Category Archives: Brain Injury Treatment

Weld County, Colo., District Attorney Michael Rourke announced Monday that he was dismissing charges against Marine veteran Cory Hixson in a theft case. Hixson, who has a traumatic brain injury,disappeared from Broomfield in mid-Marchbut was found a few days later in jail in Greeley after allegedly stealing a sweater and some food. ARMY VET ACQUITTED AFTER FACING CHARGES FOR HANGING FLAG AT VA SITE Hixson has agreed to enter a diversion program to give him access to additional resources, the Weld County District Attorneys Office said. Cory made it clear from the first time we spoke that he wanted to take responsibility and correct his wrong, Rourke said. Diversion will afford him the opportunity to get him the help he needs and make amends through community service. Hixson will perform 10 hours of community service at the victims home, participate in a safety plan to prepare him for possible future post-traumatic stress disorder events and have monthly check-ins with diversion officers. The father of two was badly wounded and lost an eye during two tours in Iraq. His family said he had a breakdown and left the home without a coat or shoes. Hixsons family sharedthe struggleshe has faced getting … Continue reading →

Wacos Doris Miller Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center now can provide the gold standard in research and treatment for brain injuries suffered on the battlefield with Thursdays opening of a 53,000-square-foot facility for the VISN 17 Center of Excellence for Research on Returning War Veterans that sprawls across three floors of Building 93. More than 150 people attended a grand-opening ceremony to mark the occasion, and U.S. Rep. Bill Flores said the Waco VA will become a hub for dealing with the invisible wounds of post traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury that have become part of this countrys global war on terror. McLennan County has become one of the most popular places for veterans to live or retire, and the Center of Excellence likely will mean more veterans locating here, Flores said. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs spent $9.8 million to renovate a building at the VA campus on Memorial Drive to create a one-stop destination for research on returning war veterans. We let the contract in 2011, and our target for completion was 2014, but we lost two years because the original contractor defaulted, an issue that tied up a couple of years, said Michael … Continue reading →

The brains of men and women are wired differently, and when it comes to traumatic brain injuries (TBI), women are more likely to develop subsequent neuropsychiatric disorders, like anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. Until now, its been unclear why that is, but a new study by researchers at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU) provides that missing link a potentially disrupted pathway in the brain. The study, Sex-dependent effects of mild brain blast injury on neuroendocrine stress response, was funded by the Center for Neuroscience and Regenerative Medicine at USU. The findings were presented April 3 at the Endocrine Societys annual meeting by lead author Ashley Russell, a Neuroscience PhD candidate in the F. Edward Hebert School of Medicine at USU, and USU research assistant Elizabeth Shupe. Almost every tissue in the body is affected by the interaction between the nervous and endocrine systems. They produce the hormones that regulate sleep, mood and metabolism. USU researchers, in collaboration with colleagues at Colorado State University, sought to better understand why it is that blast brain injuries have a different impact on women and men, specifically in the neuroendocrine system. They conducted hormonal, behavioral and anatomical studies measuring … Continue reading →

Small pulses of electricity to the brain have an effect on memory, new research shows. Science Photo Library/SCIEPRO/Getty Images hide caption Small pulses of electricity to the brain have an effect on memory, new research shows. People with a brain injury or dementia often struggle to remember simple things, like names or places. In research published Thursday in the journal Current Biology, scientists have shown it may be possible to improve this sort of memory using tiny pulses of electricity if they're properly timed. A typical person's ability to remember things tends to vary a lot, says Michael Kahana, who directs the computational memory lab at the University of Pennsylvania. "Some days we're at the top of our game," he says, "and some days we're just off our game." That's also true for people whose memory has been impaired by a brain injury or disease. So Kahana wondered whether there might be some way to help these people perform at their peak level all the time. "If they could just move their game up so that every day was their best day, then it would really significantly change their quality of life," Kahana says. He and a team of researchers … Continue reading →

Researchers from the Peter ODonnell Jr. Brain Institute will participate in a national study to determine whether medical devices used in the home can diagnose sleep apnea that often develops after traumatic brain injuries (TBI). The $2.68 million study will compare the accuracy of formal laboratory screening versus wristwatch-like sensors that TBI patients will wear to measure sleep patterns. Researchers want to know if wrist actigraphs, if proven comparable to full-scale polysomnography commonly used in sleep labs, would offer a reliable, accessible method to diagnose sleep apnea and lead to earlier treatment. Sleep apneaoften goes undiagnosed, which for TBI patients can be a crucial setback in recovery. Optimizing sleep is essential for neurorecovery after TBI, says Kathleen Bell, MD, the projects investigator at the ODonnell Brain Institute at UT Southwestern Medical Center and Chair of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, in a release. Funding for the study comes from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) to further previous work from the multi-institutional team on how TBI affects sleeping patterns. The team recently published the largest study examining sleep apnea incidence in consecutive admissions to inpatient brain injury rehabilitation. The researchers found that 50% of all brain injury admissions, and 37% of … Continue reading →

