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From Grave to Cradle Now A father’s fi rst-person account From Grave to Using the collaterally damaged family as a lifesaving and healing instrument. Cradle to Now Ian Powell has been CEO of various enterprises, A father’s first hand account entrepreneur, assistant to a federal cabinet minister, management consultant and president of a national practice group for a major international accounting and consulting rm. He has given numerous addresses For Doctors, Nurses, Therapists, including to industry, investment and human resources conferences, law and business schools, as well as addressing Educators, Patients, Families, committees of both Houses of the US Congress. Friends, Human Resources … “… it is captured as a whole lived experience, including the explainable, the frightening, the joyful and the mysterious. It is the story before analysis, before explanation and before the extraction of "useful" guidance for professionals that captures the heart. Read the words, see his family and yours and marvel at your good fortune to have this account. Learning will follow.” The Health Care Professional Edition David A. Gass, MD, CCFP, FCFP , Professor, Department of Family Medicine Dalhousie University “… book of compelling nature, capturing attention, giving goose bumps at times…. We can all identify with it. e anguish and struggle of its characters to be better, to do better, to reach higher is a recipe for ongoing spiritual growth of everyone who is intent on growing and a reminder to those who are missing the opportunity.” Dr. J. N. Vanek, MD, Psychotherapist REVIEWREVIEW COPYCOPY Publishing Marrette The Health Care Professional Edition Marrette Publishing www.facebook.com/FromGraveToCradle www.marrette.cc/publishing.html REVIEW COPY “Your loved one has just suffered a traumatic brain injury” - these are words that are certain to cause dread and tremendous anxiety for any family. Once the shock begins to abate, family and friends want to know what to expect and what they can do immediately and over the coming months of rehabilitation. This vivid and powerful book about a real life experience is filled with valuable insights and lessons that are certain to help patients, families and health professional alike to improved patient outcomes and experiences within the healthcare system. Cliff Nordal Shared President and CEO (Retired) London Health Sciences Centre and St. Joseph’s Health Care I am pleased to have an opportunity to provide an endorsement for “From Grave to Cradle to Now”. It is essential for health care professional to learn about and understand the lived experiences of both patients and family members in order to provide compassionate care. “From Grave to Cradle to Now” reminds each of us of in a compelling way how lives can be changed in an instant and the strength, courage and support required to live through these experiences. Cheryl Isaak, RN, MSN Associate Dean, Specialty Nursing REVIEWBritish Columbia COPY Institute of Technology Ian’s account of his journey with his son and family through a major head injury is ongoing. More importantly, it is captured as a whole lived experience, including the explainable, the frightening, the joyful and the mysterious. It is the story before analysis, before explanation and before the extraction of “useful” guidance for professionals that captures the heart. Read the words, see his family and yours and marvel at your good fortune to have this account. Learning will follow. David A. Gass, MD, CCFP, FCFP Professor, Department of Family Medicine Dalhousie University This is a well written book of compelling nature, capturing attention, giving goosebumps at times, not needing endorsement. We can all identify with it. The anguish and struggle of its characters to be better, to do better, to reach higher is a recipe for ongoing spiritual growth of everyone who is intent on growing and a reminder to those who are missing the opportunity. Dr. J. N. Vanek, MD, Psychotherapist Although I am not a health professional, I know only too well as a parent and a journalist that hellish health experiences of the sort experienced by the Powell family can strike at any time—usually when they are utterly unexpected. Knowing how health care professionals can be expected to respond—one of the lessons of this book—is extremely important knowledge for navigating through the experience. This book, which could not have been easy to write, involved me in a family's extremely personal emotional experience—and opened my eyes to aspects of Ontario's health system which I have never been exposed to before. I amREVIEW grateful to Ian Powell for taking me on the harrowingCOPY journey. Harold Levy Criminal lawyer and journalist Retired as a staff reporter at the Toronto Star in 2006 From Grave to Cradle to Now A father’s first hand account The Health Care Professional Edition