Living with Acquired Brain Injury: The Honest Story of Mascha Kamphuis

More than 645,900 Dutch people have non-congenital brain injury. Mascha Kamphuis (50) is one of them.

‘I wake up tired, even though I was used to getting up with the idea: the world is at my feet’, says Mascha, who worked as a paediatrician. Due to acquired brain damage, she has a lack of energy.

Impact of Acquired Brain Injury
Mascha also has difficulty talking, certain inhibitions have disappeared and her head quickly gets messed up. “When I’m disturbed, I’m like a horse that refuses to jump a hurdle. Then I panic. I have to focus mega on everything.’ Overstimulation and concentration problems are more common in people with acquired brain injury.

‘With a brain injury you always have to deal with limitations,’ says Mascha. In the beginning she even walked with a walker. The impact of acquired brain injury, on the other hand, differs per person. This depends on the severity of the injury and which part of the brain is damaged.

Traumatic and non-traumatic brain injury
‘Looking back, I had a sort of deep headache at the back of my neck,’ explains Mascha. She was especially bothered by it at night. It turned out to be a cerebral hemorrhage caused by a five by five centimeter brain tumor. This was diagnosed with a scan in the emergency room, to which Mascha was referred by the GP. In 2019, 777,000 people with a condition that can lead to non-congenital brain injury were known to their GP, reports the Hersenstichting.

Incidentally, in the case of non-congenital brain injury, a distinction is made between traumatic brain injury – caused by oxygen deficiency in cardiac arrest, stroke, epilepsy, cerebral hemorrhage or tumor – and non-traumatic brain injury. The cause of non-traumatic brain injury is often a major blow to the head, for example from a fall down a flight of stairs or an accident. traffic accident. In Mascha’s case it concerns traumatic brain injury. A large part of her tumor has now been removed, but because of the risk of bleeding, the surgeon left part in place.

In the book I miss me too, which she wrote with friend Ronald Giphart, she tells ‘an honest story’ about her life with acquired brain injury. Her challenges, which she previously shared on Twitter, can count on recognition from peers. ‘Shared sorrow is really half sorrow. Non-congenital brain injury deserves this attention.’