Articles Posted in Brain Injury

South of our Sacramento home, in Modesto, California, a boy was severely injured in a car accident several months ago, suffering from a traumatic brain injury. This week, he is coming home to his family and friends. The boy, Tyler Allen, is going through a long process of recuperation and it will be some time before he is able to regain abilities he had before, such as walking and talking.

The accident, a collision between a semi-truck and a BMW, happened on May 9th. Tyler was sitting in the passenger seat of the BMW. Following the accident, Tyler was taken to the hospital where he was diagnosed with a broken hip, a broken knee, multiple head injuries, and placed in a coma. The driver of the BMW died at the scene.

Often times, the degree of severity for a coma will be described using the Glasgow Coma Score (GCS). The GCS assess several different aspects of a person’s skills, including verbal, eye, and motor responses. The final outcome is a number range from 3 to 15, 3 being the worst and 15 the best. Tyler has scored about a five which indicates a very severe injury.

The date for the annual California State Fair in our home of Sacramento is rapidly approaching. August 17th the gates will open and remain a place filled with rides, games, and treats until September 3rd. My family and I have always loved going to the fair. You can’t help but feel like a kid again, running around from ride to ride and smelling all the delicious goodies. But along with the fun, amusement parks can at times be dangerous. I just saw a recent article on roller coasters and injuries, in

My family and I have always loved going to the fair. You can’t help but feel like a kid again, running around from ride to ride and smelling all the delicious goodies. But along with the fun, amusement parks can at times be dangerous. I just saw a recent article on roller coasters and injuries, in particular, brain injuries. At our Personal Injury Law Firm, we know how costly (emotionally, physically, monetarily) a brain injury can be, not only for a person but also for his or her family.

The article states that a head or brain injury can occur from the jerking motions of a roller coaster ride. It states that people can be particularly susceptible to this when riding in the dark (for example a tunnel) or when turning their heads while on the ride (for example to see the view, or a parent checking on their child).

As a Personal Injury Law Firm in Sacramento, California, we see a lot of brain injury cases occurring from various sources of accidents, sometimes the most unexpected ones. Sports have been the catalyst for many brain injuries in young people these days. I guess it’s understandable. Interestingly enough, the sport that causes the greatest amount of brain injury in young people is not snowboarding as you blast down the mountain or even cumbersome football players slamming into one another, but rather horseback riding. Surprised? I know I was.

In the late July issue of its Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) stated that horseback riding is the number one culprit for causing traumatic brain injury in young people, with ice skating coming in as number two. Something we should all take some moments to think about, before we sign in our kids to next year’s activities.

The CDC also stated that each year about 65% of all sports-related brain injuries occur in people ages 5 to 18. When calculating all ages into the equation, basketball comes in number one, bringing in 603,239 people a year, and bicycling heads up number two with 524,692 people a year.