Driven Chapter 5: The invisibility of a brain injury

After the physical injuries from a nearly deadly car crash had healed, Holly Scott discovered the invisible struggles she would face for the rest of her life. WATCH THE VIDEO

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Two years after surviving a horrific road crash, Holly Scott is still dealing with the effects of a brain injury.

The 24-year-old has come a long way since she nearly lost her life in the Adelaide Hills crash.

But she still faces everyday, debilitating challenges, including excessive fatigue, memory problems and difficulty deciphering noises in loud environments.

But the university student also found the injury became harder to cope with after the physical injuries had healed, admitting some of her friends couldn’t understand her daily struggles.

In The Advertiser’s groundbreaking, seven-part video series , Driven, Ms Scott and her therapists speak about how these challenges were overcome.

Holly Scott at home. Picture: Matt Turner

Brain Injury SA speech pathologist Merrin Ising said Ms Scott had made “great progress” and had a lot of “drive and motivation” to overcome her limitations but her brain injury remained lifelong.

One of the examples was cognitive fatigue, which was “debilitating” for a young person.

“A lot of people just don’t understand, they think ‘Yeah, I get tired, too’ but they don’t have the same level of cognitive fatigue,” Ms Ising said.

“Her brain has to work five times harder now to get the same answer and same response, so it gets tired.

Holly Scott in hospital after crash. Picture: Holly Scott

“When we first started our sessions, one of Holly’s big issues was what we called word-finding difficulties.

“So she often knew what she wanted to say but she just couldn’t work out the right words and how to say it.”

In the early days of rehabilitation, Ms Scott struggled to have a conversation for more than 15 minutes. Ms Ising said these effects were exhausting for Ms Scott, however, a brain injury could present as different symptoms to each patient.

“When she was walking with a cane, when people can see her physical injuries, people seem to have a better understanding of Holly’s difficulties as a whole,” she said. “As soon as those physical injuries recovered, she would often talk to me and say, ‘people think I’m better now but I’m still really struggling and they don’t understand’.”

Ms Scott said her daily movements were restricted by her brain injury, resulting in her being excluded in social activities.

“Driving – that takes up 20 per cent of battery of the day. I need to monitor my mental fatigue,” she said.

“I think some of them (friends) might have been scared, they didn’t know how to be there for me.

“I can’t walk around the shops, I couldn’t do a lot of things … and I guess some people don’t think of that, of what I can do and work around that.”

Ms Scott’s brain injury will continue to affect her for the rest of her life.

It is able to be managed when she plans ahead.