Report: Mild Brain Injury in Children Can Have Lasting Effects

While it may seem strange to think of a traumatic brain injury (TBI) as being mild, neurologists routinely distinguish between the different degrees of brain damage a person can experience.  One of the reasons doctors are now doing this is because they know a lot more about the human brain and how it is affected by injury that in years past.  There are a few major reasons for this newly acquired knowledge about the human brain.

One of the reasons is that technology allows better scans and imaging than ever before, so doctors are able to see more of how the human brain functions by using this equipment.  A second reason is that there are a lot more studies being done on sports-related head injuries than ever before.  Whether we are talking about traditional concussions or the more nuanced form of brain injury discussed in the recent movie starring Will Smith, the problem is given more attention these days. We also know that you can suffer a brain injury without an open head wound and would even been rendered unconscious or knocked out, as people typically say.  Not that many years ago when a football player got knocked out, he was given smelling salts and told to shake it off.  He might even get back in the game. This progressed into being told to stay away for a while and make sure there are no obvious symptoms of a concussion.  These days, there are extensive head injury protocols and players at even the lowest levels must be medically cleared before they can play again.

However, the biggest reason doctors know more about brain injuries than ever before is from all of the soldiers, sailors, and airmen that have been wounded in the various wars on terror and have suffered some form of traumatic brain injury. In the previous wars, most of these patients would have died on the battlefield.  However, today there is a way to get off the battlefield and into an operating room fast enough to save them. However, they are often left with varying degrees of brain injury.  While they have learned a lot, as our Boston head injury victims’ lawyers have seen, there is a still a lot that must be done to help them lead normal lives.

One of the lessons that is being learned, according to a recent news feature from WebMD, is that children who suffer even a mild form of brain injury may have life-long effects from that mild brain injury. One new study that involved over 100,000 people who had at least one TBI in their lifetime at a relatively young age who had siblings who were around the same age and had not suffered any type of serious head injury. The study showed that those who had suffered a head injury as children were statistically more likely to suffer from mental illness later in life and also were more likely to die a younger age their brothers and sisters.

If you have suffered personal injury in Massachusetts, call Jeffrey Glassman Injury Lawyers for a free and confidential appointment — (617) 777-7777.

Kids’ Mild Brain Injury Can Have Long-Term Effect, August 24, 2016, By Maureen Salamon, WebMD

More Blog Entries:

Alcala v. Marriott Int’l, Inc. – Icy Sidewalk Slip-and-Fall Lawsuit to be Retried, June 27, 2016, Boston Child Injury Lawyer Blog