Oct
30
Depictions of head-injury patients in movies and television almost always show the patient experiencing some type of amnesia, or memory loss. Indeed, memory loss is the most common cognitive side effect of a severe traumatic brain injury. In patients with a milder TBI, memory loss is still one of the most common symptoms. And the more severe the patient’s memory loss is, the more severe the brain damage is likely to be.
Temporary Memory Loss and TBI
Some traumatic brain injury-related amnesia is temporary; such patients are usually unable to recall what happened directly before, during and after their accidents. This is often caused by edema, or a swelling of the brain in response to the damage it sustained. Because the brain is pressed against the skull, parts that were not injured are still not able to work. As the swelling goes down, the patient’s memory returns, often slowly over a period of weeks, months or even years. Temporary memory loss may also be an emotional response to the stress of the event that caused the TBI.
Other, less common, types of memory loss stemming from traumatic brain injury are fixed. These result from damage to the nerves and axons (connections between nerves) of the brain itself. Because the brain cannot heal itself like an arm or a leg, any function that is damaged during a TBI is permanently impaired unless the brain can learn to perform that function differently. Fixed amnesia may include inability to remember events before the injury, or loss of memory of the meanings of certain things, such as words or smells or objects. Less commonly, a person may not remember skills he or she had before the TBI.
Brain Damage and Anteretrograde Amnesia
A patient with TBI may also develop anteretrograde amnesia — an inability to form memories of events that happened after the injury. The reason for this is not well understood, but an October 2006 study by researchers at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia found that TBIs reduce the levels of a protein in the brain that helps it balance its activity. Without enough of that protein, the brain can “overload”, the researchers said, interfering with memory formation, particularly the ability to learn new things.
Treatment Options for Traumatic Brain Injury Patients with Amnesia
There is no treatment for memory loss caused by a traumatic brain injury; if the memory does not come back on its own, it is gone forever. However, a September 2006 study published in Neurology, the scientific journal of the American Academy of Neurology, showed promising results in TBI patients with anteretrograde memory loss who took the drug rivastigmine. The drug, which is sold to Alzheimer’s disease patients under the brand name Exelon, helped patients with moderate to severe memory loss score better on memory tests than another group of patients that took placebos. The results were not as good for patients who had only mild memory loss. If you suffer from traumatic brain injury-related memory problems, you may wish to contact an experienced TBI attorney to discuss your options, which may include filing a brain injury lawsuit in order to gain compensation for your medical costs.
Oct
28
monica lewinsky dead?
Filed Under Current Events | 7 Comments
For failing to upstage the only passenger to be wed in big black mercedes causing it has had to do special.
Oct
26
Peter Kent inquired:
s are continually doing research as to if certain demographics are at more of a risk for traumatic brain injury (TBI) than other individuals. It may seem as though mere statistics mean nothing but in actuality, the link is becoming stronger as to if age or gender play a factor in TBI prevention or occurence.
Traumatic Brain Injury: Who Is Affected?
Though studies vary slightly, it is generally accepted that at least 1.4 million people sustain a traumatic brain injury each year in the United States. However, this figure only reflects the number of patients who seek treatment at the emergency department of a hospital or other medical facility; the number who do not seek care is unknown. This “mystery factor” in TBI demographics is of concern since many of the effects of traumatic brain injury can take months or even years to develop and manifest.
Gender
Men have been found to be as much as twice as likely as women to sustain a traumatic brain injury. It was also discovered that men are more likely to have a positive and overal better outcome ater traumatic brain injury treatments. Medical professionals are unsure of the cause for worse brain damage outcomes in female victims; however, it may have to do with *** hormones or differences in brain structure.
Age
The population of brain-injured patients is generally acknowledged to skew towards the young side; actually, it was recently reported that the two age groups being 0 to 4 and 15 to 19 were more at risk and likely to suffer from TBI, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). This is due to a high incidence of falls in the former group and motor vehicle accidents in the latter. Elderly individuals above 75 years of age are also more likely to suffer from traumatic brain injury due to slip and fall injuries connected to the aging process and medications.
What Are The Causes of Traumatic Brain Injury?
There are many causes for traumatic brain injury, but motor vehicle accidents are the leading cause of TBI in victims across all age ranges and genders. Firearms and falls follow, but the causes of brain injury change depending on the age group in question. Children, for example, are usually associated with sustaining TBI due to in-home abuse while the elderly are highly affected by TBI after a fall rather than during an automobile accident. Another, often overlooked cause of traumatic brain injury, is attempted *******. Alcohol plays a notable role in traumatic brain injury, with figures ranging from 32 to 73 percent of all TBI incidents involving some degree of alcohol abuse. Other causes of TBI include boating, swimming, and occupational accidents.
