WILMINGTON, NC (WECT) - Twenty to forty percent of people who suffer a severe brain injury do not survive. Of those that do, a diagnosis can often be hard to reach. With no proven treatment to improve or speed up recovery from a minimally conscious state, many families are told there is "no hope." There is however, a medication that for some, has the remarkable side effect of "waking" patients up. Roughly 300,000 people in the U.S. are trapped in a vegetative or minimally conscious state. Causes range from bad accidents to falls, violence and other types of brain trauma. Unlike a coma, a vegetative state is classified as being unconscious except for some eye opening and periods of wakefulness. The patient may moan when their muscles are stretched, may cry or smile, track objects with their eyes and react to sounds. About 50% of patients who are in a vegetative state one month after traumatic brain injury recover some degree of consciousness, yet in many cases they drift in and out and only make minimal progress. As a result, doctors without experience in treating this type of trauma often rule out the possibility of recovery and patients end up … Continue reading →

About a third of all people who suffer from severe brain injury, do not survive. For those who do, they either drift in and out of consciousness, or are in a complete coma. Their future is mostly uncertain. Many families are told there is no hope because there is no treatment proven to speed up or improve recovery. For some patients,however, a medication given for an unintended use, is opening the eyes of patients, doctors and researchers. There are nearly 300,000 people in the United States who are trapped in avegetative or minimally-conscious state as a result of an accident, fall, violence, or some other type of brain trauma. Their mind is shrouded beneath the shell of a rigid body, drifting in a realm that even many medical professionals believe can't be reached. Dr. Lori Grafton is the director of the Brain Injury Program at Carolinas Rehabilitation, one of the nation's most comprehensive rehabilitationfacilities in the country. Grafton is physiatrist which is a medical doctor with specialized training in physical medicine, rehabilitation and pain medicine. She says a dose of Ambien may be the solution for some brain trauma patients. Ambien is a pharmaceutical drug designed to help an individual … Continue reading →

Published: Tuesday, May 13, 2014, 4:30p.m. Updated 26 minutes ago Hospitals reported about 30 percent more emergency visits for traumatic brain injuries over four years as Americans learn more about the often-dangerous wounds, a UPMC researcher said Tuesday. Now that we know more about traumatic brain injury, people are being appropriately more conservative and seeking treatment, said Dr. Jennifer R. Marin, an emergency medicine physician at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC in Lawrenceville. The study found about 2.5 million emergency visits nationwide for the brain injuries in 2010, an increase of 29 percent in the visit rate from 2006. Total emergency department visits climbed 3.6 percent in the same period, according to their analysis, which cites data from the Nationwide Emergency Department Sample database. The findings will be published in a research letter Wednesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Marin said growing public attention to brain injuries in the past decade led researchers to explore whether hospitals are logging more cases. She said 2010 marked the most recent data available, which do not examine localized trends in individual states or cities. Marin and other doctors said high-profile brain injuries endured by NFL players are helping to … Continue reading →