Neuro note 2

If I Stay 

Greenspan, A., & Cross, S. (2014). If I stay [DVD]. United States; Warner Bros. Pictures.

This movie is a story about a typical teenage girl named Mia who is fixing to graduate high school. Her life at the time consisted of playing the cello and anxiously waiting to hear back from her dream college, Julliard. Her life changed in a split second when she was in a car accident with her family. Mia endured a head trauma and was instantly knocked into a coma. However, she was living in an "out of body" experience as she was watching everything go on around her. As Mia's unconscious body lies in the hospital bed, her soul is roaming around trying to find the status of her family.
She comes to the realization that her parents and her brother have all passed and if she wakes, she will be an orphan. Throughout the movie, she is also having flashbacks of some of the happiest days of her life. (most of which were with her boyfriend Adam)
 Mia has a big decision to make- does she want to live or does she want to die?

I chose this movie because it has always been one of my favorite movies. As I was trying to think of something to do this assignment on, I was reminded of how real this movie is and how it has a great connection to the things we have learned in this class. In this class as well as others, we have learned that traumatic brain injuries and strokes can both result in a coma.  Because Mia did not wake up for over 24 hours, her trauma was considered to be a severe loss of consciousness and she would fall in the 3-8 range on the Glasgow Coma Scale.   Although it is "just a movie", this movie makes me wonder what it truly is like to experience being in a coma. From the outside, we see a lifeless body who is unresponsive. But, this movie makes you question how lifeless they really are.

Watch the trailer here