CHESAPEAKE Leslie VanCleave wishes she could erase the image from her mind. Its the moment right after she checked the hotel bed, saw that her 25-year-old son was missing, then checked the bathroom empty then the balcony, also deserted. She wishes she had stopped right there in the panic to find him and had not taken the next instinctive step of a mother: looking over the balcony rail to the sidewalk below. Thats where, on April 11, her son had fallen to his death off the third-story hotel balcony in Ohio. Now Leslie and her husband, James, are planning a Saturday memorial for a son whose short life was sweet but difficult, particularly in the years since he suffered a traumatic brain injury at the age of 14. In a sense, his fatal fall began that Halloween night in 2006. The family had spent more than a decade trying to piece together services for Derek. The latest effort had fallen apart, which was why they took him on vacation instead of leaving him home with caregivers. His story is not just about a tragic, split-second accident. It also provides a long view into the world of families struggling to care … Continue reading →

CHESAPEAKE Leslie VanCleave wishes she could erase the image from her mind. Its the moment right after she checked the hotel bed, saw that her 25-year-old son was missing, then checked the bathroom empty then the balcony, also deserted. She wishes she had stopped right there in the panic to find him and had not taken the next instinctive step of a mother: looking over the balcony rail to the sidewalk below. Thats where, on April 11, her son had fallen to his death off the third-story hotel balcony in Ohio. Now Leslie and her husband, James, are planning a Saturday memorial for a son whose short life was sweet but difficult, particularly in the years since he suffered a traumatic brain injury at the age of 14. In a sense, his fatal fall began that Halloween night in 2006. The family had spent more than a decade trying to piece together services for Derek. The latest effort had fallen apart, which was why they took him on vacation instead of leaving him home with caregivers. His story is not just about a tragic, split-second accident. It also provides a long view into the world of families struggling to care … Continue reading →

Emergency rooms see many babies, for many reasons. Theres a fever, a seizure, an accident, vomiting and diarrhea. There could be fussiness, lethargy or problems with feeding. Many infants are easily treated and sent home, but doctors say some of these same little patients may show up next time with a brain injury caused by abuse one that leads to permanent disability or death. Sorting out which babies have hidden brain trauma from abuse isnt easy, if they seem relatively well when brought into the hospital with any in a list of common symptoms. At Childrens Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC and the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, researchers have created a blood test to detect bleeding in the brain that may have resulted from abusive head trauma sometimes called shaken baby syndrome. They published an explanation of how the test was developed in last weeks JAMA Pediatrics journal. This is for those instances where they look well, said lead author Rachel Berger, chief of the Child Advocacy Center at Childrens. A physician who also holds a masters in public health, Dr. Berger said good pediatric emergency room doctors generally use their clinical judgment to detect 70 percent of … Continue reading →

A bouncer for a 6th Street bar is accused of injuring an intoxicated patron -- who then had to be induced into a coma to treat a serious brain bleed. (Image credit: MGN Online) A bouncer for a 6th Street bar is accused of shoving an intoxicated patron to the ground last month. The man struck his head and had to be induced into a coma to treat a serious brain bleed. According to the arrest affidavit, Jerius Jamal McFarland, 23, is charged with aggravated assault (serious bodily injury), a second degree felony. It happened Wednesday, March 29, at approximately 10:45 p.m. at the Chuggin' Monkey bar located in the 200 block of East 6th Street. Court documents say the victim had been escorted out of the bar by McFarland, at the bartender's request, because he was intoxicated and was bothering other patrons. Once outside, surveillance video showed the victim and McFarland talk for a few minutes and the victim trying to walk back into the bar, but McFarland blocked him with an outstretched arm, the affidavit says. Police say when the intoxicated man tried to stagger back in the bar again, the surveillance video showed he was having trouble … Continue reading →

I am a survivor of a brainstem aneurysm rupture and brain bleed. On a Sunday morning this past November, suddenly I felt a pop in my ears. The fire-like pain ascended from my chin across my face and down my spine to the soles of my feet. Next, I felt the worst headache I had ever had.Tylenol did not alleviate the headache. With over two decades of experience in health care, I recognized the nature and seriousness of my symptoms. I used an app on my smartphone to video-call my dear friend, a physician, to let her know what I suspected. I was driven to a nearby ER and then airlifted, within an hour, to a top neurosurgery center at Johns Hopkins. Tests confirmed the brainstem bleed that was caused by the rupture. Two successful brain surgeries later, I am managing occupational, physical and speech therapy, and I am able to walk, talk, hear, see and write. As I continue to follow my neuro-rehabilitation program, it appears that I will be able to live independently, drive and return to work. According to data provided by the Brain Aneurysm Foundation, one in 50, or 6 million in the U.S. have un-ruptured … Continue reading →