Originally Posted by DaveD

My brother, Pete, had encephelitis a number of years ago. He used to work in a nightclub - got back to my Mum's at about 4am and then at about 5, my Mum was woken by him flailing around on the floor. He was taken by ambulance and at hospital was given a lumber injection for menengitis as a precautionary measure as this can cause similar symptoms.
The next day he knew almost nothing - could barely speak, and what was said made no sense whatsoever! However, the following day, he could start to say recognizable works and a few days later put a couple of them together to form a sentence. However, he couldn't remember a lot of things, such as names. Oddly, he could recognise a face as familiar, but not know the name or why he knew that person.
Over the course of a week or so, he was almost back to normal, but always struggled with certain words.
The brain is a wierd thing and different people react in different ways - my brother made an almost complete recovery, but was then diagnosed with a brain tumor. Following initial treatment, the tumor returned and as it grew and put pressure on his brain, he again started to have trouble forming sentences and recalling certain words, which eventually became very frustrating for him - it was like the connection between his mind and the outside world was breaking down. He maintained his sense of humour to the end, but it was very hard watching him decline to his inevitable end.

Originally Posted by boogeyman

The young brain is much more able to make new connections than an older brain - so depending on severity a full recovery may be possible.

It's never that cut and dry though.

Really hope he gets better soon