Orange County Personal Injury Lawyer - Head & Brain Injuries - Most Popular

Brain Injury Sidelines Aspiring Newscaster:

IB Contributor — Sat, 31 Mar 2007 13:57:11 GMT

Twenty-four year old aspiring newscaster Brian Kelly hobnobbed with the likes of former President Bill Clinton, and reporters for such shows as Good Morning America and NBC Nightly News before his car collided with a 35-foot-long bookmobile back in Chicago in 2001, causing severe and traumatic brain injuries.

The collision nearly took Brian's life. He was given last rites four times. Initially, Brian was unable to communicate, and he was fed through a tube and could barely walk.

After over three years of rehabilitation Brian's severe brain injury leaves him without long and short-term memory, even forgetting what he said a few hours ago. Brian also needs a companion as he gets lost easily, and his only memories of his past are those that his family has given him. With the help of his family and former broadcasting contacts, Brian now works as an advocate for others who have suffered brain injuries and he is even helping to lobby the U.S. Post Office for a stamp that would honor and raise money for those who have brain injuries.

Every year in this country, nearly 1.5 million cases of Traumatic Brain Injury are reported. Approximately 50,000 of those people die and another 80,000 people suffer disabilities, as Brian certainly did. Nearly 5.3 million people in this country live with a disability that was caused by a Traumatic Brain Injury.

Top brain injury treatment can cost into the hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, and according to some research can increase the likelihood of early onset Alzheimer's disease.

March is Brain Injury Awareness Month, which is dedicated to helping the public learn more about brain injury, because the Center for Disease Control estimates that at least 5.3 million Americans have a life long need for help to perform the most basic daily activities due to a Traumatic Brain Injury, and every year at least 1.4 million persons will sustain a Traumatic Brain Injury.

Please drive sober and rested - and drive defensively. Don't become a statistic!

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by IB Contributor

Why wear a bicycle helmet....?

IB Contributor — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 19:35:26 GMT

The doctor who became the patient.

Claudia Osborn had been practicing medicine as an osteopathic doctor for about two years when she made a big mistake. Claudia was on her bicycle, enjoying a summer ride, when a young man lost control of his car-hitting Claudia and sending her flying over the hood of his car. Claudia was not wearing her helmet!

As a result of her bicycle accident, Claudia suffered a traumatic closed-head injury, leaving her without her normal stamina, and without her short-term memory. In addition to these problems, Claudia had to deal with the fact that she could not even manage and organize the most basic activities of her daily life.

After nine months, and determined to regain her life and her medical practice, Claudia enrolled as a trainee in the Brain Injury Day Treatment Program at the New York University Medical Center in Manhattan. Living apart from her family for over 15 months Claudia steadily progressed through two sessions of rehabilitation, relearning skills most of us take for granted.

Even though Claudia retained the body of medical knowledge she had learned and practiced pre-injury, she could not readily apply that knowledge in a developing medical situation. And, six months into her program Dr. Claudia Osborn was devastated by the news that due to the severity of her closed-head injury, she would be unable to return to her successful medical practice. However, with the assistance of all she learned at the rehabilitation program, Dr. Claudia Osborn is working in a part-time teaching position as an associate clinical professor at Michigan State University College of Osteopathic Medicine.

Dr. Osborn has chronicled her struggles, and her victories, through many challenges in her recovery in her book Over My Head, Claudia L. Osborn. Needless to say, Dr. Osborn now advocates that everyone wear a helmet when riding a bicycle!

The CDC has named March as 'Brain Injury Awareness Month'. Each year approximately 100,000 people die from a traumatic brain injury, and more than 500,000 are permanently disabled.

If you have questions about a head or brain injury claim call me for a discussion. If you have been injured by someone negligence, I'll explain your rights to you.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by IB Contributor

Research Shows Head Injuries can Impair Sleep

Christina Cole — Sat, 07 Apr 2007 15:42:51 GMT

A new research study shows, people that have suffered mild head injuries are more likely to have problems sleeping and getting a good nights rest.

The study found 40 to 65 percent of patients with a mild brain injury complained of insomnia. The lack of sleep can increase other symptoms of the head injury such as headaches, cognitive skills and emotional problems.

Researches say, a head injury can disrupt a person's ability to move into the different stages of sleep cycles. This problem cannot be cured with the help of a sleeping pill.

Researchers of the University of California, San Diego, led the study. The study was published in Neurology, April 3, 2007.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Christina Cole

Traumatic Brain Injury Steals a Life

IB Contributor — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 22:52:31 GMT

Motorcycle vs. truck accident results in catastrophic loss.

Todd Richardson, a 38 year-old father of 5 young children, was on his motorcycle and on his way to buy a part for his boat. Todd planned to take his family to Lake Powell, Utah. When Todd waved goodbye to his family he didn't know it would be three months before he would return home to a very different life than he had when he waved goodbye.

Todd was stopped at a red light when his motorcycle was slammed into from behind by a truck going 40 mph. The driver of the truck was drunk. Todd was rushed to the hospital where he received emergency surgery for a clot the size of an orange. Doctors did not think he would survive. Todd spent five weeks in a coma and another six weeks in rehab, but he did survive.

What didn't survive was Todd's successful law practice, as he is unable to work because of severe memory problems and he has lost the intellectual ability to practice law. However, Todd still donates his time to help those who are economically challenged through the Utah Bar Association . Todd and his wife lost their home, and now

Todd's wife struggles to work and support the family. His children have lost the dad who used to take everyone boating and skiing and who volunteered as a soccer coach. As for Todd's wife-she lost her best friend, because Todd can no longer relate his feelings or express himself as he once did .

Todd Richardson is on one of an estimated 2 million Americans who suffer from a traumatic brain injury every year in the United States . Even more frightening is the fact that traumatic brain injury [TBI] is the leading cause of disability for people under 45 years of age, and yet only 1 in 3 Americans are even familiar with the term 'brain injury'. While the costs of treating, rehabilitating and caring for victims of TBI costs in the neighborhood of $30 billion dollars each year, Todd Richardson's family would tell you the costs are actually much more.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by IB Contributor

Can The Brain Rewire Itself After a Traumatic Injury?

IB Contributor — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 01:27:11 GMT

Good news after twenty years!

Most mothers are not surprised when they get a phone call from their daughter, but when Betsy Scantlin got a call from her daughter Sarah Scantlin she was stunned, because Sarah had been basically unconscious for twenty years after having been hit by a drunk driver. The doctors told Sara's dad, James Scantlin, "The brain injury is so severe that the daughter you had is gone".

Sarah's doctor, Bradley Scheel said that the doctors are not certain how and why Sarah suddenly began talking after twenty years, but they believe it is possible that essential areas of the brain may have regenerated even though her brain was so severely injured Sarah should have died over two decades ago.

However, Sarah still suffers from the effects of being hit by the drunk driver while walking to her car in 1984. Her legs constantly spasm and her right foot is twisted. Sarah's neck muscles are so constricted that she unable to swallow her food normally.

The man who devastated Sarah's life served only six months in jail after being convicted of DUI and leaving the scene of an accident. Unfortunately, for Sarah Scantlin she received a life sentence!

Let's home Sarah's doctors can figure out what went right in the hopes that we can learn to duplicate Sarah's recovery. We have represented many brain injury clients, some of who have made remarkable recoveries. Head and brain injuries are the most devastating, the types of injuries that the medical professionals know the lest about and the ones with the most dramatic recoveries.

Welcome back Sarah!

The information for this story was from CBS news at http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/02/11/earlyshow/main673281.shtml

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by IB Contributor