“Soccer players are repeatedly hitting their head [or, using the top of their head to redirect the ball], and we know that multiple head injuries tend to be worse than just one,” Lipton stated. “My area [of expertise] is mild traumatic brain injury, so I look at how much does it take (to have a lasting effect).”
To study those cumulative effects, Lipton asked 37 amateur soccer players, nearly three-quarters of whom were male, to approximate how often he or she headed a ball per year, so he could group them into three categories: low heading, medium heading, and high heading. He then scanned their brains with a special MRI test called diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and tested the players’ memory skills.
Bearing in mind that participants’ age averaged 31 and that they’d played soccer for an average of 22 years and for about 10 months in the last year, Lipton determined that players who headed a ball about or more than 1,800 times per year scored lower on memory tests.
Why?
“Overall, the imaging showed that players who reported heading the ball more frequently had areas of the brain with lower FA [fractional anisotropy] values,” Fox News reported. Or, as Lipton stated, “The more heading people did, the more likely they were to have abnormalities of brain microstructure and worse cognitive performance.”
Given the small scale of this study, Lipton isn’t yet urging soccer moms to buy helmets for their children, but that may come. The National Institutes of Health has awarded him a $3 million grant to continue his research.
“I think that what people should take away from this at this point is that there may be risk involved in heading; that’s about all we can say … The biggest message here is we need to do the research and confirm what the risks are, and if they’re confirmed, develop ways to address them,” he said.
Below, Cleveland traumatic brain injury attorney Chris Mellino enumerates TBI symptoms and discusses the difference between a head injury and a brain injury.
The post Traumatic Brain Injury Expert Studies Soccer Players first appeared on SEONewsWire.net.]]>“I didn’t want to be surrounded by more of me,” she told Fox News. “I didn’t feel good about myself because of my disability.”
In fact, it sometimes embarrassed her, so she avoided glancing at her reflection in windows as she struggled to walk down the street.
But after she and Dr. Mike Noetzel with the St. Louis Children’s Hospital discussed the lack of advancement in cerebral palsy studies since the 1960s, Brunstrom-Hernandez opened the country’s first cerebral palsy-dedicated clinic, United Cerebral Palsy.
Since May 1998, she and her staff have treated nearly 2,000 cerebral palsy patients from around the world. For the last 10 years, Anna Marie Champion and her seventh-grade daughter, Morgan, have traveled to St. Louis from Atlanta.
“We went to St. Louis and it was a whole different approach,” Champion said of Morgan’s treatment. “It has turned her life around completely.”
Brunstrom-Hernandez may owe the success of her clinic to her own mother, who seemed to know that constant movement was the secret to a cerebral palsy patient’s success.
“Her mother made her keep moving, even requiring her to stand in the kitchen to do dishes when it was the last thing the little girl wanted to do,” Fox News reported. “Moving around the clinic [now], only Brunstrom-Hernandez’s gait shows any effects of her cerebral palsy.”
Difficulty walking is one of many cerebral palsy symptoms, which range from mild to severe, according to Mayo Clinic. Others include tremors; drooling; speech, vision, and/or hearing impairment; and rigidity or spasticity.
The 50-year-old doctor now stresses the importance of exercise to patients, such as 15-year-old Sam Ward, who said, “She helps me walk better. Just be better.”
Brunstrom-Hernandez says the doctor-patient relationship has mutual benefits.
“They saved my life,” she said. “They taught me how to believe in myself. They taught me how to look at myself differently.”
Cerebral palsy can sometimes be caused by oxygen deprivation or a head injury at birth. Below, Cleveland medical malpractice lawyer Chris Mellino discusses how to determine the cause of your baby’s cerebral palsy, what to do if your baby suffered a birth injury, and how a medical malpractice attorney may be able to help.
The post Doctor’s Cerebral Palsy Gives Her a Unique Perspective on How to Treat Patients first appeared on SEONewsWire.net.]]>Regina Turner’s medical malpractice lawsuit claims the St. Clare Health Care Center staff set up the operating room incorrectly and “stood by and watched [surgeon Armond Levy] operate on the wrong side of the plaintiff’s skull and brain when they could have prevented the error,” Fox News reported.
Chris Howard, president and CEO of SSM Health Care-St. Louis, which owns St. Clare Health Center and a total of 18 hospitals in four states, has reportedly apologized to Ms. Turner and reached out to the family to resolve the matter.
“This was a breakdown in our procedures, and it absolutely should not have happened,” he said.
He also stated that SSM is investigating the botched craniotomy which, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine, may be performed to:
St. Clare Health Center President Bill Hoefer stated that his hospital takes medical errors “very seriously … and [w]e investigate thoroughly to see what processes can be changed to prevent it from ever happening again, and then we make those changes immediately.”
In the meantime, Turner requires round-the-clock care.
When asked whether she would ever recuperate, her personal injury lawyer stated, “There’s always hope and prayer.”
As evidenced above, a severe brain injury could result in permanent disability. If you suspect that a doctor’s negligence led to such an injury, contact a Cleveland, Ohio, medical malpractice attorney who can review the details of your potential case and help pursue legal action.
What do I need to bring to the initial consultation with a brain injury attorney?
Can I file a brain injury lawsuit on behalf of a loved one?
Are there time limits to sue for injuries in a brain injury case?
The post Neurosurgeon Faces Malpractice Lawsuit after Operating on Wrong Side of Brain first appeared on SEONewsWire.net.]]>