2011 Brain Injury Awareness Day in Washington Highlights Brain Injury Awareness Month
March 16, 2011 is Brain Injury Awareness Day, part of a month long celebration of Brain Injury Awareness. The focus of the event is rehabilitation.
The opening speaker was General Peter W. Chiarelli, Army Vice Chief of Staff and the moderator of the event was Bobby Silverstein of the Disability and Rehabilitation Research Coalition and former Staff Director and Chief Counsel, Senate Subcommittee on Disability Policy, Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
Guest Speakers included:
- Col. Jamie B. Grimes (Director, Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center)
- Kathy Helmick (Deputy Director, Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury)
- Patty Horan (Wife of Wounded Warrior, Army Capt. Patrick Horan)
- Dr. Lisa McGuire (Research Team Leader, Division of Injury Response, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
- Dr. Keith Cicerone (Director of Neuropsychology and Rehabilitation Psychology at the JFK-Johnson Rehabilitation Institute and New Jersey Neuroscience Institute, JFK Medical Center)
- Dr. Anne Forrest (Traumatic Brain Injury Survivor and Advocate, formerly Senior Economist at the Environmental Law Institute)
As experienced Kansas City Brain Injury Lawyers, we feel it is important for these types of events to take place. The field of brain injury diagnosis and treatment is constantly developing and advancing. Brain injury victims in Kansas City have been given a great deal of hope in the past year as several developments have helped establish hope in recovering from traumatic brain injuries.
1.7 million people in the United States suffer head injuries every year.
Every year 1.7 million people sustain a Traumatic Brain injury, many of them right here in Kansas City. Slips and falls as well as serious injury automobile and motorcycle accidents top the list of the top causes of brain and spinal injuries. The field of neuroscience has seen quite a leap in developments recently that have doctors feeling that long term damage can be prevented if not at least controlled to prevent some of the severe illnesses that can come out of a simple concussion.
Brain injuries affect everyone differently. A bump to the head for one person can mean nothing but to another it can lead to a life time of head aches, blurred vision and possible fatal brain diseases like ALS.
If you or someone you love has suffered a serious injury or traumatic brain injury in an accident in Kansas or Missouri, you may be entitled to compensation for your losses, including but not limited to lost wages from work, medical and doctor bills, not to mention legal fees. Don’t try and take on the insurance company alone, you need someone in your corner you can trust. Call experienced Kansas City Personal Injury Attorney James Roswold. With over 15 years of experience in Brain and Spinal Injury Accidents and Traumatic Brain Injury cases, we may be able to assist you and your family through this difficult time.
Contact Kansas City Accident Injury Attorneys to set up a free consultation to discuss your personal injury claim. You can get stated today by downloading our FREE book, “10 Essential Steps to Protecting Your Injury Claim“. We want you to know your rights.
NFL Charities Group Remains Focused on Helping Athletes Who Are Victims of Traumatic Brain Injury
It’s no secret that head injuries have become the most problematic and dangerous injuries facing NFL players from week to week. Thankfully the NFL and its charities are willing to do their part and helping doctors continue the research into prevention of these dangerous injuries. In fact, last month, NFL charities donated $100,000 to the UC San Diego School of Medicine so that it may continue to be a contributing factor research for brain injuries.
Head injuries suffered by NFL athletes were on the rise in 2010.
Dr. Mingxiong Huang at the San Diego School of Med is helping lead that charge by helping develop new technologies such as MEG Radiology Imaging and Diffusion Tensor Imaging. The MEG imaging for example allows neurologists to locate specifically where an athlete has suffered damage in the brain, which until recently was nearly impossible.
By being able to locate what specific part of the brain has been injured, doctors will be able to tailor treatments for the patients.
The good news is that this new technology is not just applicable to athletes who have suffered head injuries. With what originally began as a treatment funded by the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs, Dr. Huang and his team have been able to test military men and women who have suffered Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) as well as the civilian population as well. Right now, its seems the world of neuro-science is changing every day. Recently it was discovered blood tests can help identify brain injury but this break through and being able to pin point the exact location of the injury is hugely important.
With years of experience, our Kansas and Missouri Brain Injury Lawyers know there is a long way to go in the neuro-science field and doctors may never be able to completely understand the nature of brain injuries and disease. But thanks to groups such as NFL charities, that knowledge is expanding every day. That being said, now is the time to continue to push forward. While it may be impossible to completely prevent serious brain and head injuries, it may be possible to contain these injuries and limit the long term affects these serious injuries tend to have.
