Over 10,000 Alabamians suffer a traumatic brain injury every year and of those, 2,300 are serious enough to require a hospital stay. “No two traumatic brain injuries are the same,” said J. Scott Powell, Executive Director of Alabama Head Injury Foundation. “For some, it may be immediately recognized by others and yet for others, it exists as an invisible injury, often leading to misunderstanding by others and added challenges faced by the survivor.” Wanda Canada of Ragland has learned many things about traumatic brain injury, or TBI, while raising her 15-year-old grandson Hunter Kay. “He is the sweetest boy you would ever meet,” Canada said. “But I want people to know that just because Hunter looks like a normal little boy, he’s not.” In 2004, Hunter was severely injured in a car accident that killed his parents, Summer and John. Hunter suffered broken bones, injured organs and burns on his face, but his most severe wound was right frontal lobe brain damage. “Initially he was just so out of control,” Canada remembered. “You couldn’t take him anywhere, you couldn’t do anything because his little mind was going every which way.” Canada has devoted herself to helping her grandson, but said his challenges can make school a lonely place. He attends Odenville Middle School where she said he goes to both special needs and regular classes, but academically still preforms at a second grade level.
Briana Lawson, 7, of Macon, faces a long road back, after a devastating Christmas Day car accident killed her older sister and left Briana with a severe brain injury.
She spent two months at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, enduring six surgeries. There, therapists are using an unusual approach to help Lawson recover.
Alaska National Guardsmen gathered Monday for a workout called 22 WOD to End Veteran Suicide. The WOD, or Workout Of the Day, is a national CrossFit event geared toward raising awareness about suicide prevention. Despite increasing mental health services, the number of veteran suicides in Alaska may be growing. Eight vets took their lives during fiscal year 2014, versus five the fiscal year before. Nationally, an average of 22 vets commit suicide each day. It’s a staggering number the military is working to combat through events like 22 WOD, which recognize those lives lost. At the gym on Camp Carroll, Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, service members took part in a work out so tough, SSgt. Oliver Meza said it’s almost like going into combat. “High stress, adrenaline, sweat — you’re giving everything you got so it’s almost replicating that environment,” he said. Exercise can help treat such issues as depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, PTSD, and more.
Could King Henry VIII have suffered from the same brain injuries affecting some modern-day football players? That’s the question at the center of a new study looking at traumatic brain injury.
For the past three years a local organization has pulled out all the stops to bring joy and a sense of normalcy for Louisiana and Texas residents who have traumatic brain injuries.
Nearly two million people in the US suffer traumatic brain injuries every year but experts say few understand it. That’s why UNM is helping patients put a spotlight on their challenges.
In the first version of her story, Grace Costa says that, on the night after Christmas, in 2012, her ex-boyfriend broke into her house, hid behind her bedroom door, and then attacked her as she and her two grown children—a son and a daughter—were about to eat dinner. In the second version, it’s still the night after Christmas, but it might be 2013, and only her daughter is at home with her. There’s a half-eaten apple on the floor of the kitchen; she remembers asking her daughter if she’d thrown it toward the garbage and missed. She also remembers thinking that she’d left the outside light on and then it was off.
The movie “Concussion” opened on Christmas Day. I haven’t seen it yet, but I will, because I’m immensely fascinated by the brain. One thing is certain — I don’t need to see the movie to know it will be a divisive film.
When soldiers are caught in an explosion, the blast releases intense vibrations. These pressure waves bombard — and damage — tissues throughout their bodies. Most of those tissues will heal with time. But effects on the brain can be severe and long lasting. That damage is called traumatic brain injury, or TBI for short. Scientists still aren’t exactly sure what goes on inside the brain to create TBI. But if they could figure it out, they might be able to help prevent it. One research team suspects those pressure waves create bubbles in the brain. And their new data show that if they do, such bubbles could cause the types of damage that could lead to TBI.