1. Where is the Mango Princess

By Cathy Crimmins
Rated 4 1/2 Stars

This book was recommended by Kathryn, a poster in a group I belong to. It was published in 2001 and the injury that Crimmins described happened several years before that. At the time it was written the struggle's that the author had in order to get decent treatment for her husband was shocking. But since this book was written the war in Iraq has happened in which the causualty totals have exceeded 30,00 and according to the Brain Injury Association of America more than half of them involve a traumatic brain injury.

In this book Crimmins' describes how her husband Alan suffered a traumatic brain injury in a speedboat crash. This book tells the stories of Alan's slow and irregular return to a reasonably normal existence; of the changing relationships involved, especially that of Cathy and the Crimmins' daughter, Kelly; and of how an HMO impeded a patient's treatment and recovery by misguided attempts at cost cutting.

Both Crimmins' and her husband, both of whom were highly educated, successful professional people (both had a Ph.d,) were more mature than most people and were better equiped to navigate the massive red tape and negotiate with an HMO that was determined to provide as little care as they could legally get away with.

Imagine your average young soldier with such an injury, probably in his early twenties who joined up right out of high school to get money for college trying to deal with an underfunded, understaffed and overwhelmed Veterans care system to get the services needed.

Try to imagine also the families of these service men and women who are trying to cope with a family member who has been forever altered both physically and mentally and who suffers from results of their injury that include at best:

http://www.traumaticbraininjury.com/content/symptoms/mildtbisymptoms.html

And in the more serious cases:

http://www.traumaticbraininjury.com/content/symptoms/severetbisymptoms.html

This is one of those books that while I am glad I read it but I probably would have been happier if I hadn't.