Category Archives: Brain Injury Treatment

Fred and Cindy Warmbier announced June 19 that their son, Otto, has died, days after he was medically evacuated from North Korea. (The Washington Post) When he left the United States at the end of 2015, Otto Warmbier was a healthy, athletic 21-year-old. When he returned last week, medically evacuated from his 17-month detention in North Korea, he was in a coma, with extensive brain damage. Warmbier died Monday, surrounded by family. His funeral will be Thursday at the high school where he graduated as salutatorian in 2013. Video shot by a family friend in 2013 shows Otto Warmbier giving a speech as salutatorian at his graduation from Wyoming High School, in Wyoming, Ohio. Warmbier died on June 19, days after being released from North Korean detainment. (Courtesy of Fred and Cindy Warmbier) His death the loss of a buoyant, hard-working, adventurous, much-loved University of Virginia student touched off mourning, outrage and many questions. What had happened to him? And could he have been saved? [Otto Warmbiers father denounces North Korea as his son is treated for a severe neurological injury] Otto Warmbier, left, with friends Emmett Saulnier and Ned Ende in May 2015 at the University of Virginia. (Sanjana … Continue reading →

Sixty-two percent of the 91,764 service members dismissed by the U.S. military for misconduct between 2011 and 2015 had been diagnosed two years before separation with post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury or other conditions that could be associated with misconduct. And more than 13,200 of them received an other than honorable characterization of service, referred to as bad paper, making them ineligible for health benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs. The discharges, imposed with little or no due process, carried the stigma of a criminal conviction and the stain of dishonor. They contributed to homelessness, substance abuse and suicide. Fifty years ago, 550,000 U.S. troops fought in Vietnam. At wars end, more than half of all veterans diagnosed with PTSD had been arrested more than one multiple times mostly for drug-related crimes. Many suffered from undiagnosed and untreated combat-related PTSD and, tragically, many were issued less-than-honorable discharges from the service. For years, the military underdiagnosed and did not treat the problems and then cursed the sufferers with discharges for misconduct. Today, the VA estimates that 1 in 5 veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan suffers from PTSD. And, between 2009 and 2016, more than 25,000 combat soldiers were … Continue reading →

Otto Warmbier, the 22-year-old college student who was released from imprisonment in North Koreain a coma, has died, his family said Monday. It is our sad duty to report that our son, Otto Warmbier, has completed his journey home. Surrounded by his loving family, Otto died today at 2:20 p.m., the statement read. It would be easy at a moment like this to focus on all that we lost future time that wont be spent with a warm, engaging, brilliant young man whose curiosity and enthusiasm for life knew no bounds, the statement continued. But we choose to focus on the time we were given to be with this remarkable person. You can tell from the outpouring of emotion from the communities that he touched Wyoming, Ohio, and the University of Virginia that the love for Otto went well beyond his immediate family. The University of Virginia student was sentenced to 15 years of prison and hard laborfor allegedly stealing a political propaganda poster from his Pyongyang hotel in January 2016. He returned home to Cincinnati, Ohio, on June 13 in a coma after being brutalized and terrorized by the pariah regime, his family said at the time. We would … Continue reading →

A woman has been critically injured after an incident occurred under mysterious circumstances at a Beijing water park. A woman surnamed Liu sufferedsevere head trauma at theHappy Water Rubik's Cube ( hun yo shu mfng)on May 28while riding the "Tornado," a park attractionin which visitors ride a raftdown afour-story water slide through a pipe and into a spiraling funnel. Liu was given medical attention at the Fengtai District water park, andwas then sent to the emergency room atAerospace Center Hospital where doctors determined Liu had suffered acardiac arrest and ahydrocephalus condition. Liu has notregained consciousness since the incident first happened. Her condition has worsened to the point where she can only breathe with the aid of a ventilator. Liu's mother has said, "The doctor told us that she may pass any time now." Despite her grave situation, no one has been forthcoming about the circumstances behind theHappyWater Rubik's Cube incident. A man named Jiang was sitting next to the victim on the raft on the Tornado slide along with an unnamed third party when the incident occurred. However, Jiang's recollection of the incident to the Beijing Morning Report only begins once the ride was over, at which time he noticed … Continue reading →

After being imprisoned for 17 months in North Korea, 22-year-old Otto Warmbier was returned to his home in Ohio this week. On Thursday, doctors at Cincinnati Medical Center spoke publicly about his condition. It is, technically, stablethough that could sound misleadingly positive. His heart is not in imminent danger of stopping, but stability does not mean Warmbier is poised to lead a life that involves movement or communication. Rather all evidence presented by his doctors yesterday indicates that Warmbier is much closer to death than he is to the University of Virginia student he was in early 2016, when he took a recreational trip to Pyongyang. There he was arrested in the airport for a hostile act against the government and last seen shortly after, in the news conference pictured above. His doctors yesterday described Warmbiers most recognizable sign of life as spontaneous eye-opening and blinking. That means not only is he not communicating, he does not open or close his eyes when asked to do so. He does not show signs of awareness. Based on magnetic resonance images of Warmbiers brain, his status is not likely to substantively improve. The scans showed extensive loss of brain tissue in all … Continue reading →

