Brain Injury Lawyer - New York

Brain Injury Association Second Annual Concussion and Brain Injury Awareness Day at Citi Field

Join hundreds of your friends at the Brain Injury Association of New York State (BIANYS) on Sunday, July 8th, for the second annual brain injury/ concussion awareness day at Citi Field. While the NY Mets play the Chicago Cubs, BIANYS and our allies spread the word about brain injury and concussion.

Tickets are available today for $45 in the Left Field Reserved section. Handicapped-accessible seating is available in the same section. The tickets include access to the Caesar's, Acela, and Promenade Clubs.

Help the Brain Injury Association hit a grand slam with this event by buying a block of seats. The first 25,000 fans to the game will receive a poster of Mr. Met. There are also some fantastic sponsorship opportunities for large groups and organizations! We also have some great benefits for individuals who sell 25 or more tickets to the game.

Order tickets and learn more about the event and sponsorship opportunities through the Brain Injury Association of New York State website.

Together we can work to strike out brain injury!

class action football brain injury interview rescheduled

Due to programming preemption by discussion of President Obama’s historic endorsement of gay marriage the WOR broadcast on concussion and football, originally scheduled to be aired today at 10:15A.M. will be broadcast on Saturday morning at 7:45 A.M.

Sorry for any confusion presented by circumstances beyond my control.

The league fraudulently created the mild traumatic brain injury safety committee ostensibly to protect players.  They failed however, to acknowledge the clear link between concussions, traumatic brain injury and football which has been established by overwhelming medical research and well documented in medical literature.  The committee conducted dishonest research and lied to the players.

The league must be held responsible for the long term consequences of traumatic brain injury and be required to reopen their files and reverse the denial of benefits to players who have sustained the permanent consequences of traumatic brain injury.

You can listen to my interview with Joe Bartlett this Saturday morning by clicking here 

The death of Junior Seau--traumatic brain injury and the implications for football

I will be speaking live this morning with Joe Bartlett on WOR Radio 710 AM discussing traumatic brain injury , the suicide death of Junior Seau and its implications for football and the current class action lawsuits brought against the NFL.

Live streaming broadcast by clicking here

Female athletes and young athletes take longer to recover from concussions

A new study reported in this month’s edition of, American Journal of Sports Medicine finds that female athletes and younger athletes take longer to recover from concussions.  The study found females performed worse than males on visual memory tests and reported more post concussive symptoms.

Additionally, high school athletes performed worse than college athletes on verbal and visual memory tests, and some of the younger athletes still were impaired up to two weeks after their injuries.

The study looked at nearly 300 concussed athletes from multiple states over two years. All of the athletes had previously completed a baseline test before taking three different post-concussion tests, identical to those used by professional sporting teams.

Sex and age need to be taken into account when dealing with concussions and the important return to play decisions that must be made.

Most importantly female athletes are not immune from brain damage caused by concussions and may be at greater risk for long term problems.

 

Parents and coaches need more education on concussion safety

Parents and coaches are exposing children to high risks of future brain damage according to a recent survey exploring knowledge about sports safety.

The survey finds that 90 percent of parents underestimate how long children need to be sidelined from sports participation following an injury. 

Ninety-two percent of parents said they rely on coaches to keep their children safe while playing sports. But nearly half of all coaches said they have felt pressure to play an injured child in a game. And three of 10 children think a good player should keep playing even when they're hurt, unless a coach or other adult makes them stop.

The survey also found that more than half of all coaches believe there is an acceptable amount of head contact during play without potentially causing a serious brain injury

Only two in 5 parents know how much sports safety training their child's coach has received. Even well-trained coaches said they would like additional training -- with about three-fourths interested in learning more about preventing concussions and heat illness. The main factors preventing coaches from getting more training are cost, lack of time and lack of local sources of information.

The survey was released by Safe Kids Worldwide and Johnson & Johnson.  You can read the full survey by clicking here.  

Catastrophic brain injury in football players caused by style of play

The Wall Street Journal Health Blog reports a study from the University of North Carolina finding that a growing number of football players, especially in high school, are suffering from catastrophic brain injuries.

