Head & Brain Injuries

• Brain Injury Causes Later-Life Depression

  Michael Phelan | May 31, 2007 11:52 AM | 0 CommentsRichmond, VA

  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...

• Traumatic Brain Injuries Stress VA Hospitals

  Michael Phelan | March 26, 2007 8:46 PM | 0 CommentsRichmond, VA

  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...

• Defense Department Memo Reveals Traumatic Brain Injury Now Signature Injury of Iraq War, Yet is Under-diagnosed and Poorly Treated

  Michael Phelan | March 08, 2007 3:41 PM | 0 CommentsRichmond, VA

  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...

• CDC Reports Increase in Rate of Hospitalization for Traumatic Brain Injury

  Michael Phelan | March 06, 2007 1:43 PM | 0 CommentsRichmond, VA

  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)...

• Attorney Ford Interviewed on Infant Brain Injury

  Aubrey Ford | February 26, 2007 5:44 PM | 0 CommentsRichmond, VA

  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...

• Cantor Arkema Prevails in Brain Injury Ruling

  Aubrey Ford | January 25, 2007 7:54 AM | 0 CommentsRichmond, VA

  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...

• Suicide by Former NFL Player Linked to Brain Injuries

  Michael Phelan | January 18, 2007 9:44 AM | 0 CommentsRichmond, VA

  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...

• Case "Vignette" Published in New England Journal of Medicine Contains Outdated Theories Concerning Concussion

  Michael Phelan | January 12, 2007 1:00 AM | 0 CommentsRichmond, VA

  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...

• ABC Iraq War News Journalist, Bob Woodruff, to Discuss His Severe Head and Brain Injuries in Prime-Time

  Michael Phelan | January 11, 2007 10:53 AM | 0 CommentsRichmond, VA

  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...

• Brain Injury Victims Need Cognitive Rehabilitation

  Michael Phelan | January 08, 2007 11:18 AM | 0 CommentsRichmond, VA

  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...