My son received a severe traumatic brain injury. He was in a coma for 3 weeks. Within 5 weeks after the accident, he started responding to commands. He developed hydrocephalus and had to have a ventricular shunt placement. After 4 months and 4 shunt revisions, he was not able to respond to commands since before the first shunt placement. An mri was done and I was told that his basal ganglia was damaged and this was the reason for the lack of response to commands. When I asked why he was able to respond to commands only weeks after the accident and before the shunt surgery, I was told that the basal ganglia damage was still progressing at that time. My question is this: is it possible for traumatic damage to the basal ganglia to continue to increase several weeks after an accident? The brain had stopped swelling within 2 weeks of the accident. My fear is that he may have received the basal ganglia damage due to negligence and the undetected staph infection. He had a staph infection of the cerebral spinal fluid that was found 6 months after the accident. He had complications with infection and high wbc since the first shunt placement that took place 7 weeks after the accident. The cerebral spinal fluid was never tested until 6 months after the accident. I need to add that the first shunt had to be removed because it was "stopped up" and inoperable. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated. My son has been left in a semi-vegetative state due to this damage.