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.

Traumatic Brain Injury and Car Accidents

Yesterday, our blog posted an article about traumatic brain injuries (TBI) and the National Institute of Health’s initiative to start a $10M database for TBI research.  Stemming from that article, today we will be covering how TBI’s occur and debunk some myths about TBIs.  According to Dr. GlenJohnson, a clinical neuropsychologist, “It is important to note that you do not have to be traveling at a high rate of speed to get a head injury. Nor do you have to hit your head on an object (steering wheel, windshield) to injure the brain. Even at moderate rates of speed, traumatic brain injuries can and do occur.”

 In the case of TBI due to a motor vehicle accident, I think it is a common misperception that brain injuries can only occur if you physically hit your head on a part of the car and/or that you must be travelling at a high rate of speed to do any significant damage.  Neither one of these things is true; in fact, you can be travelling at a relatively low rate of speed and still significantly damage your brain if you are hit by another car.  To put this in perspective:  if you are a passenger or driver in a car, going 25 miles an hour, and another car hits you from behind and your body propels forward, the impact from that accident may have a significant effect on your brain.  The brain would propel forward into your skull, going from your previous rate of speed, 25mph, to 0mph in a matter of seconds.  That impact may significantly damage some of the soft tissue of your brain, leading to lasting problems.  Additionally, in this situation, the head did not hit any other part of the car, such as a window or dashboard.

 Keeping these things in mind, it is important to monitor your cognitive abilities after being in a car crash.  Look for your ability to remember events, procedures and people, as well as pain and stiffness of the neck and back.  Additionally, monitor frequency and intensity of any headaches, as well as problems with your 5 senses (hearing, touch, taste, smell, and sight).  A persistent or worsening problem in any of these areas may indicate the presence of possible brain trauma and should be look at by a physician.

 Attorney Doug Stoehr is a personal injury lawyer practicing in western and central Pennsylvania.  He has successfully litigated cases involving motor vehicle accidents as well as cases involving serious brain injuries. For more information on him and his firm, please click here.

NIH Starts TBI Database

TBI, otherwise known as traumatic brain injury, is a serious medical condition that affects thousands of Americans every year.  The effects of this injury can last a lifetime and inhibit almost every aspect of a person’s life.  The National Institute of Health (NIH) has recognized this problem as well, and is working to compile at $10M digital database, the Federal Interagency Traumatic Brain Injury Research database (FITBIR),  for research and treatment of such problems.  Additionally, physicians will be able to share CAT scans, MRI scans, and other test results to better diagnose and treat the more specific brain injuries of their patients.  NIH estimates that, in peacetime, over 1.7 million Americans experience a TBI every year, leading to $60 billion in lost productivity and medical expenses.  NIH hopes that the creation of this database will lead to more effective and affordable patient care.

Traumatic brain injuries are perhaps the scariest and most complicated injuries that can result from an accident, such as a car accidents, slip and fall, or construction accidents.  It is important to continue research into the treatments for TBI patients, especially since this particular injury can affect so many aspects of a person’s daily life.  TBI can affect speech, hearing, sight, bodily movements, cognitive abilities, as well as many other important areas.

Attorney Doug Stoehr is a personal injury lawyer focused on practicing in central and western Pennsylvania.  For more information on him and his law firm, please click here.