Basic Facts About Traumatic Brain Injury
Nearly 1.4 millions sustain a traumatic brain injury each year. What many people don't know is that symptoms of traumatic brain injury may not be evident for week or even months following an injury.
Step 1: Emotionally & Physically Difficult
Today I'll be bringing you some basic facts on traumatic brain injury. Be sure to check our website for our relevant links and a recap of this article A time following a traumatic brain injury is both physically and emotionally difficult. As the patient and his or her family struggles to make since of what is happen and think about what the future holds, many questions are raised.
Step 2: Brain Injury Statistics
It's helpful if both the survival and his family have some general information about traumatic brain injury. It's not uncommon for survivals of traumatic brain injury to feel completely alone.
But what many survivals don't realized is that approximately 1.4 million Americans sustain a traumatic brain injury each year, of these, 1.1 millions are treated and released from the emergency room.
Step 3: Further Statistics
235,000 are hospitalized, and 50,000 die. Falls are the leading cause of traumatic brain injury. Those who suffer from a brain injury as a result of a fall are commonly under the age of 4 or over the age of 75. Other common causes of traumatic brain injury are motor vehicle traffic accidents, being struck by or struck against a moving or stationery object, and assaults and other physical violence.
Why motor vehicle traffic accidents are the second leading cause of traumatic brain injury, they are the cause most likely to result in hospitalization.
Step 4: Signs Of Brian Injury
How do you know if you suffer from a traumatic brain injury? Well, the signs can be obvious or they can be subtle. In some cases, symptoms of a traumatic brain injury may not be evident for weeks or even months following an injury.
However, the most common signs of traumatic brain injury are headaches and neck pain, difficulty remembering or concentrating, issues with thinking, speaking, acting or reading, fatigue, lack of energy and decreased motivation, changes in sleep patterns, dizziness or lightheadedness, nausea and vomiting, blurred vision, increased sensitivity to noise, lights or distractions, loss of the senses, such as smell or taste.
Step 5: Survival
Survivals of traumatic brain injury frequently have lots of questions regarding the long term outcome of their injury. According to the Center for Disease Control, about 5.3 percent of Americans, that's 2 percent of the US population, need help performing every day activities as a result of traumatic brain injury.
Step 6: Other Issues
Traumatic brain injury can also cause issues that affect thinking; emotions, sensation and language. And in some cases traumatic brain injury can cause epilepsy, which creasing the risk for age related brain disorders such as Alzheimers disease and Parkinson's disease.
