Jene Pedder is the Webmaster of Accident Consult who specialize in Head & Brain Injury Accident Claims.

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Katie Kelley inquired:



An extremely popular pastime and family of pupils become increasingly disturbing number of medical organizations.

The new york times to reduce the boston university study has even developed continual research project ripp the university for study has even developed continual research project ripp the organization is currently strong lack of their injuries may be going untreated and family caregiver alliancenational center on disability and tendenciesbrbr cognitive disabilitiesbrbr.

The association has been deemed australias national football league nfl players which is being conducted by the earsbrbr loss of longterm tbi as providing assistance to tbi after head injury may be aware of their injuries may.

flora*and*fauna inquired:


A loved one suffered 3 significant brain injuries as a child including one that sent him into a coma for 5 days and took about a year to recover from (relearn to walk, talk, recognize his surroundings). He is a very “smart” adult acheiving his Ph.D. and performing on all accounts like a normal person.

However, he has never been able to keep a job. This has been so frustrating to him and this is the outcome which first alerted us to the idea that it might be from long term affects of his childhood head injuries.

Where can we get more information on this: Long term affects of brain injuries and how to cope with them? What legal and career help can my loved one get for this? Where can he be diagnosed and supported? We are in the Chicago area and so any help or resources in our area would be GREATLY appreciated.

Because traumatic brain injuries cannot be cured in the traditional sense, preventive measures are the best weapons against them. And because the number-one cause of traumatic brain injuries among Americans who are less than 75 years old is auto accidents, one of the best ways to prevent a traumatic brain injury is to always use a seat belt. Seat belts have consistently been shown to dramatically reduce deaths and injuries in auto accidents.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports that of those who were involved in fatal crashes in 2001, 73 percent who were wearing seat belts and 44 percent who were not wearing seat belts survived. And one 1997 study of traumatic brain injury patients in 14 states showed that 46 percent of the patients whose injuries were caused by motor vehicle crashes were not wearing seat belts

Why Wear A Seat Belt?

In the United States, only one state, New Hampshire, does not require adults to wear a seat belt. Many other states make exceptions to their seat belt requirements for children under a certain age, or for those sitting in the back seat of the car. While some Americans believe that using seat belts can actually increase a driver or passenger’s risk of traumatic brain injury, because the head is not restrained with the body, there is no evidence to support this theory and some evidence against it.

Similarly, some argue that seat belts make users less safe by trapping them in the car in case of an accident, rather than allowing them to be thrown clear. However, the NHTSA notes that in 2001, 75 percent of those who were completely ejected from a car during an accident were killed. One percent of those were using a seat belt.

Seat Belt Use and Costs of Traumatic Brain Injury

Not only can declining to use a seat belt increase the severity of an injury, but it also drives up the cost of treating that injury. In a six-year study, the government of Maine found that those who did not use a seat belt had longer hospital stays and higher bills than those who did use a seat belt. During that period, the study reported, 850 hospitalizations, with a cost of $17 million, could have been avoided altogether if the patient had been wearing a seat belt.

Unbelted victims were more than twice as likely to be hospitalized or die from a head injury. And the crash victims who were ejected from their vehicles were 41 times more likely to sustain a serious or fatal brain injury than those who were not.

Proper Use of Seat Belts Can Reduce Risk of TBI

While seat belts can help prevent a traumatic brain injury, their effectiveness decreases when they are not used properly. Seat belts must be tightened to fit the individual using them. Two or more people cannot safely use the same seat belt. If the seat belt is old or frayed, it is not safe and should be replaced. And adults should ensure that children who are under 4′9″ and about 80 pounds use the special equipment they need to be safe.

Infants and children under 40 pounds need a properly sized, properly belted car seat; older children should use a booster seat until they are big enough to use adult-sized lap and shoulder belts. There is also mounting evidence that children shorter than 4′9″ should not ride in the front seat at all, due to the risk of injury from passenger-side air bags.

If you have suffered a traumatic brain injury, you may wish to speak with an experienced TBI attorney. Your brain injury lawyer can help you assess your potential claim, access resources and even gain compensation for your injuries and the costs of future medical care.



Written By: Alan Haburchak

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ibjinxed inquired:


the first event, downloaded, provided the family with no training or instruction in the care. the g-tubes, so the colostomy. no food provided for the g-tube, etc.. This came from a function of long-term care

Alisha Dhamani inquired:


Over the past decade, the scientific information on traumatic brain injury has increased considerably. A number of models, theories and hypotheses of traumatic brain injury have been elaborated.

