I have been looking after Jordan, a 13-year-old boy, for the past few months. Last September, he rode his bicycle like many children and adults of Prince Edward Island, without a bike helmet. He did have one at home. However, he wouldn’t wear it because none of his friends were wearing it either. More importantly, the police didn’t care. No one was ever ticketed or charged for not wearing a bike helmet, although it has been the law for several years. His parents bought him the bike helmet, but couldn’t make him wear it.

That day in early September 2008 started just like any other day. He went for a bike ride. Somehow he fell, not unlike any other falls that he had before. But this time, when he got up, he was dizzy and couldn’t remember his name or where he lived. A motorist passing by saw that he was disoriented, picked him up, and took him home.

When he got home, he had a severe headache, vomited, and became drowsy. His parents knew something was seriously wrong and took him to Western Hospital, where his long medical journey began. A visiting doctor recognized that he had a skull fracture and likely haemorrhage in his brain. He was taken to Prince County Hospital where a CT scan confirmed the diagnosis. He was then transferred to Moncton, where a neurosurgeon operated on him immediately to remove the blood clot that was putting pressure on his brain and almost killed him. Unfortunately, Jordan never regained consciousness since then. He was transferred back to Prince County Hospital after a few weeks and he is still in a coma 11 months later.

If police had enforced the bicycle helmet law, and if Jordan had worn his bicycle helmet properly, the helmet most likely would have protected his skull and prevented such a serious injury from a simple fall off the bicycle. As his parents, and grandparents have said repeatedly: their ordeal could have been prevented if Jordan had worn the helmet.

Jordan’s situation is not unique. Every year, many children and adults across Canada suffer similar injuries when they fall from their bicycles and hit their heads. There is a big difference in the severity of head injury: the bicycle helmet is designed to absorb most of the force of impact and protect the skull and the brain.

Although P.E.I. has a bicycle helmet law, none of the police around the province were enforcing it. As a result, many children and adults are still riding their bicycles without their helmets.

Thanks to the Island Network for Injury Prevention (INIP) and the Brain Injury Coalition of P.E.I., the P.E.I. Operation Headway officially began last month with a number of partners across the province. Police departments from Charlottetown, Summerside, Kensington and Borden-Carleton are involved. For the first time the bicycle helmet law is being enforced: those without a bicycle helmet will receive a ticket, and those who wear their helmets properly will be given rewards. The ultimate goal of Operation Headway is to educate cyclists about the importance of bicycle helmets in preventing serious head and brain injury. Those ticketed can choose to attend an educational session in September instead of paying the fine or going to court.

This is only the beginning. It is important to notice that RCMP, which patrols the rest of the province, is not one of the partners in Operation Headway. We cannot speculate the reason why it has decided not to participate at this time. However, until all the police forces across the province are enforcing this law, there are cyclists who will take the chance and not wear their helmets, putting themselves at risk of serious head injuries. Every person like Jordan costs the whole health-care system millions of dollars, not to mention about the loss of his potential contribution to society (he could have been our future prime minister) and the suffering that his family has to endure.

We hope that the Operation Headway will become an annual event, similar to the seat belt campaigns that remind Islanders about the importance of seat belt use. We can never prevent all bicycle injuries, but if we can prevent even one child and one family from a tragedy similar to Jordan’s, the operation will indeed be a success.

Dr. David Wong is chief of paediatrics at the Prince County Hospital in Summerside.

Reference: Guardian Newspaper – P.E.I.

Letter to the Editor Aug. 26, 2009

OPINION: David Wong Commentary

Jack Gives Back 2009

Jack Rafacz, is a brain injury survivor and is giving back by organizing the “2nd Annual Jack Gives Back Charity Dinner” in support of the Sunnybrook Trauma, Emergency, and Critical Care Program.

Prior to his accident, Jack worked as a chef at the Four Seasons Hotel in Toronto, Ontario Canada. September 2006 Jack was hit by a car and sustained a severe brain injury requiring life-saving care at Sunnybrook Hospital.  Jack remained in a coma for 6 weeks, and then started the long course of rehabilitation first at TRI, and then in his community.  The creation of this event was Jack’s idea as a way to say thank you and to give back to the hospital.  We celebrate everyone who has had to overcome challenges in life and has chosen to keep going.

Event Date: September 12th, 2009

Location; the John Paul II Hall in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada

To learn more about Jack’s giving back event, click on the link provided below:

http://www.jackgivesback.2ya.com/

U.S. News and World Report Lists Neurofeedback As 1 of 9 Drug Free Treatments For ADHD

U.S. News and World Report recently listed neurofeedback among 9 drug free treatments of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) that consumers should consider. The author discusses why some parents are inclined to seek out “alternative” or behavioral treatments and cites evidence that stimulant drugs, such as Ritalin, may not provide long term relief and may even stunt kid’s growth. The field of neurofeedback deserves all of the positive national attention it can garner so I was pleased with its mention. Check the end of this review for a link to the complete U.S. News and World Report story.

To read and learn more, please click on the following links below;

http://www.eeginfo.com/

http://www.bmedreport.com/archives/category/neurofeedback

Source: The Behavioral Medicine Report

St. Louis research seeks answers to brain injury

ST. LOUIS — Researchers at Saint Louis University are recruiting civilians and military veterans for a study of traumatic brain injury.

The four-year study will use imaging equipment to map and better understand brain injuries. The study will also identify parts of the brain that can rewire themselves and recover some function.

The research is funded by a $5.3 million grant from the U.S. Department of Defense. It’s expected to lead to better treatment for blast injuries and car accidents.

In the U.S., about 1.4 million people suffer traumatic brain injuries each year. Of these, 230,000 are hospitalized and survive, while another 50,000 die.

