There is no secure means of diagnosis, but there are also no known ways to prevent it and no cure, wrote National Geographic magazine in a recent article dedicated to the signature injury of the Iraq and Afghan wars. The assessment reflects the almost universally shared conventional wisdom about Traumatic Brain Injury. The conventional wisdom is wrong. For now, even as legislation for removing Medicare caps for brain-injury treatment and establishing sports concussion treatment guidelines are drawing bipartisan interest on the Hill, we can confidently peer beyond TBI as a life full of frustration, solitude and suffering and instead look confidently at treatment that leads to recovery. As a result of a unique public-private partnership, new revolutionary research and treatment programs are coming out of the U.S. military. A decades-old foundation the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund has raised millions of dollars for construction of state-of-the-art TBI centers that upon completion are run by the Department of Defense. These facilities are where much of the advanced work on TBI is being done. At the five operating and soon-to-be opened Intrepid Spirit Centers (with the Fund currently raising money to build four more) around the country and the research-oriented National Intrepid Center … Continue reading →

Staff, patients and their loved ones are invited for a walk for Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) Awareness Month, hosted by the National Intrepid Center of Excellence (NICoE) tomorrow, March 27, at noon. The walk, which will begin at the center, will take participants around the outside of Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (WRNMMC) and end back at the center at approximately 12:45 p.m. Those who attend are encouraged to wear green, the color chosen to signify March as National TBI Awareness Month, and to show solidarity for those in need of support. After considering how we could get campus recognition about brain injury awareness, [we decided] organizing a campus awareness walk would be a great way to spread knowledge about brain injury and the excellent treatment we give to patients and families at WRNMMC, said Cmdr. Karen Livornese, service chief for Clinical Education and Outreach at NICoE. She hopes the event will expand in years to come, she said, allowing staff members to eventually walk into the city of Bethesda to help raise TBI awareness. Often referred to as an invisible wound, a TBI is the result of a blow or jolt to the head, resulting in the disruption … Continue reading →

on March 25, 2015 - 10:00 AM , updated March 25, 2015 at 5:10 PM Editors Note: Landin Murphy, 20, of Williamsville, suffered a traumatic brain injury during a basketball game in his freshman year of high school in December 2008. March is Brain Injury Awareness Month, and Landin chose to tell his story and share some things he has learned about brain injuries. He is a senior at St. Marys High School in Lancaster, continues to recover and is on track to graduate in June. He plans to study pre-med in college. By Landin Murphy NeXt Correspondent The brain is an organ much more complex than most people realize. It is not only responsible for controlling the bodys limbs and movements, it gives the ability of thought and reason. Essentially everything in our bodies is directly linked to the brain. Digestion, muscle tone, heart rate, you name it. This is why traumatic brain injury, also known as a concussion, is such a pertinent issue. Coupled with the brains importance, what makes TBI even more worrisome is that its occurrence sometimes can slip under the radar. Its symptoms can be confusing and seem unrelated. Furthermore, many athletes are taught from … Continue reading →