“I’ve no retention of short-term memory.”Nine years after a car crash left him with a traumatic brain injury, his speech still slurs. Clinicians treating him described his condition as a moderate-to-severe traumatic brain injury, yet ACC documents recorded his injury as a “brain injury - other” or “mild traumatic brain injury”. A mild traumatic brain injury is generally expected to resolve within weeks or months. The letter arrived just as his GP referred him to a specialist traumatic brain injury rehabilitation centre in Auckland. “When I go to treatment providers, they see ‘brain injury - other’ so they say they can’t help me for my moderate brain injury,” he says.

Source: New Zealand Herald March 16, 2026 02:45 UTC