Better equipped combat veterans are returning from war zones with brain injuries rather than fatal wounds.

Source: The Associated Press

In the News;Interventional Endocrinology training for lawyers (U.S.)

An increasing number of U.S. Attorneys specializing in Traumatic Brain Injury arising out of motor vehicle accidents, slip and falls, closed head trauma, and blunt head trauma are becoming aware of the concurrent hormonal deficiencies that impede rehabilitation by their affect on psychological, physiological, and physical functioning.

Many are receiving additional training in the area of Interventional Endocrinology to give them the advantage of understanding that head trauma has a two-phase insult on the body. The first: an acute phase is associated with the gross manifestations of the injury (loss of consciousness, amnesia, cognitive impairment, fatigue, mood changes, and structural damage to the brain) and a second: the delayed phase, leading to progressive loss of one or more hormones within 3 months of the injury. Many times, the first phase is so subtle that the recognition of the second phase is significantly delayed or ignored.

The trauma can be mild, moderate, or severe and still cause the brain’s ability to regulate important, life-maintaining, hormones to fail.

The loss of these hormones increases the risk of heart attack, stroke, emotional instability, depression, anxiety, mood swings, memory loss, fatigue, confusion, amnesia, poor cognition, learning disabilities, decreased communication skills, poor healing, frequent infections, poor fracture healing, poor skin quality, increased body fat, decreased muscle strength and size, infertility, and loss of sex drive.

These finding are not new, and neither are the present treatments that still consist of psychotherapy with or without anti-depressants or other drugs that just mask the symptoms.

This “stealth” condition can be detected with cost-effective and appropriate laboratory testing surveying an array of hormones and their markers. If there are hormonal deficiencies, treatment consists of returning them to a natural, physiological level.

In 2007, Dr. Mark L. Gordon introduced the association of head trauma (TBI) with the on-set of hormonal dysfunction leading to deficiencies on the program ESPN: Outside the Lines. In that same year, his book The Clinical Application of Interventional Endocrinology, offered the medical documentation to support the causes, clinical findings, laboratory testing, specific hormone replacement strategies, and the outcomes for Traumatic Brain Injury associated with hormonal dysfunction. For further information, please visit http://www.tbimedlegal.com or Contact; Mr. David Fennoy at 1-626-794-3648 - info@tbimedlegal.com | The Millennium Health Centers, Inc. American Academy of Interventional Endocrinology(TM) This release was issued through eReleases(TM).

For more information, visit http://www.ereleases.com

Source; ENCINO, Calif., Aug. 13 /PRNewswire

Prolonged Breath Holding Elevates Brain Damage Marker

Levels of S100B higher after apnea in divers, though below level of brain injury!

Divers who hold their breath for several minutes have elevated levels of the protein S100B, which is a marker of brain damage, according to a study published online July 2 in the Journal of Applied Physiology.

Johan P.A. Andersson, Ph.D., of Lund University in Sweden, and colleagues had nine trained breath-hold divers perform a protocol that mimicked procedures they use during training and competition, including pre-apneic hyperventilation and glossopharyngeal insufflation so they could perform static apnea. The researchers also used six non-divers as controls.

The average breath-hold time was five minutes, 35 seconds. The researchers found that S100B levels increased in seven of the nine divers but none of the controls. S100B levels rose 37 percent, on average, within 10 minutes after apnea ended, and levels returned to normal within two hours for all study participants. The researchers also note that the elevated levels of S100B were still well below those associated with brain injury and that the elevation was more transient in divers than in people who suffered brain injury.

“It is not possible to conclude that the observed increase in S100B levels in serum after a maximal-duration apnea reflects a serious injury to the brain, although the results raise concerns considering negative long-term effects,” the authors write. “At least, the results indicate that prolonged, voluntary apnea affects the integrity of the central nervous system, and do not preclude cumulative effects.”

Source; HealthDay News Aug. 5, 2009

Repetitive head trauma might be cause of brain disease in NFL players

BEDFORD, Mass. - What Lisa McHale would like you to know is the way it once was, not the way it ended. Because it is vital to her that you know her husband Tom as she will always remember him - the intelligent, principled, fun-loving man she fell for so long ago back in college. Away from the violence that unfolded each Sunday on the football field, where he played on the offensive line for 9 years in the NFL for the Eagles and two other teams, the 6-4, 290-pound Tom McHale could fill up a room with his presence. Good guy: Loved his wife, doted on his three boys, and remained loyal to his old pals from childhood. Lisa remembers she was “instantaneously crazy about him” and that would never change, even as she now catches herself saying: “I just wish you could have known Tom when he was Tom.”

To read the balance of the story, click on the link provided below;

http://www.philly.com/dailynews/sports/20090528_DEADLY_AFTERSHOCKS.html

Source: Ottawa Citizen July 31, 2009

Booth’s brain isn’t better yet…

In the upcoming season of “Bones” actor Seeley Booth has experienced a brain injury and is working through his recovery. Booth who has come through a coma will be working with and through his challenges on the job. It will be interesting to see how real and how close the TV show will come to portraying and shedding light on individuals with a brain injury.

It’s safe to assume that Seeley Booth will eventually recover from his brain injury on “Bones” after all, the show has been picked up for two more seasons. But the Booth (David Boreanaz) fans see at the start of this season won’t be the same hyper competent man they knew before the injury sent him into a coma — and a dream state in which he was married to Brennan (Emily Deschanel).

To learn more, visit; http://blog.zap2it.com/frominsidethebox/2009/08/bones-booths-brain-isnt-better-yet.html

Source: Zap2it.com by Rick Porter