Football Helmet Brand, Year of Manufacture, Does Not Matter in Concussion Risk

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), football players headgear does not necessarily increase their protection from concussions. There are some special headgear that will reduce concussion risks. The researches followed 1,332 teenage football players at 36 different high schools. Read their whole study and the research here:

The "Epidemic" of Injury From Preventable Medical Errors

An enormous number of people die each year due to preventable medical errors--enough to more than wipe out the entire population of the City of New Orleans every year.  The Journal of Patient Safety reports that more than 400,000 people die each year from medical errors.  Even the conservative Forbes magazine notes that "[w]hen we don’t demand safety, [hospitals] don’t supply it."  

Where is the outcry from the public and from politicians?  Why do we hear politicians advocating efforts to limit an injured patient's right to sue healthcare providers instead of trying to fix the problem?  Americans are more than ten times more likely to die from a preventable medical error than they are to die on the highways.

But the same report cites a statistic that is even more stunning--the rate of serious injuries resulting from preventable medical errors may be as much at 20 time higher than the death rate.  Each year, the number of people in the U.S. suffering serious injuries from preventable medical errors may be approaching the entire population of New York City.      

Lies That Big Corporations Tell

Big corporations and their insurance companies want to limit, even take away, your right to sue.  Why?  Because lawsuits and the judicial process are the only remedies available to ordinary citizens to hold Corporate America accountable for its wrongdoing.

Corporations spend millions each year on misinformation campaigns, attempting to make people fear and distrust lawyers and lawsuits. 

For the truth about lawsuits and the judicial process, we recommend that you click the following link and read  Debunking the Myths.  

Damage Control: Purdue Researchers Tackle Football Head Injuries

Attached is an article that was published in the Indianapolis Monthly magazine. The article highlights Purdue University’s research on football helmets, including a new football-helmet design. Click here to read the full article. 

Children With Brain Injury Much More Likely to Suffer From Depression.

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, children who suffer concussion or brain injuries are much more likely to suffer from depression.  To read more, click here.

Could a ‘Trojan Horse’ Better Identify Traumatic Brain Injury?

Accurately diagnosing traumatic brain injuries and concussions is difficult, as standard CT or MRI scans can’t see most changes to the brain caused by these injuries.

Clinicians must rely on patients accurately and candidly describing their symptoms, which many patients – such as soldiers and athletes – are hesitant to do for fear of being removed from action with their unit or team...

Read the full article here

NATION’S YOUTH SPORTS ORGANIZATIONS AND HEALTH LEADERS UNITE TO LAUNCH SPORTS CONCUSSION PARTNERSHIP

The National Council of Youth Sports (NCYS) has recently released an article talking about the creation of The National Sports Concussion Coalition. This Coalition includes partnerships between concussion specialists, sports medicine professionals, and leaders at other levels of sports to prevent and manage concussions among young athletes. Read the full article here

Arbitration Clauses-- Are You Signing Away Your Rights?

If you have applied for a credit card, opened a PayPal account, registered software, or filled out a warranty card, you have probably given up your rights to sue by agreeing to forced arbitration.  Forced arbitration requires consumers to bring their claims to an arbitrator instead of going to court.  Arbitration agreements are usually buried deeply in "fine print" and are impossible to find without spending hours reading through mind-numbing legalese.  In arbitration, the consumer usually loses while Corporate America avoids responsibility.

For more information about forced arbitration, click here or visit their website:

Youth Football Participation Drops in Wake of Concussion Controversy

USA Football estimates youth participation dropped last year to about 2.82 million players from 3 million in 2011.  The NFL is backing a program called Heads Up Football to teach young players a tackling method aimed at reducing injuries.  Though praised by some, others call the program an NFL marketing ploy.  A USA Today article discusses the Heads Up Football program, and you can read the article here.

Previous Brain Injuries in Children May Prolong Recovery For More Recent Ones

Much has been written lately about the cumulative effect of brain injuries.  People who have suffered previous brain injuries are often more susceptible to injury if they suffer a later brain injury.  A new Harvard Medical School study shows that the recovery period for children who have suffered a brain injury can be tripled if they are re-injured within twelve (12) months.  You can read more here.

