I can come up with many plausible explanations. You could use a steering wheel analogy, where the car goes in the direction that is pointed by the steering wheel, but the steering wheel is only an interface to the driver. Damage to the steering column will affect the wheel's ability to direct the car. In the same way, you can think of the brain as an interface (and perhaps one of several) to the driver, but the brain does not have to be the driver.
Yes, it is true that victims of stroke or heart attack can experience brain damage which changes their ability to perceive information and process it. It can even appear that their personality is changed. However, did the stroke affect the source of consciousness, or an interface?
By the same token, how can someone who, though they have no love for the water, all of a sudden develop a love of swimming after recovering from the heart transplant of a champion swimmer who died tragically? Are we to discount this story and ones like it on the basis that it doesn't fit an assumption that consciousness is in the brain and seems to be backed up by equally odd stories of minor damage to the brain completely affecting what seems like a function of consciousness? Do psychoactive drugs not also affect the heart, liver, kidneys?
I don't think the question is so simple.
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