Facts About Brain Injuries--Surprising Or Not?

According to information provided in a recent article by EverydayHealth.com, many Americans have suffered from a significant head injury in the past several years.  Here are some facts provided by EverydayHealth.com that may surprise you!

• In 2010, about 2 1/2 million Americans suffered from a traumatic brain injury (TBI)
• TBIs are a contributing factor in about 1 in 3 injury-related deaths
• The populations that are at the most risk to suffer a TBI injury are children aged 0-4, teens aged 15-19, and adults over 65
• Children alone account for almost 500,000 ER visits every year for TBI injuries

For more information and facts related to traumatic brain injuries, please visit the original article here.

If you have recently been in a car crash, it is important to closely monitor your body's response to injury.  This is especially true if you suspect that you have sustained a significant head injury.  If your car accident was due to the fault of another, it may also be time to seek legal action.   If you or a loved one has recently been in a car accident due to the fault of another, please contact Altoona, PA area personal injury attorney Doug Stoehr to set up an initial, free consultation.  His law office can be reached by visiting his website at http://www.stoehrlaw.com or calling his firm at 814-946-4100.

Pennsylvania Reports Increase In ER Visits for Head Injuries

Pennsylvania is seeing a significant increase in head injuries in their hospitals' emergency rooms.  According to a local central Pennsylvania news source, there was almost a 30% increase in the number of ER visits for head injuries from 2006 to 2010.  Among those statistics, the majority of reports came from children and adults over 60.  Right here in Altoona, the emergency department director, Dr. Bouchard, stated that they've seen a larger increase in the number of brain injuries in older people. He also believes that this is largely due to increased awareness and potential severity of brain injuries.

If you have recently been in a car crash, it is important to closely monitor your body's response to injury.  This is especially true if you suspect that you have sustained a significant head injury.  If your car accident was due to the fault of another, it may also be time to seek legal action.   If you or a loved one has recently been in a car accident due to the fault of another, please contact Altoona, PA area personal injury attorney Doug Stoehr to set up an initial, free consultation.  His law office can be reached by visiting his website at http://www.stoehrlaw.com or calling his firm at 814-946-4100.

Please visit the original article here.

Car Crashes Are Second Leading Cause of TBI

Often when people hear about traumatic brain injuries, they tend to envision accidents related to sports.  In reality, falls are the number one leading cause of traumatic brain injuries, followed closely by car crashes.  This information, courtesy of the Centers for Disease Control, is true across all age groups.  

One news site (WATE.com) highlighted the story of a young college student who was in a car accident and suffered significant injury to her head.  Her traumatic brain injury was so severe that it was compared to the effects often seen in Shaken Baby Syndrome.  To read more about this girl's story and to educate yourself on the lasting effects of a TBI injury, please click here. 

If you have recently been in a car crash, it is important to closely monitor your body's response and recovery after the accident.  If you suspect a TBI, immediately seek help from a qualified physician who can diagnose you and develop a comprehensive treatment plan.  If your car accident was due to the fault of another, it may also be time to seek legal action.  This is especially true if your injuries cause you to miss extended periods of work or not be able to continue your line of work at all.  Other major expenses resulting from an accident may include medical bills.  If you or a loved one has recently been in a car accident due to the fault of another, please contact Altoona, PA area personal injury attorney Doug Stoehr to set up an initial, free consultation.  His law office can be reached by visiting his website at http://www.stoehrlaw.com or calling his firm at 814-946-4100.

Understanding Traumatic Brain Injuries

How much do you really know about traumatic brain injuries?  Although this injury has made many headlines in the news in the past few years, the cause, symptoms, and treatments remain a mystery to many.  Many websites have compiled information about traumatic brain injuries to help educate the general public.  Of these websites is the Model Systems Knowledge Translation Center (MSKTC), which has myriad information relating to traumatic brain injuries, spinal cord injuries, and burn injuries. For those who may want to educate themselves more on the causes, signs, and treatment of traumatic brain injuries, their website may be a good place to begin.  Click here for the direct link to their TBI page.

If you have recently been in a car crash, it is important to closely monitor your body's response to injury.  This is especially true if you suspect that you have sustained a significant head injury.  If your car accident was due to the fault of another, it may also be time to seek legal action.   If you or a loved one has recently been in a car accident due to the fault of another, please contact Altoona, PA area personal injury attorney Doug Stoehr to set up an initial, free consultation.  His law office can be reached by visiting his website at http://www.stoehrlaw.com or calling his firm at 814-946-4100.

Brain Injuries Have A Long Recovery Time

Sometimes, people who are victims of a car crash often experience concussions or another form of traumatic brain injury (TBI).  Although the signs associated with this injury may not immediately be present, the symptoms may manifest themselves days or weeks later.  Many common symptoms related to TBIs include headaches, dizziness, disorientation, changes in sleep patterns, and gaps in or loss of portions of memory.  Other more immediate symptoms may include vomiting and/or loss of vision.

Post-TBI, many patients find that the road to recovery is long, hard, and takes a variety of different professionals to manage the healing process.  Major news source NBC took a hard look at instances of TBIs in America and what the recovery process looks like for those victims.  The article can be found by clicking this link.

If you have recently been in a car crash, it is important to closely monitor your body's response and recovery after the accident.  If you suspect a TBI, immediately seek help from a qualified physician who can diagnose you and develop a comprehensive treatment plan.  If your car accident was due to the fault of another, it may also be time to seek legal action.  This is especially true if your injuries cause you to miss extended periods of work or not be able to continue your line of work at all.  Other major expenses resulting from an accident may include medical bills.  If you or a loved one has recently been in a car accident due to the fault of another, please contact Altoona, PA area personal injury attorney Doug Stoehr to set up an initial, free consultation.  His law office can be reached by visiting his website at http://www.stoehrlaw.com or calling his firm at 814-946-4100.

Minor Head Injury Can Lead to Prolonged Sleep Problems

In a recent study performed in an international sleep laboratory, reseachers discovered that concussions in adolescents, which were classified as minor head injuries, still resulted in sleep disturbances three years after their initial injury.  These disturbances could be confirmed by multiple specialized sleep study instruments.  Patients suffered from both lower sleep efficiency and more awake time. 

When a person suffers from a concussion-like head injury, whether it it's from a car crash, slip and fall, or another situation, they may write off their injury as minor or not significant.  Although this is sometimes the case, sometimes these injuries can develop into serious and major problems. If you have been injured and now suffer from a head injury that has resulted in lasting problems, please contact our law office for a consultation at no cost to you at the Law Offices of Attorney Doug Stoehr.

"Minor" Injuries Can Do Major Damage

When a person is injured, whether it it's a car crash, slip and fall, or another situation, the hurt party may feel that their injuries are minor or not significant.  Although this is sometimes the case, sometimes seemingly minor injuries can develop into serious and major problems. Many people initially write off their injuries as minor aches and pains that will decrease over time, but unfortunately, this is not always true.

An article originally published by Newsweek magazine talked about an excellent example of this phenomenon.  In this story, a woman had suffered from a "minor head trauma" as a result of a bike accident.  Although she seemed on the road to recovery at the start, she talked about persistent problems that lingered as a result of her accident.  It now is more difficult for her to communicate with others, perform her job, and even write legibly.  Keeping this story in mind, it is important to monitor your mental and physical problems after an accident to see whether you are actually recovering or whether you need to re-evaluated by a physician for possible lingering and worsening problems.