March Is Brain Injury Awareness Month

Note:  During March, we recognize Brain Injury Awareness Month.  Throughout the month, we’ll be posting blog entries around this topic.

Each year an estimated two million Americans suffer from a brain injury. Out of those two million, 300,000 experience serious brain injuries that require emergency medical attention and hospitalization.

There are also more than 50,000 people in the United States every year who die from traumatic brain injuries. One out of every three deaths related to trauma in America are the result of a traumatic brain injury. Of those who survive, 100,000 will be left with a lifelong disability.

In Maryland alone, around 5,000 people each year incur a severe traumatic brain injury. Traumatic brain injuries account for about 5 percent of all hospitalizations in Maryland and almost 22 percent of all Maryland injury deaths.

While the statistics are sobering, there are many things people can do to prevent a brain injury. For instance, many brain injuries occur as the result of motor vehicle accidents.  So, when operating a motor vehicle, make sure to wear a seat belt and never drive while impaired or texting. You should use a hands-free phone and be mindful of pedestrians.

For more helpful tips, check out this link from the Centers for Disease Control:
http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/pub-res/tbi_toolkit/patients/preventing.htm

Increasing the public’s awareness and understanding of the consequences of brain injury will result in a decrease in the number of injuries and enhance the recovery for all individuals who sustain brain injuries.   This is the goal of the LifeBridge Health Brain Injury Programs.

These programs include:

• RECOVER Coma Emergence at Levindale Specialty Hospital
• RESTORE! Program at the Friedman Neurological Rehabilitation Center
• RETURN! Brain Injury Community Reentry
• RETURN! to Work Vocational Reentry
• Mild Brain Injury
• Comprehensive Sports Concussion

Be sure to be on the lookout for more blog entries throughout the month.

Statistics in this article can be found at the links below.
http://www.biamd.org/
http://www.caregiver.org/caregiver/jsp/content_node.jsp?nodeid=441
http://www.traumaticbraininjury.com/content/symptoms/mildtbisymptoms.html
http://www.cdc.gov/traumaticbraininjury/statistics.html

-Written by Caitlin Starr, outpatient therapy rehab assistant and volunteer in the RETURN! program

To schedule an appointment with one of our highly trained physicians and find out why LifeBridge Health is Baltimore's premiere health care organization, call 410-601-WELL.

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