Coma or Stupor, Which?

Couperus alleges that Ellen was in a coma or unconscious state for three weeks due to the direct effects of her head injury. This interpretation is not correct. The record shows that Ellen was unconscious for only a brief time as a direct result of the head injury and that after recovering consciousness briefly, she was in a “stupid state” ^{4Gifts, vol. 2, p. 8.} or “stupor,” ^{5Testimonies for the Church 1:10.} (not a coma) for three weeks.ViOSe 10.2

Neurologists generally agree that the duration of amnesia for events preceding head trauma usually closely parallels the severity of the brain damage caused by the injury. By this criterion Ellen suffered minor rather than a severe brain injury.ViOSe 10.3

It is clear from the record that there was no amnesia for events prior to the injury because Ellen later remembered turning to see if the attacking girl was catching up with her and that as she turned, the stone struck her nose. Her memory of events between the time she regained consciousness and lapsed into a stupor was no more than slightly impaired, because she later clearly remembered being in a merchant’s store with blood pouring from her nose and declining the kind stranger’s offer to take her home in his carriage because she might soil it.ViOSe 10.4

Although any injury causing a person to lose consciousness may be serious, there is nothing in the records that demands that Ellen sustained severe brain damage. This is a conclusion Hodder and Couperus arrive at by their interpretation of the data. The facts, as will be shown, can better be interpreted to mean that the injury was serious because it caused trauma to her nose resulting in a hemorrhage so severe that she nearly died from loss of blood. ^{6Testimonies for the Church 1:11.}ViOSe 11.1