Posts tagged "brain injury"

Dale Earnhardt, Jr., drew more attention to the risks of sports-related brain injuries last week by bowing out of two upcoming races. The driver sustained a concussion in a 25-car crash on October 7 and he might be hurting his shot at the Chase for the Spring Cup by skipping the next two races.

This announcement helped refocus concussion concerns away from football to look at other sports as equally dangerous sources of traumatic brain injuries. Given the frequency of high speed crashes, NASCAR is not exactly a surprising brain injury culprit. Another driver, Eric McClure, had to sit out six weeks of racing after suffering his third concussion.

Statistics from other sports might be a bit more surprising:

As discussed in the previous post, the NFL is donating $30 million to the National Institutes of Health to fund research into brain injuries. The NFL says it wants to actively aid science in understanding brain injuries and finding better ways to treat people with brain injuries.

According to The Washington Post, the donation comes out of a labor contract the league made with players last year. In the contract, the NFL promised to give more than $100 million to fund research into brain injuries over the contract's 10-year-period. The NFL said that it felt a sense of urgency to start funding the brain injury research and wanted to move forward.

The NFL recently made the largest donation in its history when it gave $30 million to the National Institutes of Health to fund brain injury research. The NFL Commissioner said that the donation demonstrates the commitment the NFL has to improve the science around brain injuries and to improve treatments and outcomes for people with brain injuries.

The move comes at a time when the NFL is facing a class-action lawsuit filed against the league by former players that accuses the NFL of not doing enough to protect players from head injuries or to warn players of the long-term health implications of repeat concussions. The NFL denies the allegations.

Four million of the popular baby seats made by Bumbo International Trust are being recalled after reports that dozens of infants have fallen out of the seats and have suffered injuries in their falls. At least 19 of these infants suffered skull fractures.

The South-Africa based company says that its products are safe if used as they are meant to be used. The company says that the chairs are made to be placed on the floor. The chairs do not have restraints as they are designed as an easy-in easy-out infant chair. Unfortunately, nearly 100 incidents were reported to the Consumer Product Safety Commission in which children had fallen out of the chairs or wiggled their way out.

Junior Seau, a former NFL player for the San Diego Chargers, committed suicide last spring, and his family recently donated his brain to the National Institutes of Health so they could determine whether brain damage had contributed to depression and his death. There has been much in the news about how repeated brain injuries or concussions can lead to brain damage.

The NFL is currently facing a class-action lawsuit filed by more than 2,000 former players and their wives that accuses the NFL of not doing enough to prevent repeated brain injuries in players and not being upfront about what they knew about the risks of repeated concussions for long-term cognitive health.

Summer can be a time of sports leagues and long days of playing outside for children. These activities help kids stay healthy and to learn teamwork skills, but falls and accidents can also lead to concussions and brain injuries. 

Children are especially vulnerable to long-term consequences from brain injuries because their brains are still developing. It is important for parents to know the signs of a brain injury so that kids get the medical care they need and so that parents can do what they can to prevent further injury to the brain.

A child with a concussion may have nausea and vomiting, a headache and problems with vision. A child may also be disoriented. If a child shows signs of a concussion, you should seek medical help to make sure that there is not a skull fracture or a brain bleed. After ruling out more serious conditions, a child will need to rest in order to let the brain heal and to prevent exacerbating the injury.

A recent interesting article in USA Today compares the current class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of 2,400 former NFL players against the NFL to the lawsuits filed by consumers against the tobacco industry in the 90s. Scores of former and current players across the country, including California, have claimed that repeated brain injuries they suffered playing football have led to permanent brain damage, depression and early-onset dementia.

Those familiar with the cases say there are similarities since both groups of plaintiffs took part in risky behaviors that eventually damaged their health. In each set of lawsuits, the plaintiffs claim that the defendants failed to share the knowledge they had of the potentially health-damaging effects of cigarettes in the Big Tobacco case, or repeated concussions in the case of the NFL. Both the plaintiffs are also multibillion-dollar industries.

The NFL is currently facing a class-action lawsuit brought by former professional football players who say they now suffer from chronic depression and dementia due to repeat brain injuries, and say that the NFL did not do enough to protect them from or warn them of these potential long-term effects from repeat concussions.

The lawsuit combines 86 lawsuits filed on behalf of more than 2,300 former NFL players. The players say that their former employer hid from them what they knew about the risks of repeat concussions. The players say that they did not know that repeat concussions could permanently injure the brain and that the NFL knew much more about this than they let on.

As discussed in the previous post, a young woman who suffered a traumatic brain injury in San Jose, California last December is part of a study that is researching whether progesterone can help people survive brain injuries and also aid in recovery. The researchers are trying to find whether administering the hormone within four hours of the brain injury can help in recovery and minimize future disability.

Traumatic brain injuries are catastrophic injuries and the effects can linger for the rest of a person's life. Early and extensive medical treatment and physical therapy can help to reduce future disability. There is still much to be learned about treating brain injuries, however, and doctors hope that the progesterone will prove to be an effective treatment. 

A young woman who suffered a brain injury in a pedestrian accident in San Jose, California is part of a new clinical trial that is testing whether hormonal treatments may help heal the brain. The 18-year-old was hit by a car last December and suffered a traumatic brain injury after being flung 30 feet.

The doctors did not know how much she would be able to heal from her injury, but they enrolled her in a study that is testing whether a 3-day infusion of the reproductive hormone, progesterone, can help minimize the long-term impact of a brain injury and keep the damage to a minimum.