While the number of kids with catastrophic brain damage is small — 13 out of about 1.1 million high-school players — it’s the highest tally since the National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research at UNC started collecting the brain-injury stats in 1984, says Dr. Frederick  Mueller, the center’s director and an emeritus professor of exercise and sports science.

According to the Journal, more players are sustaining severe brain injury because of the “style of play.” The Health Blog reports that, “they’re using their heads more,” perhaps modeling their play after the hard-hitting pros.

Read the full Health Blog report.

New study suggests that starting point of brain injury may be detectible in boxers

A news release today by the American Academy of Neurology in conjunction with their 64th Annual Meeting to be held in New Orleans from April 21 to April 28, 2012 discusses a new study which will be presented that suggests there may be a detectible  starting point at which blows to the head or other head trauma suffered in sports such a boxing start to affect memory and thinking abilities and can lead to chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), in the brain. 

 

This study has important implications for all professional sports such as football and hockey plagued by an epidemic of traumatic brain injury.

 

"While we already know that boxing and other combat sports are linked to brain damage, little is known about how this process develops and who may be on the path to developing CTE, which is a degenerative brain disease found in athletes and others with a history of multiple concussions and brain damage," said study author Charles Bernick, MD, of the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland and a member of the American Academy of Neurology. CTE is only diagnosed through autopsy after death, but symptoms include memory loss, aggression and difficulty thinking.

 

The study involved 35 boxers and 43 mixed martial arts athletes with an average age of 29 who were part of the ongoing Professional Fighters Brain Health Study. The fighters were given computer tests that measured memory and thinking skills and underwent MRI brain scans. Years of fighting and number of fights were recorded based on self-reporting and published records. 

 

The fighters were then split into two groups: those who fought for nine or fewer years and those with more than nine years of fighting history. 

 

"Our study shows there appears to be a threshold at which continued repetitive blows to the brain begin to cause measurable changes in memory and thinking, despite brain volume changes that can be found earlier," said Bernick.

 

Read more by clicking here

AYSO Concussion Management Recommendations Leave a Lot to be Desired

The American Youth Soccer Organization (AYSO) has announced recommendations for the management of concussions.  Unfortunately, these recommendations are so weak that they provide little protection to children participating in soccer activities and provide parents with a false sense of security.  The AYSO Board of Directors has approved the following concussion management recommendations:

•Use of the AYSO/CDC Concussion Information Sheet to inform all parents and players about the signs and symptoms of concussion and the associated risks. Find the Information Sheet by clicking here.  It should be manadatory that all parents receive be required to receive and read this information sheet before their child is permitted to partipate.

•Encourage ALL coaches, referees, and Section, Area and Region Board Members to take the CDC’s free online Concussion Awareness Training which can be found by clicking here . Coaches and referrees should be required to take this training program and be required to take participate in yearly updates.

•Any player suspected by the coach, referee or parent to have a concussion must be removed from further participation for at least the remainder of the day, Requirements should be imposed that before a child with a concussion or suspected concussion be allowed to return to play that they obtain medical clearance and there must also be a requirement that players who have sustained a cconcussion or a suspected concussion be required to be kept out of play for at least a week.

•Parents should be encouraged to seek professional medical treatment at the time of injury and secure medical clearance before being allowed to return to play.  This should be mandatory.

California Sports Concussion Management Conference

The Sports Concussion Institute is sponsoring the 6th Annual National Summit on Sports Concussion & Other Athletic Injuries in Los Angelis, California on Friday June 22, 2012.

The Conference looks at established recommendations and the emerging science on sports concussion, concussion management and return to play decisions.

Click here for more information.

 

Neurosurgeons join to promote brain injury awareness

The American Academy of Neurosurgeons (AANS) has announced that it has declared the theme of its 2012 National Neurosurgery Awareness Week (NNAW), scheduled for April 15-21, 2012, to be:  Make Concussion Awareness a Part of Your Playbook.

The neurosurgical group has partnered with with ThinkFirst (a foundation committed to preventing traumatic brain and spinal injuries) and WalkSafe™ (a program focused on improving pediatric pedestrian safety, encouraging physical activity and advocating walkability around elementary schools) to encourgage the use of bicycle helmets by all school aged children.

The AANS also has updated its Patient Information pages on concussion and sports-related head injury which can be viewed by clicking here.