Brain Injury Awareness Month

Today is the first day of March, ushering in the start of brain injury awareness month. In an attempt to bring awareness to brain injuries, their causes, and their treatments, we will posting several blog posts throughout March about brain injuries. It is important to first understand what a brain injury is. This first blog explains the basics of brain injuries.

More than 3.5 million children and adults sustain an acquired brain injury each year. An acquired brain injury is, essentially, an injury to the brain that is not degenerative, congenital, induced by birth, or hereditary. Some causes of an acquired brain injury include:

· Infections

· Lightning strike

· Stroke

· Trauma

· Toxic exposure

· Electric shock

· Substance abuse

· Oxygen deprivation

A traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a subset of an acquired brain injury. A TBI is caused by an external force on the brain. At least 2.5 million children and adults suffer a traumatic brain injury in the United States every year. Of these, 50,000 people die each year because of traumatic brain injuries and approximately 280,000 are hospitalized because of a TBI.

According to the Brain Injury Association of the United States, someone in the United States sustains a traumatic brain injury every 13 seconds and one of every 60 people in the U.S lives with a TBI-related disability. While there are many causes of a traumatic brain injury, falls, motor vehicle accidents, and assaults cause many brain injuries in people in the United States.

According to local media, Doctors at Ruby Memorial Hospital treat approximately 4,000 patients each year who have suffered a brain injury. Brain injuries are serious and should be treated as such. These injuries have the ability to affect all aspects of an individual’s life as well as the lives of those around the individual.