At Anderson & Boutwell, we represent people that suffer brain injuries caused by someone else's fault.

"Heading" Soccer Ball Can Cause Brain Injury

Researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine have found that repetitive "heading" of the ball in soccer can cause brain injury.  Diffusion tensor imaging ("DTI") studies showed that players who headed the ball more frequently have white-matter abnormalities similar to those who have suffered concussions.  You can read more on the school's website here.

Cognitive Reserve

By J. Thomas Anderson

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Traumatic brain injury is a lifelong disease and a dreadful one at that. Even mild traumatic brain injuries (TBI) reduce a brain's cognitive reserve, thereby reducing a person's resiliency following future insults, challenges, injuries, and exposing our clients to increased risk of dementing illnesses, such as Alzheimer's disease, at an earlier age. Cognitive reserve may be presented to the jury as a barrier against the loss of selfhood: in other words, the more brain you have and the more flexible that brain going into any future accident or old age, the better your outcome will be.  

The Cumulative & Compounding Nature of Trauma Events

By J. Thomas Anderson

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The cumulative and compounding nature of trauma events is well documented. Previous exposure to trauma signals a greater risk of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) from subsequent trauma. Nevertheless, the defense bar may attempt to attribute your client's brain damage and/or PTSD to a prior wound or insult and thus not compensable in your case. Have none of it. The persistent effect, the chronicity if you will, of traumatic events to the brain and their relation to the rise of brain damage and/or PTSD symptoms following a subsequent aggravation is strongly established. 

CAT 1 -- MINDSTORM OF MISLEADING RATINGS

By J. Thomas Anderson

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Could numerical ratings mislead the insurance industry? Hurricane categories may be fair readings of one storm factor, wind, but that categorical ranking may be an irrational interpretation of an entire hurricane damage system. Just as the National Hurricane Centers (NHC) category system of rating a hurricane's wind power does not adequately prepare the public for the storm's effects, the Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) system of rating a brain injury does not adequately rate the medical complications of traumatic brain injury (TBI). Neat little one to fifteen GCS ratings hardly tell the whole story of brain injury, as illustrated by the seventy-one common TBI symptoms listed below which are overlooked by the GCS rating system.

Levels of Traumatic Brain Injury

By J. Thomas Anderson

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The dangerous and subtle nuances of traumatic brain injury are just emerging in the collective public, legal and medical consciousness. In the past, mild concussions were not necessarily equated with traumatic brain injury (TBI), but with increasingly sensitive medical tests and public scrutiny of news from battle fields and playing fields, the understanding of a concussed brain is being expanded to include traumatic injury in all its forms. According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), concussion is a type of traumatic brain injury, caused by a bump, blow, or jolt to the head that can change the way your brain normally works. Concussions can also occur from a fall or a blow to the body that causes the head and brain to move quickly back and forth. 

National Safety Council Estimates that At Least 1.6 Million Crashes Each Year Involve Drivers Using Cell Phones and Texting

Note: NSC updated its annual attributable risk estimate in 2011 using new data from National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The updated assessment estimates that at least 23 percent of all traffic crashes - or at least 1.3 million crashes - involve cell phone use per year. An estimated 1.2 million crashes each year involve drivers using cell phones for conversations and at least 100,000 additional crashes can be related to drivers who are texting. Cell phone conversations are involved in 12 times as many crashes as texting.

Traumatic Brain Injury Case Initial Assessment - Just Because Brain Injuries Don't Wear a Cast or Crutches Does Not Mean They Do Not Exist!

Discerning a viable traumatic brain injury in a personal injury case is always an interesting challenge for a personal injury practitioner. When first analyzing a new case, we tend to triage the injuries as though we were member of an emergency response team. Customarily, we start by tallying the obvious and familiar injuries (back, neck, long bones, etc.) Head injuries can be subtle or hidden to all but the newest and most advanced technologies and certainly to the plaintiff's attorney who is not accustomed to prosecuting traumatic brain injury (TBI) claims. Furthermore, some head injuries may not manifest themselves for many years, if not decades, but there are ways to detect and account for these damages. We'll discuss those methods a bit here and in subsequent articles in greater detail.