As a Nova Scotia Brain Injury Lawyer I have had a number of brain injury cases where the defendant’s experts claimed my client did not suffer a brain injury, because their symptoms did not develop until hours after their initial injury.
Symptoms May Take Time to Develop
Modern medical science now recognizes that the effects of traumatic brain injury may not become apparent until 6-12 hours after the initial injury.
Here’s another article linking head injuries from football (and wrestling) to brain injury later in life.
You can find the article in this months issue of The New England Journal of Medicine.
Brain injury lawyers and their clients can expect insurance companies and defence lawyers use research like this in new and creative ways: “Your client played football when he was in High School. His brain injury isn’t from the car accident, it’s from a concussion he suffered 30 years ago.”
Diagnosis Misleading
The term mild or minor traumatic brain injury is extremely misleading. The reference to “mild” or “minor” refers only to the initial physical trauma or impact that causes the brain injury.
Permanent Problems
As many of you know, I am on the Board of the Halifax chapter of the Brain Injury Association of Nova Scotia. I wanted to post this notice of a public information session for brain injury survivors and their families that is being hosted by BIANS Halifax.
Services for Persons with Brain Injury: What is Available and How to Get Connected?
Who?
Our guest speakers are:
Lindsay Dickson, Capital Health – Acquired Brain Injury Navigator
Brian Tapper, Capital Health – Vocational Counselor
Cyd Lepage and Diane Wanderer – Community Services, Income Assistance and Employment Support
Head Injuries Increase by 70%
The new school year is well underway and students are signing up for various sport teams. A new study from the Centre for Injury Research and Policy suggests that sports related head injuries among teenagers are increasing.
The study found that the number of young people suffering from head injuries while playing basketball had spiked 70% between 1997 and 2007.
Traumatic Brain Injury Claims
New research published in this months issue of the Journal of Neurotrauma advocates treating traumatic brain injury as a chronic disease process, rather than an isolated event.
As a brain injury lawyer, I wholeheartedly agree with the conclusions reached in the article.
I bought my son Liam a new bike this past weekend. He just couldn’t wait to get outside and go riding with his friends. But he had to wait while I made sure that his new bicycle helmet fit him properly.
Summertime is Bicycle Time
With warm weather and summer vacation the number of children on bikes increases dramatically. So do the number of children attending hospital emergency rooms with head injuries.
June is Brain Injury Awareness Month.
Every year in Nova Scotia between 2200 and 3500 people sustain a brain injury through a variety of ways such as falls, motor vehicle accidents, strokes, near drowning and aneurysms. No one recovers 100% from a brain injury. Dealing with the effects of brain injury is a lifelong journey for brain injury survivors and their families. The Brain Injury Association of Nova Scotia works to enhance the quality of life for survivors and their families.
To promote Brain Injury Awareness Month, the Halifax Chapter of the Brain Injury Association is inviting the public to two special movie viewings this month in the Royal Bank Theatre at the Halifax Infirmary on Summer Street.
Survivors of traumatic brain injuries face long waits for treatment and rehabilitation services.
No Service the Norm
The president of the Brain Injury Association of Canada, Shirley Johnson, says that for persons who have suffered brain injuries shortages of programs, long waiting lists or simply no access to services at all, is the norm in most areas of the country.
More than 650,000 children are seen every year in hospital emergency rooms across North America suffering from the effects of mild traumatic brain injury.
Important Tool
CT scans are an important tool used in diagnosing the severity of brain injury. The problem is that CT scans expose children to the harmful affects of radiation.
