coronation Street storyline and glad that it will raise awareness of brain injury and the impact it can have: “I’ve been told about the Coronation Street storyline and anything that raises awareness about this condition is positive’ says Simon. The more people can understand how a brain injury can affect someone the better”
Further reading on brain injuries
Read more here about the Coronation Street brain injury storyline and how brain injuries can affect personality
Find a specialist brain injury solicitor near you
Find out more about the signs and symptoms of a head injury