If you or a loved one has suffered a serious or traumatic brain injury in an accident that happened in Kansas or Missouri, you may be entitled to compensation for your losses. Call experienced Kansas City Personal Injury Attorney James Roswold. With over 15 years of experience in Brain and Spinal Injury cases, we may be able to assist you and your family through this difficult and often stressful time.
Contact Kansas City Accident Injury Attorneys to set up a free consultation to discuss your personal injury claim.
Have You Suffered a Head Injury in Kansas or Missouri?; New Online Software Screens for Traumatic Brain Injury
Don’t you wish there was a way to diagnose if you have a head injury without the initial trip to the doctor? If you’re suffering from a possible head injury you may be in luck. Thanks to a research team at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, a new web based screening tool has been developed and is now available to the general public.
Dr. Wayne Gordon began developing this tool over 20 years ago. While working with school children, he realized a great number of them were suffering from TBI and either weren’t being treated or hadn’t even been diagnosed to begin with. Many of the children had suffered the head injuries because of abuse or assault. As a result, the injuries weren’t being reported. So, Dr. Gordon decided he wanted to develop an anonymous test to help victims.
The Brain Injury Screening Questionnaire (BISQ) is a web based tool that allows possible victims to anonymously answer questions about the severity of their head injury to determine if they need further ongoing treatment. Questions range from how the injury happened, the mental state of the victim (are they dazed, confused, disoriented, etc.), sleep patterns, memory selection, ability to carry out daily routines and organization. At the end of the test, the victim is given a score and if they are considered at risk, they are advised to see a doctor or neurologist for further treatment.
The software is very inexpensive, only $15 for the software and can be purchased through the Mount Sinai School of Medicine.
As experienced Kansas and Missouri Brain Injury Lawyers, we know that most traumatic brain injuries often are under-diagnosed and if left untreated can have long term cognitive effects that can affect behavioral patterns and cause long term permanent brain damage, sometimes leading to severe brain illnesses as ALS. No head injury should go untreated. If you have suffered any kind of head injury, no matter how slight, please see a doctor or neurosurgeon immediately. The worst thing you can do is wait.
If you or someone you love has suffered a traumatic brain injury in Kansas or Missouri, you may be entitled to compensation for your losses, including but not limited to medical bills, lost wages and even legal fees. Facing an uphill battle against your insurance company? Call experienced Kansas City Personal Injury Lawyers James Roswold and Heather Lottman. With over 15 years of experience in Brain and Spinal injuries including cases of Traumatic Brain Injury, we may be able to help you and your family through this difficult and often stressful time.
Contact Kansas City Accident Injury Attorneys to set up a free consultation to discuss your personal injury claim.
Do Women Recover From Brain Injuries Faster Than Men? Hormonal Research Could Affect TBI Victims in Kansas and Missouri
For years, doctors have worked to find a way to help patients not only recover from serious brain injuries but to continue to get better. The sad fact is that while recovery is possible in many cases, actually seeing actual “healing” in the patient’s brain has been near impossible. That may be about to change.
Research being conducted at Emory University is showing that a treatment using the female hormone progesterone could in fact show recovery in the brain over time. Professor Donald Stein began his research working on the brains of lab rats. His tests showed what many of his colleagues thought was impossible: substantial recovery in brain activity.
What is Progesterone? Progesterone is a hormone found in both female and male brains. It is best known for being a supporting hormone during a pregnancy but increased studies are showing that this hormone could be a huge key in human brain development.
Emory University is now conducting further research thanks to support from the National Institutes of Health. Across the country, 17 medical centers in 15 states are conducting studies using progesterone.
As experienced Kansas City Brain Injury Attorneys, we are proud as always of the ongoing research being conducted worldwide. The effects of brain injuries cause different reactions within the brain from patient to patient. It is important for doctors and neurologists alike to use each others research to fuel their own. Try and try again. If they’re going to find the key ingredient in helping an injured brain recover it is going to be by doing what Professor Stein did in this case, continue his work even when everyone else is against you.
If you or a loved one has suffered a serious or traumatic brain injury in an accident that happened in Kansas or Missouri, you may be entitled to compensation for your losses. Call experienced Kansas City Personal Injury Lawyer James Roswold. With over 15 years of experience with Brain and Spinal Injuries including Traumatic Brain Injury, we may be able to help you and your family through this difficult time.
Contact Kansas City Accident Injury Attorneys to set up a free consultation to discuss your personal injury claim.
Kansas City Doctor Working with Younger Athletes to Prevent Fatal Traumatic Brain Injury
Football players know there is a risk of injury when they step on the field. But how many of them know the real dangers they face when they strap on that helmet? Of course the common mindset is that players wear a helmet to protect their head from injuries. Right. Helmets do protect to a certain degree but injuries, including football related traumatic brain injuries continue to happen at an alarming rate. To make matters worse, most players don’t take nearly enough time off after the initial injury to properly and fully recover.
