Keeping Our Heads - Hardly anyone outside of an emergency room knows how to respond to brain trauma.

[groovedaddy]

THE death of the actress Natasha Richardson after a fall on a ski slope has further publicized an ugly truth that millions of Americans already know: Hardly anyone outside of an emergency room knows how to respond to brain trauma. There isn’t a standard response system that has been adequately promulgated in high school or college athletics, boxing rings or ski resorts. We’re fascinated by the inner workings of the brain and marvel at its mysteries, yet we aren’t very serious about protecting our most prized organ.

According to a 2008 list put together by the American Academy of Certified Brain Injury Specialists, there isn’t a single certified brain injury specialist working on America’s ski slopes.

Brain injury prevention and research has been notoriously underfinanced for decades now. In 2007, the federal AIDS budget was $22.8 billion, and Parkinson’s disease received $250 million. In contrast, the Health and Human Services Department’s traumatic brain injury program, the most substantive public health program targeting this problem, was allotted only $8.5 million, and last year President George W. Bush even proposed eliminating it. (President Obama recently added around $1 million to the program.)

There has been some good news, too. The Department of Defense has increased allocations for brain injury research in recent years. One of the most promising neurotrauma protocols comes from an Emory University researcher, Donald Stein, whose work suggests that a dose of the hormone progesterone administered within 24 hours of a brain injury could have a profound protective effect. In three years, an injection of progesterone might be standard procedure in every emergency response arsenal.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/30/opinion/30mason.html?th&emc=th

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. Her death wasted such a brilliant life...

Not to mention the unspeakable loss to her husband and boys.

K&R

[groovedaddy]

2. True. I just hate to see this stuff happen. n.t

[xxqqqzme]

3. I know I was extremely

fortunate when I was taken to a top tier trauma center. My regular doctor told me, 4 months later, the survival rate of brain trauma patients was so much higher there than anywhere else in southern California. After he finished reviewing my medical records, he looked up and said 'You should buy a lottery ticket'.

[Kali]

4. figures boosh would want to eliminate funding for brain injury work

considering his was totaled by drugs and alcohol

[Kali]

5. dupe

dupe hiccup

[Warpy]

6. It wasn't just that

It was an unprepared staff that wasn't willing to contradict a wealthy and famous person who didn't want to leave her kids long enough to get checked out at a hospital.

It was an ambulance staff who took no for an answer against their better judgment and without seeing her.

It was likely a woman who really didn't want to make a fuss, it was only a knock on the head, she'd be fine as frog hair tomorrow.

If anything, maybe her death will make other people take "just a knock on the head" a little more seriously. For people who search for meaning in seemingly senseless and preventable tragedy, maybe this is it: she died a teacher.

[hedgehog]

7. Truth is, for every Natasha Richardson, there must be thousands of people

who walk away with a little bump, if that. Her story made big headlines because it was such an unusual outcome to something that happens to people every day. It would be nice if we could tell who is in trouble right away.

[Warpy]

8. Anybody with a loss of consciousness

even for a few seconds, needs to go to the ER and get checked out. They also need to stay with someone else for the next 24 hours, at least, and be checked frequently to make sure they're not running into trouble.

That won't save everybody, but it will catch most of the problems.

[groovedaddy]

9. Yeah, that's standard practice for possible concussion. She waved them off and paid the price.

She might have been saved with proper medical attention.

[ChazII]

10. Going off topic a bit

but the DoD gives hope to those who do not have Hollywood to help them. (NF in my family's case.) Hopefully, Hollywood and the arts will bring as much awareness to this issue as they did to AIDS.