Patrol_Border

My (then)19yr old brother did almost the exact same thing (balcony to concrete) about 3years ago and seems to be experiencing similar impairments with the exception being his short term memory. He's horrible under pressure or stress (he was recently rear ended in a car and had serious difficulties giving his details to the police - but thankfully it was a low-speed crash and the car took the only damage) and had to drop out of college because he found studying and learning new things far more difficult than before (he's still working on it and intends to return one day). That said, one of the things that has really helped him has been physical activity (primary lifting) and is currently working as a personal training - he thinks it has something to do with the repetitive activities, counting and exposing himself to new people forcing himself to make new connections.

There is a lot of evidence coming out now about the effects of concussions in childhood (primarily between the ages of 2-15yrs) that show difficulties in the learning environment and lower IQ for children receiving as few as 2 concussions before the age of 15. The studies are mainly being done because of football as the rate of concussions are increasing despite safety equipment improvement. Also with "extreme" sports becoming mainstream there is a serious worry about the effects of concussions on younger and younger children.

As for personality changes they are associated with concussions and have shown to worsen with subsequent head injuries. Not only that but because of his concussions he was likely experiencing some difficulties in everyday live making him more irritable (and irritability is very common in people with traumatic brain injuries so it was likely made worse) and thus more likely to lash out. Thankfully my brother had only had one previous concussion because the doctors explained the outcomes were less favorable for people with numerous previous concussions.