One of the deadliest threats to football players is something known as “second impact syndrome”. This can happen when a player suffers a second head injury before the symptoms and side affects of a previous injury have gone away. Teenagers are most vulnerable to these secondary injuries because their brains are not fully developed. One man who is working to help young athletes through these injuries is Joseph Waeckerle, an expert in sports related concussions, who spent twenty years as a team doctor with the Kansas City Chiefs.
Dr. Joseph Waeckerle photo by Sabrina Staires
Dr. Waeckerle now works the sidelines for the Rockhurst High School football team. He was with the Chiefs a few years back when quarterback Trent Green suffered a season ending head injury and tries to use what he learned from his days in the NFL to help the younger kids now. He knows full well how important it is to build a strong relationship with the players and establish a trust. It may be the only way to get players to be honest about the the severity of their injury.
“It may happen at Rockhurst no matter what I do,” he says. “That’s just a fact of life. But I tell you what, we’re going to bust our tail — and we have busted our tail — to make sure we can do everything we can do to prevent any bad outcomes. But there are always going to be bad outcomes because we’re all human beings. We just want to minimize them.”
Most players won’t be upfront about dizziness or headaches if they know there is a possibility they could lose playing time or be forced to quit the game altogether. After years in the NFL, helping professional athletes and now a volunteer for the Rockhurst football team, Dr. Waeckerle just wants to share his knowledge. In fact, Waeckerley and a prominent local neurosurgeon are in the early states of opening a regional concussion center right here in Kansas City. It would be similar to facilities at the University of Washington and the University of Pittsburgh where patients have access to professionals in the fields of neuroradiology, neuropsychology, ophthalmology, etc.
As Kansas City Brain Injury Lawyers, we encourage parents of student athletes in Kansas and Missouri to pay close attention to their child’s behavior after their games. Even the slightest bumps and knocks can cause even minor brain shifts that can lead to permanent brain damage even fatal brain illnesses and disease that won’t be detectable right away, more likely not for months even years down the road. We’d like to thank Dr. Waeckerle for his contribution to protecting the young athletes in Kansas City and hope his dedication inspires future generations to do what is right when faced with head injuries.
If you or a loved one has suffered a serious or traumatic brain injury as the direct result of an accident that happened in Kansas or Missouri, you may be entitled to compensation for your losses. If this sounds familiar, you need someone in your corner you can trust. Don’t delay, call experienced Kansas City Personal Injury Attorney James Roswold. With over 15 years of experience in Brain and Spinal Injuries and Child Injury cases, we may be able to assist you and your family through this difficult and often stressful time.
Contact Kansas City Accident Injury Attorneys today to set up a free consultation to discuss your personal injury claim.
Studies Show Football Players May Be Prone to Brain Damage Even Without Suffering a Concussion
Football can be a dangerous sport as any high contact sport can be. On any given play, a player can blow a knee or break a bone or dislocate a shoulder. Head injuries remain the most dangerous injuries however and new studies are showing that players may be able to sustain long term brain damage even if they have never suffered a severe head injury or concussion.
What is known about the causes of brain damage in relation to head trauma in a contact sport like football is relatively new and seems to be changing every day. A lot of this research is being done at Boston University, the University of North Carolina, the University of Pittsburgh and the University of South Florida. At USF this fall, there was a interactive study conducted with seven local high school football players, which used special sensors within the player’s helmets to determine the severity of hits to the player’s head and the effects they are having on the brain.
Blows to the Head May Contribute to ALS and Other Brain Disease
It’s not just the big hits that are being studied, but the small sub-concussive hits as well. Research is beginning to reveal that the brain may be affected negatively on every single little hit that is sustained.
While there is obviously a major concern on how these hits are affecting younger players because the brain is still in development, the fear is that the true damage may not even be able to be detectable for years down the road. Former NFL Hall of Famer Mike Webster, who played for the Pittsburgh Steelers before finishing his career right here in Kansas City with the Chiefs, died ten years ago from a heart attack. His autopsy showed early onset of dementia in his brain, something that is becoming increasing common among football players after years of taking blow after blow to the head.
For years the prevailing thought was that the human head was able to withstand so many hits before there became a fear of damage to the brain, but more and more it seems that every little hit, even small ones are leading to long lasting and permanent brain damage. For more information on the subject, check out our informative library article, “Tips for Kansas City Parents: Diagnosing Early Warning Signs of Concussion in Your Child“.