What Are The Costs of Traumatic Brain Injury?
The most expensive and dramatic effect of TBI is death: out of 1.4 million TBI cases are reported annually with nearly 50,000 of those reesulting in death. But there are other costs and complications of TBI, one of which is lifetime disability (80,000 of the 1.nearly 4 million cases of TBI will result in long-term disability. Though it is possible to survive a traumatic brain injury, the onset of disability has other consequences, which include personality changes and resultant family instability, financial insecurity due to the inability to work or hold down a job, and resulting lost productivity and reduced participation in activities of daily living.
Though perhaps nothing can put a dollar value on an individual’s loss of independence and daily life skills, there are distinct monetary losses associated with TBI. These include lost wages, inability to work, and social costs such as lost taxes and required state assistance. Some statistics estimate that traumatic brain injury costs the United States over $60 billion per year in combined costs.
If You’ve Been Affected by Traumatic Brain Injury
If you or a loved one has experienced the cost of traumatic brain injury, contact an experienced TBI attorney. A TBI attorney can offer assistance in developing brain injury litigation as well as seek monetary compensation for medical bills associate with TBI.
Oct
13
Considered as one of the leading causes of fatalities and disabilities in the United States, traumatic brain injuries can be so devastating for those who will incur it. Yet, these injuries can be more painful and disastrous if brought about by other people’s negligence, wrongdoing or failure to act.
Brain injuries may result from a sudden physical strike of bump on a person’s head. In addition, it can also be a product of medical malpractice or drug overdose. Depending on certain conditions proximate to the incident, these injuries may range from mild to serious, which causes great effects to major areas of the brain.
Here are some of the possible effects that TBI may cause to a patient:
• Cognitive defects
• Motor sensory problems
• Perceptual defects
• Language and Interaction difficulties
• Functional impediments
• Social and psychiatric disorders
• Death
Yearly, over 50,000 citizens die from TBI, not to mention those millions who need to suffer from these injuries fro the rest of their lives.
Fortunately, people living in Los Angeles who sustain brain injuries from unlawful acts are guaranteed of suitable legal remedies depending on the extent of the damages inflicted on them.
Brain Injury Law and Legal Procedures
Because of the burden that a person with TBI has to face, he definitely needs proper attention to be given by his family. Yet, due to the tremendous amount of money that he needs to sustain his treatment, he therefore necessitates the financial assistance of the party responsible for his injury.
Under the prevailing Federal and California Laws, brain injury victims may file their lawsuits against the negligent individuals. However, they must first establish these aspects of their cases in order to gain a successful verdict:
• The defendant has been negligent, committed a wrongful act or failed to act accordingly
• Such inaction or neglectful act is the proximate cause of his brain injury
• He has indeed sustained brain injuries based on his medical records
Meanwhile, the procedures in filing a lawsuit may be challenging and complicated for the victims and their families. This is the main reason why it is very essential for them to appoint their Los Angeles brain injury lawyers to guide and represent them with their cases.
A legal advocate’s expertise in handling these types of lawsuits can assure that their rights under the existing laws will be duly protected. In various accounts, these experienced lawyers are also capable of increasing the amount of possible recoveries. With the aid of Los Angeles brain injury lawyers, the injured victims will have better chances of acquiring these remunerations:
• Payment for their pain and suffering
• Recompense for their hospital and medical treatment expenses
• Reimbursement of their past and future loss of wages
• Compensation for their emotional and mental distress
• Payment for their property damages
• Payment for their lawyer’s professional fee
Nonetheless, the laws require the patient victims to file their respective personal or wrongful death cases as soon as possible. This is due to the “statutes of limitation” that apply in these legal actions. If they fail to meet the allowable period in bringing their cases in court, they may lose the opportunity to obtain justice.
For better chances of recovering high settlements or verdicts for your case, visit our website and contact our Los Angeles brain injury lawyers. We promise to help you in resolving your personal injury case at the soonest time possible.
Written By: Rainier Policarpio
About the guy/gal that wrote this:
Rainier used to work in a publishing company as a writer and eventually became an associate editor. He dealt in writing instructional materials for secondary and tertiary students. His passion in writing inspired him to read a lot and subsequently enabled him to gain more knowledge and skills.
