Lisa Davani

I am Lisa Davani, a former Certified Brain Injury Specialist with the Brain Injury Association of America, and I am also sharing my voice as a brain injury survivor. In February 2024, I sustained a severe concussion in a motor vehicle collision that fundamentally changed both my personal and professional understanding of traumatic brain injury.

After more than 30 years working with individuals and families affected by brain injury, I navigate firsthand the delayed, multisystem effects of concussion—particularly the neuroendocrine and autonomic disruptions that are often overlooked when imaging appears “normal.” My lived recovery has revealed critical gaps in how so called “mild” TBI is recognized, evaluated, and treated.

I am currently writing a book, Missing Links, a clinical memoir and advocacy piece that examines how a single concussion can trigger delayed neurological, autonomic, and neuroendocrine dysfunction—and why current protocols frequently miss these connections. My goal is to help survivors feel seen, equip clinicians with a broader framework for complex recovery, and support meaningful systemic change in brain injury care.

One of the most common misconceptions about brain injury is the belief that when imaging looks normal, recovery should be straightforward.

This was not a belief I held as a clinician. After more than 30 years working with brain injury survivors, I understood that normal imaging does not equate to normal function. What stunned me was discovering how often this myth shaped the care I received once I became the patient.

After sustaining a severe concussion, my symptoms did not appear all at once. They unfolded over time—fatigue disproportionate to effort, autonomic instability, metabolic disruption, and cognitive changes—each addressed in isolation because there was no visible finding to connect them. Despite my clinical background, I was repeatedly met with reassurance rooted in test results rather than physiology.

The misconception that a so called “mild” brain injury should resolve quickly causes real harm. It delays comprehensive evaluation, minimizes lived experience, and leaves survivors questioning their own reality when recovery does not follow a predictable timeline. My journey has reinforced what I had long known professionally: normal imaging does not mean normal physiology—and listening to symptoms matters just as much as reading a report.