Tampa Bay Personal Injury Lawyer - Head & Brain Injuries - Most Commented

Blogger's Journal Is His Memory

Bob Carroll — Thu, 06 Oct 2005 06:36:09 GMT

Due to my brain injury I have partial memory loss and have been investigating who I was and what I did. Because I often can't remember yesterday this journal serves as my memory. I have decided to share my life with the world and hope to find kindred spirits. Despite being disabled I spend my time helping others in need. Bob Westbrook's Blog is just as straightforward as his explanation for writing it.

Bob Westbrook writes:

Due to my brain injury I have partial memory loss and have been investigating who I was and what I did. Because I often can't remember yesterday this journal serves as my memory. I have decided to share my life with the world and hope to find kindred spirits. Despite being disabled I spend my time helping others in need. E mail me at bobcarver2@yahoo.com. I'd love to hear from you.

Bob's Blog is just as straightforward as his explanation for writing it.

10/5/05 Wednesday - Feeling like I went through a wringer. Still slow but not as bad as yesterday. Maybe a five. Maybe worse. Still waking up and the headache is making sure I donâ€™t forget it is there. Cherie was on her last minute rush again and was trying to take care of the bills that she should have done this weekend..... I guess I am at a 4 because typing is hard. I keep pushing the wrong buttons and am in slow motion.

Jeanie sent a message. It is the small things like a how ya doing that help so much. Helps fight the loneliness and depression.

Donâ€™t even want to hear the easy listening music that is usually soothing, just as much quiet as I can get. Every noise is there even the hum of the computer and the traffic on the turnpike plus cars outside. The school bus sounded like a freight train. Great, I have all the symptoms of a hangover and I donâ€™t drink except a glass of wine with dinner.

I am going to have to take something for the headache and eat something. Probably should take my second seizure pill. Yawning like crazy and I think I will take a short nap.

Thank you, Bob, for giving us a window into your life after a head injury.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Bob Carroll

Serious Brain Injury Sustained By Skateboarder Who Hitched A Ride

Bob Carroll — Sat, 27 Jan 2007 03:44:35 GMT

Just about every week I learn of new ways for people to be seriously injured. Not too long ago it was tube kiting that burst on the scene. (Sitting on large inner-tube shaped "kites" towed behind motorboats at high enough speeds to become airborne.) This week it is skitching. (Hitching a ride by grabbing a car while on a skateboard.)

The details of a skitcher who sustained a brain injury in Florida are reported by my fellow InjuryBoard blogger, Charles Monnett, III, of Charlotte, North Carolina.

Skitching Teenager Ends Up With Brain Injury

A 14-year-old boy is recovering from a serious brain injury he received after he fell while riding a skateboard while hanging onto a car. This dangerous activity goes by the name of skitching.
Alex Hanson is recovering at Tampa General Hospital. He is a student at Charlotte High School. He was skitching at the 13000 block of Orchid Drive in Punta Gorda when he sustained the life threatening brain injury. He can now feed himself, speak a little, sit up and continues to improve.

I know the more traditional sporting activities of water skiing and roller-skating have caused serious injuries, but I have to believe skitching should be reserved for James Bond movies.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Bob Carroll

The NFL And Brain Injury

Bob Carroll — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 06:25:00 GMT

The NFL probably would rather not talk about brain damage suffered by its players as we approach the Super Bowl. However, there was this little matter of the player who ended up with the characteristics as those of early-stage Alzheimer's victims. Excerpts from the New York Times article:

Expert Ties Ex-Player's Suicide to Brain Damage

Since the former National Football League player Andre Waters killed himself in November, an explanation for his suicide has remained a mystery. But after examining remains of Mr. Waters's brain, a neuropathologist in Pittsburgh is claiming that Mr. Waters had sustained brain damage from playing football and he says that led to his depression and ultimate death.
The neuropathologist, Dr. Bennet Omalu of the University of Pittsburgh, a leading expert in forensic pathology, determined that Mr. Waters's brain tissue had degenerated into that of an 85-year-old man with similar characteristics as those of early-stage Alzheimer's victims. Dr. Omalu said he believed that the damage was either caused or drastically expedited by successive concussions Mr. Waters, 44, had sustained playing football.
Dr. Omalu's claims of Mr. Waters's brain deterioration -- which have not been corroborated or reviewed -- add to the mounting scientific debate over whether victims of multiple concussions, and specifically longtime N.F.L. players who may or may not know their full history of brain trauma, are at heightened risk of depression, dementia and suicide as early as midlife.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Bob Carroll

Traumatic Brain Injury Requires Maximum Rehabilitation Effort

Bob Carroll — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 13:29:29 GMT

Recovery from traumatic brain injury (TBI) requires a major rehabilitation effort. Often, a significant part of legal representation of the injured person is devoted to assuring maximum care is obtained. One example of the need for an advocate of proper rehabilitation is provided by a recent study which shows that some particular groups of brain injured persons can sometimes experience a poorer outcome than others with similar injuries.

Functional outcomes from inpatient rehabilitation after traumatic brain injury: how do hispanics fare?

CONCLUSIONS: Hispanics showed significantly reduced long-term functional outcome after rehabilitation relative to whites. Rehabilitation professionals should recognize the possible impact of individual differences and diverse sociodemographic, injury, and rehabilitation characteristics so that differential health outcomes among TBI survivors can be reduced or eliminated.

Every victim of a traumatic brain injury deserves the best of care so that the outcome is maximized. Hispanics, whether in Florida or elsewhere in the U.S., should not experience a reduced long-term functional outcome relative to any other group.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Bob Carroll

Traumatic Brain Injury Occurs When Head Hits The Windshield

Bob Carroll — Fri, 10 Nov 2006 06:14:45 GMT

When the head hits the windshield brain injury may occur almost simultaneously with the impact. That is the sobering news in a report just released.

Research shows brain injury may occur within one millisecond after head hits car windshield

Research by a Sandia National Laboratories engineer and a University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center neurologist shows that brain injury may occur within one millisecond after a human head is thrust into a windshield as a result of a car accident.
This happens prior to any overall motion of the head following impact with the windshield and is a new concept to consider for doctors interested in traumatic brain injury (TBI).
Paul Taylor of Sandia's Multiscale Computational Materials Methods Department and Corey Ford, neurologist at UNM's Department of Neurology and MIND Imaging Center, made the discovery after modeling early-time wave interactions in the human head following impact with a windshield, one scenario leading to the onset of TBI.
TBI is associated with loss of functional capability of the brain to perform cognitive and memory tasks, process information, and perform a variety of motor and coordination functions. More than five million people in the U.S. live with disabilities associated with TBI.

What this tells us is that wearing a seatbelt is the thinking man's protective headgear. It keeps the head from meeting the windshield. For Florida drivers and passengers this should be a no-brainer.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Bob Carroll

Study May Explain Why Seizures And Memory Defects Often Follow TBI

Bob Carroll — Sat, 21 Oct 2006 02:26:22 GMT

More of the mysteries of traumatic brain injuries are being uncovered by research with every new study. The reason behind the seizures and memory defects often associated with traumatic brain injuries may lie in a reduction in the level of a protein which regulates brain activity.