Oct
11
Loved humans suffered 3 substantial injuries of the brain as a child also that sent it into a coma fà ¼ to r 5 days and lasted about one year, in order itself from (umlernen to go, speaks, recognizes its environment). It is much & quot; smart& quot; adult reaching of its Ph.D and on all accounts like a normal person. However it has in the situation never was to hold a job. This like that frustrating fà ¼ r it and that is the result, first alarms us on the idea that it möglicherweise from long-term effects that its childhood head injuries. Where one knows further information à ¼ more ber these: Long-term effects of the injuries of the brain and like, over with them? Which legal and career to help my loved itself fà ¼ can an r this do? Where can he be diagnosed and unterstà ¼ tzt? We are in Chicago range and so each assistance or resources in our region wäre very gratefully.
Oct
8
Schizophrenia and Traumatic Brain Injury
Filed Under Health | Leave a Comment
For victims of a traumatic brain injury (TBI) and their families, side effects such as bipolar disorder and memory loss is tragic, but well known and understood. But in recent decades, scientists have begun to explore another side effect of serious brain damage that can? go unnoticed: schizophrenia. What? schizophrenia? Schizophrenia (Greek for "mind" crushed;)? a psychotic disorder that affects behavior, mood and thinking. The original deadline? been coined as "the schizophrenias" due to wide variety? symptoms that characterize the circumstances. The symptom is the best widely known, auditory hallucinations ( "voices" of hearing;), can not? even be present in all who have a diagnosis of schizophrenia. Psychologists break the symptoms of schizophrenia in three categories: * The symptoms are positive behaviors that are not absent in normal individuals. Include auditory hallucinations, delusions and thought disorder, or negative symptoms of disorganized thinking .* symptoms are showing the loss of enabling normal. They include the loss of capacity? to show or feel the emotion, lack of motivation and difficulties? with defects in both speaking .* Neurocognitive problems with the function of the brain in areas such as memory, problem solving, attention and social operation. Schizophrenia on the brain wound in PatientsScientists determined that the terms psychiatric disorders such as anxiety and bipolar were pi? common in patients who have suffered from traumatic brain injuries. Moreover we know that patients with schizophrenia have a high incidence of brain damage of the past, regardless of whether they have other strengths announced for schizophrenia as a family history of the disorder or maleness. But? just because? early 90s that researchers have begun to explore in depth the link between brain damage caused by injury and traumatic brain of schizophrenia. Schizophrenia and brain injury: * Studies recently between the results of those studies: * schizophrenia-related TBI? align schizophrenia, a disorder nothing else with similar symptoms, according to a 2001 study dall'Universit? of Columbia. Scientists have observed that the wound of brain trauma? been associated with an increased risk for schizophrenia, Suggestions that increases a circumstance likely? the person to develop other .* another study during the same year all'universit? New South Wales in Australia find out that the TBI patients with schizophrenia-like psychosis had brain damage of pi? widespread damage and knowledge that the TBI patients without psychosis. He also suggested that a family history of schizophrenia and severit? damage to the brain during the ongoing TBI increase the risk of schizophrenia .* scientists at the state dell'Hawai found in 2002 that required an average of four – five years after a traumatic injury to the brain so that? psychosis affects you, with most cases arriving in two years. Scientists in the study have suggested that damage to the frontal and temporal regions of the brain and the system that regulates dopamine, can cause psychosis. While the complex nature of schizophrenia makes its cause unclear, because? the latest study suggests there? evidence to believe that the wound of the brain directly causes schizophrenia, damaging the areas of the brain that control the pi? high duties. There? also evidence of a traumatic brain injury can? indirectly cause psychosis. Scientists believe that schizophrenia is caused by a combination of genetic predisposition to disease and experience emotionally or physically traumatic for activating this setting. Some studies the exploration of two circumstances suggests that traumatic brain injury and the complications that can act as a booster. Many doctors know that a traumatic brain injuria pu? cause the riots which neurocognitive difficulties? with speech and psychiatric problems like bipolar disorder, but not everyone is aware of the growing evidence linking schizophrenia with brain damage. The TBI patients and their families should be sure to include a qualified psychiatrist in their programs for the treatment of brain damage. In most, patients of brain injury and their families shoud consult a lawyer with experience in brain injury while trying to recover costs for expenses such as lost wages, medical care and future medical current cost.