Using the collaterally damaged family as a lifesaving and healing instrument and other observations by the father of a traumatically brain injured son For Doctors, Nurses, Therapists, Educators, Patients, Families, Friends, Human Resources … REVIEW COPY Ian Powell Marrette Publishing Copyright © 2012 Ian Powell All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review. Published in 2012 by Marrette Publishing, a division of Marrette, Toronto, Canada. Distributed in Canada by Marrette Publishing www.marrette.cc/publishing.html Some of the material in this book was first published, in different form, in Navigating the System of Brain Injury - A Resource Manual For Individuals and Families Impacted by Brain Injury Permission to use that material is gratefully acknowledged. Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication Powell, Ian, 1944 From Grave to Cradle to Now - The Health Care Professional Edition / Ian Powell. ISBN 978-0-9880073-0-7 soft ISBN 978-0-09880073-1-4 e-Book ISBN 978-0-9880073-2-1 hard cover 1. Surviving traumatic brain injury—Patients—Health professionals—Families—Memoir. 2. Acquired and traumatic brain injuries in families—Patients—Family relationships—Canada. 3. Parents, families and friends of patients with brain injuries—Canada—Memoir. 4. Text—Nurses— REVIEWDoctors—Psychologists—Sociologists. 5. Subjects—Coma COPY care—Critical care—Using family as instruments—Entrainment—Blood Harmony—Nursing arts—Care giving I. Title. Design by Jon McCallum Printed in the United States of America 10987654321 Contents Grave Chronology: by Facebook and Journal Notes to Nurses, Doctors and Other Healthcare Providers The Hospital System – Our Experience Your Caregiver Team Men and Fathers – Joining the OAJS Major Lessons The New Normal Drew Writes Postscript Appendices REVIEWTo Do List for Family COPY To Do List for Friends, Neighbours and Community Resources for Families Detailed Table of Contents REVIEW COPY 8 REVIEW COPY 9 From Grave to Cradle to Now Preface Three individuals drew this story from me, from bed to book as it were, in successive stages. Chris Foot asked me to speak to the Men’s Breakfast of the local United Church. This group invites members, authors and other guest speakers on a wide range of subjects including Western abuse of Africa; logic; the evolution of door-to-door milk delivery; a celebrated locally-born international artist; pilots on flying; political campaigning; high tech entrepreneurship; and German history and the machinations of East Germany. Talks are given by members and outside experts. The speakers are invited in order to stimulate thought and community. Preparing that talk forced me to understand, organize and condense events into a 40-minute presentation. Most attendees knew me; a couple knew Drew, my son and this story’s central figure. As much public speaking as I have done, it was a minor miracle that I was able to give the talk only 7-months after REVIEW COPY REVIEWDrew’s accident. That was particularly trueCOPY as, unexpectedly, I saw the audience barely withholding tears at times. Fortunately, we were also able to let off pressure by laughing in the appropriate places. Two years later, Ramona Bray, Drew’s psychotherapist and a clinical social worker, asked Drew to write an account and asked me to write a father’s first person account of my journey with Drew. 8 9 She felt that our 3-year-long stories would be helpful additions to the next issue of her Navigating the System of Brain Injury - A Resource Manual For Individuals and Families Impacted by Brain Injury. Every two years, she publishes the guide for families, patients, health care and other professionals. Apparently such male, father, or father-son accounts are very rare. I hesitated some months before starting the project but, not only did the process prove to be cathartic, it benefited our family’s ongoing journey. Ramona provided insightful questions for me to address. These questions, coupled with knowing the intended readership, brought focus and discipline to my writing. The earlier 40-minute talk became 30 pages, as writing unearthed suppressed memories and revealed insights. Reading that text some 4 months later, a modest, un-nameable mentor to budding Florence Nightingales, a retired faculty member who taught nursing students for two-plus decades, suggested that if I added certain content the text would be a very useful resource for nursing educators. As I had no professional expertise, I agreed only if she would guide me. Several months later she sent that enhanced draft to several institutions: a hospital and a nursing school. The last two expressed purchase interest. For me, that acceptance legitimized the value of the content. Thereby emboldened, I sought more validation and critiques by contacting a range of relevant professionals, institutions and associations in North America and other English speaking countries.