Shannon B Juengst,1,2 Raj G Kumar,3 Amy K Wagner35 1Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, 2Department of Rehabilitation Counseling, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, 3Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, 4Department of Neuroscience, 5Safar Center for Resuscitation Research, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA Abstract: Depression is one of the most common conditions to emerge after traumatic brain injury (TBI), and despite its potentially serious consequences it remains undertreated. Treatment for post-traumatic depression (PTD) is complicated due to the multifactorial etiology of PTD, ranging from biological pathways to psychosocial adjustment. Identifying the unique, personalized factors contributing to the development of PTD could improve long-term treatment and management for individuals with TBI. The purpose of this narrative literature review was to summarize the prevalence and impact of PTD among those with moderate to severe TBI and to discuss current challenges in its management. Overall, PTD has an estimated point prevalence of 30%, with 50% of individuals with moderate to severe TBI experiencing an episode of PTD in the first year after injury alone. PTD has significant implications for health, leading to more hospitalizations and greater caregiver burden, for participation, reducing rates of return to work and affecting social … Continue reading →

There is a saying in the brain injury community: If youve seen one brain injury, youve seen one brain injury. The premise of this saying is that no two traumatic brain injuries are the same, no two recoveries are the same, and no two treatment plans are the same. TBI is a complex and grossly misunderstood injury. After sustaining a traumatic brain injury from a fall on the ice in February of 2014, I have become an active advocate for the brain injury community. I have witnessed first hand the many ways that TBI is misunderstood, and I have also witnessed the many different personality changes that can result from it. Depending on where the brain has been injured, survivors can exhibit an array of behavioral and emotional symptoms including anger, rage, sensitivity, apathy, depression, lack of focus, loss of filtering, to name just a few. I have noticed that I myself am much more sensitive, and I am also more aware of the abusive behavior in other, seemingly well-meaning people. As the administrator of a fairly large Facebook group for those with TBI, I have had my share of struggles in dealing with personal attacks from fellow brain injury … Continue reading →

CINCINNATI An American college student imprisoned by North Korea has extensive brain damage and is unresponsive to his surroundings, the doctors treating him said Thursday. A medical team from the University of Cincinnati Medical Center described Otto Warmbier's condition as a "state of unresponsive wakefulness" and did not say -- at the request of his family -- whether the 22-year-old will recover. "He has spontaneous eye opening and blinking," Dr. Daniel Kanter, director of the hospital's neurocritical care program, told reporters Thursday. "However, he shows no signs of understanding language, responding to verbal commands or awareness to his surroundings." "He has not spoken," Kanter said. "He has not engaged in purposeful movements or behaviors." Warmbier arrives at the airport in his hometown of Cincinnati after 17 months in a North Korean prison. (Associated Press) Warmbier was medically evacuated from North Korea on Tuesday, following a flurry of diplomatic activity at the highest levels of U.S. government. Warmbier, a University of Virginia student, was serving a 15-year sentence for allegedly trying to steal a banner containing a political slogan that was hanging from a wall in his Pyongyang hotel. The North Koreans told U.S. officials that Warmbier suffered from botulism and … Continue reading →

An American Airlines passenger says that he suffered chronic traumatic brain injury after allegedly being struck in the head by a runaway beverage cart. Making matters worse, claims the traveler, the cabin crew was not prepared to deal with the situation. According to a lawsuit [PDF] filed in federal court in New York this week, the man and his wife were on a flight from Bradley International Airport in Connecticut to Charlotte Douglass Airport in North Carolina. He was sitting on the aisle, with his wife in the row ahead of him. During takeoff, the lawsuit claims, an unsecured, fully stocked beverage cart, weighing approximately 300 lbs., situated at the front of the plane, flew down the aisle. The man was hit in the head with such force that his hat was pierced and ripped off his head onto the floor, the complaint claims, noting that its believed the cart injured other passengers and a flight attendant. The impact from the beverage cart caused a large gash in his forehead and severe bleeding, the lawsuit states, causing him to lose consciousness and suffer other serious and permanent injuries. His wife and other passengers notified the flight attendant that he was … Continue reading →

An American college student arrested in North Korea has arrived home after being released by the reclusive regime, but the young man is in a coma. Otto Frederick Warmbier, a University of Virginia undergraduate, was arrested last January while visiting North Korea as a tourist. He disappeared after a tearful public trial in March of last year. Warmbier arrived home in Cincinnati Tuesday following a medical evacuation. He is in very bad shape after the Department of State secured his relief. Warmbier, who was detained for allegedly stealing a political propaganda poster and sentenced to 15 years of hard labor, is in a coma and has been for over a year. Otto Frederick Warmbier (C) is taken to North Koreas top court in Pyongyang, North Korea, in this photo released by Kyodo March 16, 2016. REUTERS/Kyodo The explanation for his coma is that he developed a case of food poisoning shortly after his trial. North Korean medical personnel gave him a sleeping pill. Warmbier never woke up. This explanation is somewhat suspicious. Debra Babcock, director of the cognition program at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, toldThe Washington Post that botulism is highly unlikely because the toxin released … Continue reading →