How Brain Injury Leads To Seizures, Memory Problems

In a finding that may provide a scientific basis for eventual treatment, neurology researchers have shown that traumatic brain injury reduces the level of a protein that helps keep brain activity in balance. The resulting abnormal activity, in turn, is thought to be an underlying reason for seizures and memory defects experienced by people who have suffered a traumatic brain injury (TBI).
"A traumatic brain injury occurs to someone in the United States every 23 seconds," said study team leader Akiva S. Cohen, Ph.D., of The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, adding that, "TBI is the leading cause of death among children and young adults in this country. There are no cures known for traumatic brain injury. Our hope is that our research may contribute to potential therapies for TBI patients."
Transportation accidents such as car crashes are responsible for the majority of TBIs in people under age 75. According to the National Institutes of Health, over 5 million Americans currently have permanent disabilities resulting from TBIs.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Bob Carroll

New Use For Progesterone - Treating Traumatic Brain Injury

Bob Carroll — Mon, 02 Oct 2006 06:04:43 GMT

Doctors have found an unexpected ally in efforts to save people who suffer serious head trauma -- the hormone progesterone. This good news is reported in USA Today.

Progesterone found to help brain trauma

In a study released today, doctors in a small study at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta report giving progesterone, a steroid often associated with pregnancy and sex drives, to patients with serious head injuries.
What they found, according to the study online in the Annals of Emergency Medicine, is that progesterone is safe and that more patients who got progesterone survived moderate head injuries than did those who were given a placebo.
Traumatic brain injuries -- from a gunshot wound to a blow to the head during a football game -- can cause anything from a brief spell of dizziness to coma or death.
In the USA, falls, car crashes and firearms contribute to more than 1 million head injuries each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Progesterone has a wide range of uses, from helping women through the first trimester of pregnancy to cutting a pedophile's sex drive. The most common use is as part of hormone-replacement therapy for women after menopause.
Because progesterone receptors are widely distributed in the central nervous system, and because progesterone appears to reduce brain swelling and prevent the loss of some nerve cells in animals studied after brain injury, researchers believe it will help humans with head trauma. Sexual effects wear off hours after the drug is administered.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Bob Carroll

Children's Traumatic Brain Injuries Costly

Bob Carroll — Tue, 15 Aug 2006 07:40:47 GMT

Traumatic brain injuries (TBI) continue to be among the most devastating injuries for victims and their families. Children frequently sustain life-changing head injuries. And, the medical and rehabilitation costs are soaring.

Traumatic brain injuries suffered by children place a significant burden on U.S. health resources, costing more than $1 billion in hospital charges each year, a new study finds.

Pediatric Brain Trauma Costs $1 Billion Annually

The study was conducted by researchers at the Center for Injury Research and Policy (CIRP) in the Columbus Children's Research Institute at Columbus Children's Hospital in Ohio. They analyzed data from the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project Kids' Inpatient Database, collected from Jan. 1 through Dec. 31, 2000, from 2,784 hospitals in 27 states.
The analysis revealed an estimated 50,658 TBI-associated hospitalizations among children ages 17 and younger in that year, with 15- to 17-year-old patients having the highest hospitalization rates.
"Based on our research, pediatric TBI patients accrue more than $1 billion in total hospital charges annually," study senior author and CIRP director Dr. Gary Smith, said in a prepared statement.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Bob Carroll

Is GOP Out Of Its Head?

Bob Carroll — Mon, 14 Aug 2006 07:22:20 GMT

Thanks to 300 Dollar Wonder for alerting us to a story in USA Today.

GOP Kicks Soldiers When They're Down

Congress appears ready to slash funding for the research and treatment of brain injuries caused by bomb blasts, an injury that military scientists describe as a signature wound of the Iraq war.
House and Senate versions of the 2007 Defense appropriation bill contain $7 million for the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center - half of what the center received last fiscal year.
Proponents of increased funding say they are shocked to see cuts in the treatment of bomb blast injuries in the midst of a war.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Bob Carroll

Faulty Skateboard Helments Recalled

Staff Writer — Fri, 11 Aug 2006 10:40:54 GMT

Although no injuries have yet been reported as a result of the helmets , World Industries of Huntington Beach is recalling about 10,000 skateboarding helmets. The helmets failed impact safety standards, according to the Consumer Products Safety Commission. Considering the dangers associated with skateboarding, a helmet is always recommended.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Staff Writer