March is Brain Injury Awareness Month: What You Should Know

Recently the issue of brain injury has become an issue in the courts and the news after several high profile deaths in the past few years including:

• In January the family of Junior Seau, an NFL star player who committed suicide last May by shooting himself in the chest, filed a wrongful death suit against the NFL. The suit alleges the league failed to protect Seau from the dangers of hits to the head and their long-term effects.
• In 2009, Actress Natasha Richardson, wife of Liam Neesan, was not wearing a ski helmet when she fell while taking a lesson on a beginners' run at Mont Tremblant in Canada. There were no external injuries and Richardson walked back to her hotel room after the accident seeming fine. She died two days later of an epidural hematoma due to blunt impact to the head.

March is Brain Injury Awareness Month, a time to remind and reeducate people about the prevalence and prevention of traumatic brain injuries (TBI). The Centers for Disease Control (CDS) estimates that 1.7 million Americans sustain a TBI, including concussions, each year. Of those individuals, 52,000 die, 275,000 are hospitalized, and 1.4 million are treated and released.

Sometimes the signs of TBI are obvious; the patient is unconscious or acting “out of it”. But in the cases of Junior Seau and Natasha Richardson the signs weren’t immediate. That’s why it is so important to understand the main causes of brain injury and signs that “bump on the head” is actually much more serious.

As we head into spring, rollerblading and bicycling are two examples of activities that are known to cause head trauma. Other top examples are:

• Falls
• Motor vehicle or traffic accidents
• Being struck by or against an object

It is interesting to note that nearly 20% of all TBI-related ER visits involve children ages 0 to 4.

Immediately following a TBI, two things happen. First the brain tissue reacts to the trauma with biochemical and physiological responses to brain cells that have been damaged or even destroyed. The second and more commonly known reaction is the loss of consciousness which can last minutes, hours or even months.

Other symptoms of a brain injury or TBI include short or long term changes in thinking, sensation, language and emotion. For example:

• Thinking (memory and reasoning)
• Sensation (touch, taste, and smell)
• Language (communication, expression, and understanding)
• Emotion (depression, anxiety, personality changes, aggression)

The most important thing to know if you or a loved one has sustained a blow to the head is to seek medical attention, especially if you are noticing any symptoms out of the ordinary. Key to recovering from even less severe head trauma is rest. For young athletes sustaining a concussion it is important to stop play and sit it out, immediately. Your brain needs time to properly heal, so rest is necessary. Athletes and children should be closely monitored by coaches upon resuming play.

Prevention is key to protecting yourself from serious head injuries. When necessary, wear a helmet especially while skiing, biking, rollerblading and participating in any sports that could result in head injury. Repeat concussions cause cumulative effects on the brain. Successive concussions can have devastating consequences, including brain swelling, permanent brain damage, long-term disabilities, or even death.

This March it is important to understand all aspects of brain injury and what you can do to protect yourself and your family.

—Dr. Gary Gosewisch is the Emergency Medicine Specialist and CEO of the Urgency Room in Woodbury.