The real problem may be the game of football itself and its place in society. Football has always been popular and one of the reasons is the violence. The NFL sells DVDs of the biggest bone crushing hits. Players often refer to themselves as Gladiators. Players say they get into the game knowing the damage that can come from it, but are they really thinking about the long term brain damage, dementia and possible brain diseases that often come with participation? Can anything be done about it?
Our experienced Kansas and Missouri Brain Injury Lawyers know full well the dangers that a contact sport like football represents. If you have a child who has suffered a head injury, please, have it checked out by a doctor or neurologist. Even the slightest head injury can lead to long term brain damage. We encourage you to take every head injury very seriously. There’s no such thing as a typical head injury. Every brain reacts differently to the slightest bumps and dings.
If you or a loved one has suffered a serious head injury or TBI in an accident in Kansas or Missouri, you may be able to compensation for your losses. Call experienced Kansas City Personal Injury Attorneys James Roswold and Heather Lottman. With over 15 years of experience in Brain and Spinal Injury including Traumatic Brain Injury and sports related injuries, we may be able to help you and your family through this difficult and stressful time.
Contact Kansas City Accident Injury Attorneys to set up your free consultation to discuss your case.
Do You Suffer from PTSD in Kansas City?; Tetris Might Help
Who said video games are useless? More and more, doctors are discovering unique ways to use some of the newer video games to monitor health and even brain function. Now it seems one of the old classics, Tetris, is being used to help victims of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
A study conducted at Oxford University shows that playing Tetris, a complicated puzzle matching game, may help the brain to recover following a traumatic event. In the research, volunteers where shown a film containing disturbing and traumatic images and then asked to play either Tetris or a pub trivia game. It is believed that Tetris could help victims to block out the images while still allowing them to process and make sense of what they’ve seen.
Emily Holmes, one of the clinical psychologists involved in the study cautions that the results that were seen with Tetris will not exactly carry over into other video games. She even suggested that some games could help to worsen the damage suffered in a PTSD case.
Our experienced Kansas City Brain Injury Lawyers encourage the exploration of new and innovative thinking in order to help victims serious brain injuries. PTSD can have differing effects of victims so it is important try and stimulate brain activity in any way possible. If you suffer from a severe brain injury or PTSD, consult with your doctor before you attempt any kind of experimental treatments.
Head injuries, no matter how slight, should never be ignored. If you suffer an injury to the head, get it checked out immediately. Severe brain injury sometimes does not manifest in detectable side affects often for several months after the injury. Getting immediate attention can make a big difference in eliminating long lasting and lingering brain damage.
If you or someone you love has suffered a severe head or traumatic brain injury as the result of an accident in Kansas or Missouri, you may be entitled to compensation for your losses. Call experienced Kansas and Missouri Personal Injury Attorney James Roswold. With over 15 years of experience in Brain and Spinal Cord Injury cases, we may be able to help you through this difficult and stressful time.
Contact Kansas City Accident Injury Attorneys today to schedule a free consultation to discuss your personal injury claim.
Screenwriter Suffers Serious Brain Injury in Subway Fall Accident in New York
An Academy Award nominated screenwriter suffered a severe head trauma when he was struck by a subway car in New York, NY last week. Will Rokas, who wrote the film “Monster’s Ball” was at the 14th Street station at Seventh Avenue in NY waiting for the No. 2 train when he leaned over the track to look down the tunnel. The train was approaching faster than Rokas realized and it clipped the screenwriter in the head.
The impact tossed Rokas across the platform. Reports indicate the victim attempted to get up, but several people managed to keep him still until paramedics could get to the scene. He was listed in critical condition wit a severe head injury.
As experienced Kansas and Missouri Brain Injury Lawyers we are dedicated to protecting you in the event of an accident. Head injuries can have serious and long lasting effects that can cause damage for days to even months after the initial injury. Treatment for a head injury should begin immediately. The other passengers were right to stabilize the victim even though he was trying to get up. Proper treatment following a serious head injury can help to prevent long term brain damage that can lead to brain disease years down the road.
If you or someone you love have suffered a serious head injury as the result of an accident in Kansas or Missouri, you may be entitled to compensation for your losses including medical bills, lost wages and even legal fees. Don’t delay, call experienced Kansas City Personal Injury Attorneys James Roswold and Heather Lottman. With over 15 years of experience with Brain and Spinal Cord Injuries including traumatic brain injuries, we may be able to assist your family through this difficult time.
Contact Kansas City Accident Injury Attorneys to schedule a free consultation to discuss your personal injury case.