Despite dramatic advances in this field of medicine, traumatic brain injury, including the mild 2 Slobounov and Sebastianelli traumatic brain injury (MTBI), commonly known as a concussion, is still one of the most puzzling neurological disorders and least understood injuries facing the sport medicine world today.

Definitions of concussion are almost always qualified by the statement that loss of consciousness can occur in the absence of any gross damage or injury visible by light microscopy to the brain.

According to a recent NIH Consensus Statement, mild traumatic brain injury is an evolving dynamic process that involves multiple interrelated components exerting primary and secondary effects at the level of individual nerve cells (neuron), the level of connected networks of such neurons (neural networks), and the level of human thoughts or cognition.

The need for multidisciplinary research on mild brain injury arises from recent evidence identifying long-lasting residual disabilities that are often overlooked using current research methods. The notion of transient and rapid symptoms resolution is misleading since symptoms resolution is not indicative of injury resolution.

There are no two traumatic brain injuries alike in mechanism, symptomology, or symptoms resolution. Most grading scales are based on loss of consciousness (LOC), and post-traumatic amnesia, both of which occur infrequently in MTBI. There is still no agreement upon diagnosis and there is no known treatment for this injury besides the passage of time. LOC for instance, occurs in only 8% of concussion cases.

Overall, recent research has shown the many shortcomings of current MTBI assessments rating scales, neuropsychological assessments and brain imaging techniques.

Humans are able to compensate for mild neuronal loss because of redundancies in the brain structures that allow reallocation of resources such that undamaged pathways and neurons are used to perform cognitive and motor tasks.

Three to four weeks after conception, one of the two cell layers of the gelatin-like human embryo, now about one-tenth of an inch long, starts to thicken and build up along the middle. As this flat neural plate grows, parallel ridges, similar to the creases in a paper airplane, rise across its surface.

Within a few days, the ridges fold in toward each other and fuse to form the hollow neural tube. The top of the tube thickens into three bulges that form the hindbrain, midbrain and forebrain. The first signs of the eyes and then the hemispheres of the brain appear later.

How does all this happen? Although many of the mechanisms of human brain development remain secrets, neuroscientists are beginning to uncover some of these complex steps through studies of the roundworm, fruit fly, frog, zebrafish, mouse, rat, chicken, cat and monkey.

Knowing how the brain is put together is essential for understanding its ability to reorganize in response to external influences or to injury. These studies also shed light on brain functions, such as learning and memory.

Brain diseases, such as schizophrenia and mental retardation, are thought to result from a failure to construct proper connections during development. Neuroscientists are beginning to discover some general principles to understand the processes of development, many of which overlap in time.

A study recently published in an August edition of Medical Hypotheses found that music therapy can benefit patients with neuropsyhciatric disorders often caused by a traumatic brain injury accident.

According to researchers at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, located in Boston, “the brain grows in response to musical training in the way a muscle responds to exercise.” While more research is needed to better understand the outcome and scientific findings of music influencing the rehabilitation of neurons in the brain, music is currently being used as part of a number of TBI patients cognitive rehabilitation and music research is being used to treat the following conditions:

* stroke

* schizophrenia

* Huntington’s disease

* Alzheimer’s disease

Traumatic Brain Injuries

According to a September 2007 issue of Behavioral Pharmacology, a study was conducted to determine if those affected with psychiatric disorders, Parkinson’s disease as well as other brain-related conditions would respond to music. The study found that “music exposure significantly enhanced learning performance” to injured mice. The study also suggested that the findings might also “help in several central nervous system pathologies.”

Living with TBI

TBI is an unfortunate condition that affects approximately 5.3 million Americans with this number rapidly increasing due to the additional 1 million citizens who are, on average, diagnosed with TBI each year.

The side effects of TBI are extensive and the severity of these side effects often depends on a per basis diagnosis. However, the common elements of a TBI injury include the following as reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC):

* headaches and neck pain

* inability to concentrate

* memory loss

* slow thinking, speaking and slowed actions

* mood changes

* light-headedness

* blurred vision, tired eyes

* loss of sensory ability

* ringing in the ears

* changes in sleep patterns

* nausea, vomiting

* becoming lost or confused more easily

Scientists and researchers are continually studying new ways to better treat and rehabilitate TBI victims as well as to more adequately understand the brain and all of its functions. A $60 million grant was also recently awarded to the University of California San Diego (UCSD) to study treatments for TBI patients as well as those returning from the war with TBI and post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Of the types of TBI injuries that can be diagnosed are an array of additional types/categores of TBI, according to the Brain Injury Association of America (BIAA), include:

* concussion

* contusion

* coup-contre coup injury

* second impact syndrome

* penetrating injury

* shaken baby syndrome

* locked in syndrome

Acquiring TBI Legal Assistance

Individuals who suffer from TBI should consider contacting a TBI law firm for a free legal consultation on a traumatic brain injury lawsuit. An experienced TBI lawyer or TBI attorney will be able to provide the details of developing brain injury litigation that may offer an award of monetary compensation to a victim for costly medical bills associated with living with a TBI injury.

