Over the past decade, scientists and doctors have made many advances with regard to how head injuries, including traumatic brain injuries, are treated. One major reason for this was that in the global War on Terror in Afghanistan and Iraq among other places, we have had thousands of brave men and women coming home after suffering head injuries as a result of improvised explosive devices (IEDs), enemy fire and other accidents. In wars past, these men and women would likely have died on the battlefield. Today, with advances in modern medicine, they are surviving – and returning home in need of treatment for brain injuries.
One of the reasons brain injuries are so problematic is because once the brain cells are destroyed, they do not regenerate as part of the normal healing process. In other words, the damage is often life-long. In addition to brain injury caused by a traumatic impact, having stroke results in a deprivation of oxygen to the brain, and that results in the death of brain cells. Continue reading