Head & Brain Injuries | InjuryBoard Richmond

The Virginian Pilot reported recently that an estimated 150,000 Virginians may have long-term disabilities because of brain injury. Brain damage typically is caused by trauma such as a fall, a car accident, or violence. Like so many other states, Virginia is ill equipped to deal with this epidemic. A study commission of the General Assembly found that Virginia has only 20 specialized beds...

A study by the University of North Carolina's Center for the Study of Retired Athletes of over 2,500 retired NFL players found that the rate of clinical depression among the population of retired players is strongly correlated with the number of concussions they sustained during their careers. This study corroborates other findings regarding brain injury and later-life depression in other...

The local Richmond newspaper ran a story today about two wounded Iraq veterans whose families report entirely different experiences at the McGuire Veterans Affairs Medical Center. The wife of one vet reported that the hospital worked miracles on her husband who broke his back in a vehicle roll-over. In contrast, the wife of a vet who was shot in the head during combat was very critical of the...

I read with disgust the latest news account of how the Pentagon is failing to provide necessary medical care for soldiers who suffer brain injuries in the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars. Largely because of the improvised explosive devices used by Iraq insurgents, traumatic brain injury has become the signature wound of the Iraq War. In an article titled, "For War's Gravely Injured, Challenge to...

According to a previously undisclosed Defense Department memorandum obtained via a Freedom of Information Act request by USA Today: Military Prodded on Traumatic Brain Injuries, the Pentagon lacks a comprehensive plan to identify and treat tens of thousands of troops who may suffer from traumatic brain injury, the signature wound of the Iraq War. The Memo faulted the Pentagon's ability to spot...

On March 2, 2007, the Centers for Disease Control published an article in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Review (MMWR), entitled, Rates of Hospitalization Related to Traumatic Brain Injury---Nine States, 2003. The data reported by the CDC shows a significant increase in the rates of hospitalization for persons with traumatic brain injury. According to the CDC:"Traumatic brain injury (TBI)...

Dr. Elliot Pellman, a rheumatologist, whose qualifications as the 13 year chairman of the N.F.L.'s committee on concussions have been questioned by brain injury experts, resigned Monday. His resignation follows recent articles in the New York Times about the devastating effects of concussions on retired football players and a October 2006 ESPN The Magazine expose which criticized the...

A front-page article in the Waynesboro, Virginia " The News Virginian" newspaper discusses a major case involving a traumatic brain injury to a child and includes an interview with the child's counsel, Aubrey Ford of Cantor Arkema, P.C. Ethan Holley, now three years old, suffered a brain injury in utero while his mother served as a Waynesboro police officer resulting from the negligence of...

In 2006, ABC News Anchor Bob Woodruff was an embedded journalist in Iraq. Mr. Woodruff sustained a severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) when an improvised explosive device blew up the military vehicle in which he was riding. Some good for other TBI victims is going to come from Mr. Woodruff's tragedy. The Brain Injury Association of America (BIAA), Mr. Woodruff, and his family have teamed up...

Middle linebacker, Ted Johnson, was the captain of the New England Patriots in 1998 and 2003, and helped the Pats win three Super Bowls before retiring in 2005. According to a story in the New York Times, Mr. Johnson now forgets people's names, misses appointments and...can become so terrified of the outside world that he locks himself alone inside his Boston apartment in bed with the blinds...

Aubrey Ford served as lead counsel in a case pending in the Augusta County Circuit Court involving a brain injury suffered by the infant of a police officer employed by the City of Waynesboro. Augusta County Circuit Court Judge Wood ruled in favor of the infant in a very complex ruling on sovereign immunity. The case involved the serious traumatic brain injury suffered by the fetus of the...

Sports fans were shocked to learn last November that hard-hitting former Eagles safety, Andre Waters, committed suicide by shooting himself in the head. The New York Times reports today that Mr. Waters's brain has been examined by Dr. Bennet Omalu, a leading forensic neuropathologist, who concluded that Mr. Waters sustained strong>brain damage > from playing football which led to his depression...

The January 11, 2007 issue of the NEJM contains a "case vignette" entitled, Concussion. Ostensibly, a case study about a 64 year old woman who fell on ice and hit her head on a sidewalk, the article reads like an HMO-authored attack on the alleged overuse of CT scanning. The article relies on outdated research and offers medical conclusions that have been long debunked. For example, the...

A little over one year after suffering severe head and brain injuries that he sustained while covering the war in Iraq, ABC news journalist, Bob Woodruff, has agreed to tell his story in a prime-time television program entitled, To Iraq and Back: Bob Woodruff Reports. Mr. Woodruff and his wife are also publishing a memoir which will discuss how they and their family were effected by his severe...

Today's edition of the Wall Street Journal features a front page story disussing the benefits of cognitive rehabilitation to victims of traumatic brain injury and the difficulty most victims have in getting their health insurance companies to pay for such crucial treatment. This article coincides with the publication today of a position paper from the Brain Injury Association of America...