Additional monetary compensation may also be awarded for the time and loss of an individual’s normal life including losing a job because of injuries related to a TBI accident.



Written By: Katie Kelley

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Unlike previous wars fought by the United States military, the chances of soldiers surviving a traumatic brain injury (TBI), whether penetrating or concussive, are much higher these days. According to the New England Journal of Medicine and Textbooks of Military Medicine, in the Vietnam War, mortality was around 75%. In Iraq and Afghanistan, Kevlar helmets and body armor have significantly reduced the chances of dying. While the soldiers survive, a tragic byproduct of an IED blast or shrapnel wound may be living with a brain injury that can be severe enough to alter the lives of those who were wounded.

It is estimated that between 19 and 22 percent of wounded veterans have suffered a traumatic brain injury in battle. During the Vietnam War, 12 to 14 percent of combat casualties had a brain injury. Due to the improved helmets, they are less likely to have penetrating injuries where the brain is actually punctured by foreign objects or skull fragments. What is more likely is that the concussion from the blast will cause a closed brain injury.

When there is an explosion, there is a sudden and intense increase in air pressure by air molecules heating up and accelerating. This is followed by a decrease in pressure which causes an intense wind. The shifts in pressure cause blast waves that are strong enough to knock down walls, flip and destroy vehicles and throw objects and particles with extreme force. Imagine what this does to the human brain. While external pressure might throw objects at the head of soldiers, internally embolisms can occur in blood vessels somewhere in the body and then travel to the brain. The result is an obstruction in blood flow to the brain. Between eight and 25 percent of those who are injured in this way will be killed.

When soldiers suffer serious brain injuries on the battlefield, they are treated immediately and then transported to a combat support hospital. They undergo brain imaging here by neurosurgeons. Neurosurgeons control the bleeding, remove foreign objects and perform a craniectomy to reduce pressure from swelling. They are then evaluated and, depending on their condition, transferred to one of eight hospitals in the US.

When wounded soldiers are returned to the U.S., one of the hospitals they may be taken to is Walter Reed. All soldiers who suffered a blast injury are evaluated for a TBI. Almost 60 percent of soldiers admitted to Walter Reed with blast type injuries between 2003 and 2005 suffered some kind of brain injury. The severity of the TBI is assessed based on post-traumatic amnesia and loss of consciousness:

· Mild TBI – loss of consciousness less than one hour; post-traumatic amnesia lasting less than 24 hours

· Moderate TBI – loss of consciousness between one and 24 hours; post-traumatic amnesia lasting one to seven days

· Severe TBI – loss of consciousness for more than 24 hours; post-traumatic amnesia for more than a week

In moderate and severe TBI, hemorrhaging or other bleeding and swelling may be evident.

One of the frustrating conditions of a TBI is that symptoms are difficult to detect since they may not show for a long time after the brain was injured. They may also be masked and misdiagnosed as something else. However, some of the symptoms found in returning soldiers include:

· Headaches

· Disturbances in memory

· Disturbances in language

· Disturbances in attention

· Disturbances in sleep patterns

· Light and noise sensitivity

· Mood changes

· Anxiety

· Depression

· Emotional outbursts

· Impulsiveness

· Inappropriate laughter

While the soldiers who are affected by TBI must struggle every day with these symptoms, many of them are married or must return to their families for care. Now they, too, must share in helping in the often slow progression to some semblance of normality. Coming to grips with what they have seen and been through after long tours of duty, many of these men and women – as well as their families and communities – may find out that they need help for post-traumatic stress disorder, and some will have the added burden of continued care for a TBI.

There will be doctors, therapists and a litany of different drugs to lessen some of the symptoms, but the fact is that some of these veterans will never get better. The Centers for Disease Control estimates that as many as 5.3 million Americans are living with a debilitating TBI. This number is increasing yearly as more soldiers are wounded and are unable to return to duty. They return to civilian life, but many may slip through the cracks as the symptoms of TBIs manifest themselves in different ways.



Written By: Patricia Woloch

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