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Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Jake Snakenberg Youth Concussion Act signed by Governor

Just yesterday Gov. John Hickenlooper signed into law a bill that requires coaches of youth sports to be educated about concussions.  It requires that coaches receive education on how to recognize a concussion, that a player is removed from play if a concussion is suspected, and that the student athlete must be signed off by a medical professional before returning to play.

The law applies to coaches of all public and private middle schools, junior high schools, high schools, club, and recreation youth athletic sports.

"Most likely, kids this age do not have the knowledge to recognize themselves the symptoms of a brain injury," State Senator Nancy Spence (R-Centennial), a sponsor of the bill said.  "This bill is one that will keep athletes active and safe."

The proposed bill is named in memory of Jake Snakenberg, who was a 14-year old freshman football player at Grandview High School when he passed away after suffering from what doctors diagnosed as Second Impact Syndrome.  Doctors believe that in the previous week’s game, Snakenberg suffered an undiagnosed concussion and had not recovered before returning to the field and subjecting the brain to further injury.   Snakenberg died of a closed head injury in September 2004 at the age of 14, a day after collapsing during a Grandview freshman football game.  My son Drew was also 14 in 2004 when he suffered several successive concussions during sports activities, ultimately sustaining a large left-sided epidural hematoma.  This bill, which becomes effective January 1, 2012, will hopefully prevent any further young Colorado athletes from permanent injury or death as a result of participation in youth sports activities.

Friday, March 25, 2011

LEDs As Treatment for TBI Patients

A study by Margaret Naeser, PhD, from Boston University School of Medicine and colleagues from Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology in Boston, has found that daily self-administered light therapy via light-emitting diodes (LEDs) can lead to improvements in cognitive function in traumatic brain injury (TBI) patients as well as improvements in post-traumatic stress disorder.

Two longstanding TBI patients were in the study.  One sustained a closed-head TBI in a motor vehicle accident (MVA) in April 1997, while the other one was suffering from cognitive dysfunction due to an accident in which she fell backwards from a swing, hitting the back of her head on concrete.

Each patient applied red and near-infrared (LEDs) to their forehead and scalp areas every night.  Following treatments with LEDs, both patients demonstrated substantial improvement in cognitive function, including improved memory, inhibition, and ability to sustain attention and focus.  Both patients are continuing LED treatments in their homes.

Prior to LED therapy, one patient was on medical disability for 5 months. After 4 months of nightly LED treatments at home, she was able to discontinue medical disability and return to working full-time as an executive consultant with an international technology consulting firm.

The findings are published under the heading 'Improved Cognitive Function After Transcranial, Light-Emitting Diode Treatments in Chronic, Traumatic Brain Injury: Two Case Reports' in Photomedicine and Laser Surgery, a peer-reviewed journal.

Raymond J. Lanzafame, MD, MBA, Editor-in-Chief of the Journal, said "The results of this study will provide a basis for future therapeutic use of phototherapy to improve recovery after injury and facilitate management of other CNS disorders.”

Friday, March 11, 2011

March is Brain Injury Awareness Month

March is Brain Injury Awareness Month.  According to the Brain injury Association of America (BIAA), every 23 seconds, someone in the U.S. sustains a traumatic brain injury (TBI).  Individuals who sustain brain injuries must have timely access to expert trauma care, specialized rehabilitation, lifelong disease management and individualized services and supports in order to live healthy, independent and satisfying lives.
 
Concussions are TBIs.  According to the Brain injury Association of America: “A concussion is caused by a bump, blow or jolt to the head, or from a blow to the body that causes the head to move rapidly back and forth. Most concussions occur without a loss of consciousness and according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), a lack of proper diagnosis and management of concussion may result in a serious long-term consequences, or risk of coma or death. Signs and symptoms may be noticeable immediately, or it may take days or weeks before they are present.

According to the CDC, an estimated 3.8 million sports- and recreation-related concussions occur in the United States each year. Of that number, U.S. emergency departments treat approximately 135,000 sports- and recreation-related traumatic brain injuries (TBIs), including concussions, among children ages 5 to 18.

Signs and Symptoms of Concussions can include:
• Nausea (feeling that you might vomit)
• Dizziness or balance problems
• Double or fuzzy vision
• Sensitivity to light or noise
• Headache
• Feeling sluggish or tired
• Feeling foggy or groggy
• Confusion
• Trouble concentrating
• Trouble remembering

TBIs are often misdiagnosed and misunderstood.  A community of people including surviving victims, spouses, fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, significant others, friends, neurologists, neuropsychologists, counselors, service coordinators, occupational therapists, legislators, advocates, brain injury association members, certified homecare aides and many others from a host of disciplines and backgrounds must work together towards a common cause of helping to diagnose, prevent, and treat TBI.

At Nelson Law Offices, we have the knowledge, the passion, and the experience to assist TBI victims throughout the often difficult process of diagnosing the injury and presenting it in court.

Friday, March 4, 2011

Acupressure May Help Traumatic Brain Injury Patients


A study published in the January 2011 issue of the Journal of Neurotrauma found that Jin Shin Jyutsu – the ancient Japanese art of releasing accumulated tension through acupressure – may be an effective treatment to help people with mild traumatic brain injury (TBI).

Lead author of the study, Professor Theresa Hernandez, from the University of Colorado, found that treatment with Jin Shin, in which gentle fingertip pressure is applied to 26 points of the body, done in a certain sequence to awaken the body's natural power of self-healing, enhanced the cognitive function in people suffering from TBI.  Meridians are the places where acupressure points are located, which are connected to various energy pathways in the body that are connected to the health of specific organs including the brain.

Neuropsychological tests were given to study participants who received the Jin Shin treatments and to those in the control group who were given acupressure treatments to areas of the body that were not considered to be Jin Shin acupressure points.  Participants who received the Jin Shin acupressure treatments showed improved cognitive function, scoring significantly better on tests of working memory when compared to the TBI subjects in the placebo control group.

The study was funded by the Colorado Traumatic Brain Injury Trust Fund[1] and is believed to be one of the first placebo-controlled studies ever published in a peer-reviewed medical journal, showing the benefit of acupressure to treat patients with TBI.