As more parents and coaches learn that repeated concussions put youth athletes at risk for permanent brain damage, some youth sports programs are changing their rules in order to try to reduce concussions. The Pop Warner youth football program has recently changed its rules in order to prevent head-to-head contact between young players. They are also limiting the amount of time players can be involved in contact drills during practice to one-third of practice.

Some brain injury experts don't think that Pop Warner goes far enough with its new rules. Children are even more vulnerable than adults to permanent brain damage from repeated concussions because their brains are still developing. Many brain injury experts would like to see all contact taken out of youth football practices, with more concentration and effort centered around conditioning and the rules of the game.

During the month of June, the National Safety Council encourages people, organizations and workplaces to educate themselves and each other on preventing common accidents and injuries. Each week during the month focuses on a specific cause of common injuries. The first two weeks of June focus on preventing work injuries, the third week on preventing falls and the final week focuses on safe driving.

The National Safety Council offers free educational materials and tips on its website. The tips for preventing slips, trips and falls include:

• Keep stairs free of clutter
• Maintain good lighting on outside walkways
• Keep loose cords out of walkways
• Use non-slip rugs in slippery areas, like the bathroom
• Clean spills up immediately

For California residents who have suffered a brain injury in an accident the consequences can be life changing. Currently, there is very little that doctors can do to limit the extent of the brain injury once the damage has been done.

However, research is currently underway that has some researchers in the field hoping to finally have a useful treatment for those who have suffered a serious head injury.

As discussed in the previous post, professional football players and parents and coaches of youth players have become more aware in the last couple of years of the importance of preventing brain injuries. A lawsuit has even been filed by former pro football players accusing the NFL and helmet-maker Riddell of concealing the true knowledge of how brain injuries could affect them long-term and not doing enough to protect them.

The knowledge that repeated concussions can lead to dementia, depression and other long-term problems down the road has caused players and coaches to rethink their approach to the game and the most important piece of protective equipment -- the helmet.

One new helmet model features gel-filled pouches that fit over the helmet and help it cushion a player's head from dangerous blows. Last year the pouches were provided to 600 players. None reported a concussion. Another company has developed a helmet that incorporates air-filled pads rather than foam.

High-impact collisions are part of the game of football. Today's players are bigger, stronger and faster than their counterparts of yesteryear. But their most important piece of equipment hasn't kept pace.

The first football helmets were little more than open-faced skull caps with leather padding. Later, a plastic shell with a foam insert and facemask became standard. The helmet's basic structure hasn't changed much since the 1950s.

But grim facts about head injuries have surfaced in recent years. And the past two years have seen professional players as well as parents and coaches of youth sports players begin to be more aware of the danger of repeated concussions and the importance of preventing brain injuries.

Car accidents are the number one cause of fatal brain injuries in teens, says a recent report from State Farm Insurance and the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Fatal car accidents involving teens have decreased in the past six years, but across the country and in California too many teens are still suffering concussions and traumatic brain injuries in car accidents.

Severe brain injuries are catastrophic injuries that will change a person's life if they survive. The brain is a complex organ and difficult to treat. In addition, everyone responds differently to a brain injury and rehabilitation must be extensive and tailored to the individual in order to be most effective, which is costly.

In California and around the country March was designated Brain Injury Awareness Month, but it is always important to be aware of brain injuries. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) wants people this month to think particularly about how they can prevent sports-related concussions. These concussions have been in the news more and more lately as people are already becoming aware of the lasting damage that a concussion -- and particularly a repeated concussion -- can do to the brain.

Families have been bringing children and adolescents into the emergency room with brain injuries 60 percent more than they did ten years ago. This is partly because people are already becoming more aware overall of the importance of seeking medical attention following a brain injury.

Traumatic brain injuries can occur in sports and from car accidents, falls, assaults and other traumatic incidents. The brain can be injured when an object hits it, when the brain hits an object, or when sudden movement of the body causes the brain to move violently in the head.

So far, around 20 lawsuits have been filed against the National Football League by former professional football players who say that they are suffering long-term effects from repeated head injuries.

The players accuse the NFL of knowing for a long time that repeated concussions can lead to permanent brain injuries, but not doing anything about this knowledge or to more proactively prevent long-term brain injuries during football practice and games until recently.

Recently, a panel of federal judges ruled to consolidate the lawsuits so far, which involve around 600 ex-NFL players and their wives.

There has been the thought in the scientific community that children are not as vulnerable to the long-term effects of a brain injury as adults are. Recent studies published in Pediatrics found that this may not be the case, and children who suffer severe traumatic brain injuries could have troubles with intellectual, social and behavioral development for years to come.

Most of the kids' traumatic brain injuries had been suffered in car accidents, pedestrian accidents or falls. The studies found that when the injury was mild, such as a short fall, the kids recovered fairly quickly and well. When the brain injury was severe, however, the injury's effects caused the children to lag behind in development when compared with their peers for up to three years.

A previous post noted that freestyle skier Sarah Burke was injured in an accident while practicing for the Winter X Games on the halfpipe. Last week, Burke, 29, died from her brain injury. Burke was doing a basic jump on the halfpipe when she landed wrong and tore a vertebral artery in her neck, which attaches to the brain stem.

The injury caused bleeding in the brain and a lack of oxygen to the organ. Burke was put in a medically induced coma and underwent a successful surgery to repair the injury, but the damage to her brain was irreversible.