Danielle Leigh, KING 6:45 PM. PDT May 20, 2017 Soldiers in Afghanistan in 2009 while Victor Lindenberg Lewis of Everett was deployed. Photo:Victor Lindenberg Lewis. A first of its kind study is showing the devastating impacts of wartime brain injuries on service members. A UW Medicine neurologist followed 50 soldiers starting just after they suffered a concussive blast injury and tracked their conditions through brain imaging and other techniques over several years. Dr. Christine Mac Donald, associate professor of neurological surgery at the University of Washington School of Medicine, said her findings bring into question medical beliefs that individuals will stabilize within a year after their injury. Instead, Mac Donald found these service members' mental health symptoms evolved and even worsened five years later. "The takeaway for me that was so striking was the substantial number of service members who significantly declined in this population that was supposed to be the mildest of the mild and that even with help that so few experienced sustained resolution," Mac Donald said. The findings pose a significant challenge for the Department of Veterans Affairs, which has struggled to treat or properly diagnose traumatic brain injuries in service members. Already, the VA estimates nearly … Continue reading →

wtkr.com Faces of traumatic brain injuries: the stories behind the statistics wtkr.com Both Ivie and Baggett found relief at Hampton Roads Hyperbaric Therapy with Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy, which involves breathing 100% Oxygen at a prescribed depth. While insurance does not cover the therapy for use as treatment as brain injury, both ... Read more here: Faces of traumatic brain injuries: the stories behind the statistics - wtkr.com … Continue reading →

Cooling the brains of newborn babies deprived of oxygen improves the proportion who survive unharmed, two decades of research has shown. Brain damage in babies asphyxiated at birth - often because their umbilical cords have become wound around their necks - leaves hundreds permanently disabled each year. A study of babies asphyxiated at birth in hospitals across the UK and Europe suggests that the cooling treatment could save at least 100 babies a year from brain damage. Of the 325 babies in the survey, half were cooled within six hours of delivery and their body temperatures were maintained at 3C to 4C below normal for three days. The results showed that almost half (44 percent) recovered with no brain damage, compared with just over a quarter (28 percent) among those left at normal temperature. Denis Azzopardi, of Imperial College, London, who led the research published in the New England Journal of Medicine, said: "Our study builds on a 20-year body of research but gives, for the first time, irrefutable proof that cooling can be effective in reducing brain damage after birth asphyxia. Unfortunately, it doesn't work in every case. "Birth asphyxia is a very important problem. Cases still occur and … Continue reading →