Head & Brain Injuries

• Accelerated Cognitive Decline Years After Traumatic Brain Damage

  Michael Phelan | April 24, 2008 5:22 PM | 0 CommentsRichmond, VA

  When representing victims of traumatic brain damage, I typically ask the treating physicians whether, to a reasonable degree of medical probability, he or she can say that, as a result of the head...

• Criticism of Defense Malingering Test Gaining National Traction

  Michael Phelan | April 20, 2008 7:38 PM | 2 CommentsRichmond, VA

  On March 5 2008 I criticized the use by professional defense neuropyschologists of a controversial malingering test called the Fake Bad Scale See Fake Bad Scale Weapon of Defense...

• When Will the Administration Honor the Wounded Vets?

  Michael Phelan | March 24, 2008 3:43 PM | 0 CommentsRichmond, VA

  A recent hearing before the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee highlighted the bureaucratic hell wounded war veterans are facing when they return home from Iraq. The mountains of Department of Veterans' Affairs paperwork and red tape encountered by veterans seeking medical care is especially problematic for those with traumatic brain injuries. Sadly, brain damage from improvised explosive...

• Fake Bad Scale: Weapon of Defense Neuropsychologists

  Michael Phelan | March 05, 2008 4:50 PM | 0 CommentsRichmond, VA

  The Fake Bad Scale (FBS) is a bogus test created by Paul Lees-Haley to wrongly label personal injury claimants as "fakers." The FBS is junk science and should not be allowed in a court of law. Indeed, it violates the province of the jury by attempting to divine the credibility of witnesses. No test can act as a lie detector, which is how forensic defense neuropsychologists are trying to use...

• Brain Injury-What Are the Symptoms?

  Michael Phelan | February 14, 2008 9:51 AM | 0 CommentsRichmond, VA

  The American Academy of Neurology has expanded the definition of the acute or immediate signs of concussion. Symptoms of brain injury can be mild to severe with some symptoms showing up immediately and others not appearing until several days or weeks after the injury. The AAN categorizes the signs of concussion as follows:Immediate Signs of Concussion(Seen within seconds/minutes):* Any loss of...

• Justice Dep't Fights to Deny Mental Health Care to Vets

  Michael Phelan | February 09, 2008 5:07 PM | 0 CommentsRichmond, VA

  No matter how politicians view the war in Iraq, they all say publically that they support the troops. The signature injury of this war, brain damage, results in a host of symptoms including depression, suicidal ideation, and post traumatic stress. In opposing a proposed class action lawsuit accusing the government of illegally denying mental health treatment to troops returning from Iraq and...

• Old Head Injuries Linked to Behavioral & Cognitive Problems

  Michael Phelan | February 02, 2008 9:01 AM | 0 CommentsRichmond, VA

  Researchers studying brain injury believe that people with unrelated social or cognitive problems may have something in common: a long-forgotten blow to the head. It is widely accepted that severe head injuries can lead to cognitive and behavioral problems. What is new, according to brain researchers Wayne A. Gordan, M.D. and Mary Hibbard, Ph.D., is the contention that there are many other...

• Mild Head Injuries Tied to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

  Michael Phelan | February 02, 2008 9:01 AM | 0 CommentsRichmond, VA

  A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine represents the military's first large-scale effort to gauge the effect of mild head injuries -concussions (many from roadside blasts)- that some experts worry may cause a host of undiagnosed neurological problems. My last blog reported on a study concluding that undiagnosed head trauma is the cause of a host of later cognitive and...

• R.I. Supreme Court Upholds Lead Hazard Mitigation Act

  Michael Phelan | December 12, 2007 1:32 PM | 0 CommentsRichmond, VA

  On Tuesday, Rhode Island's Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of The Lead Hazard Mitigation Act (LHMA) which went into effect in 2005. The purpose of the LHMA is to reduce the hazards of deteriorating lead based paint to humans. Lead is a neurotoxin which can cause severe brain damage. Toddlers are particularly susceptible because they tend to put everything in their mouths and...

• Brain Injuries From Iraq War Worse Than Thought

  Michael Phelan | November 28, 2007 3:32 PM | 0 CommentsRichmond, VA

  Scientists studying traumatic brain injury from bomb blasts are finding disturbing news. The invisible surge of compressed air traveling from these blasts is causing cellular death in the brain that leads to symptoms like memory deficit, headaches, vertigo, anxiety, apathy, or lethargy that may not surface for months or years. This newly discovered brain damage at the cellular level can be...