Patti's Blog - Advocate for Elders, People with Disabilities and Their Families

New Autism Brain Bank In Works

Excerpt from: Disability Scoop (click for full article)

 

A new multi-site network will launch this fall to collect brain samples for autism research in an effort to accelerate understanding of the developmental disorder.

The network known as Autism BrainNet will be an expansion of Autism Speaks’ Autism Tissue Program and will be the first such initiative to have sites across the country dedicated to acquiring, processing, storing and distributing brain tissue, organizers said.

Scientists say studying brain samples is the best way to understand autism, but such specimens are in short supply. The need for donations became even more urgent last year when a freezer malfunction at a Massachusetts brain bank left one-third of the world’s largest collection of autism brain samples unusable, though backers say the network set to launch later this year was already in the works when the failure occurred.

Ronald & Irene Ward Foundation $1.6M Donation Creates New Labs for Pediatric Brain Injury Research

Excerpt from: PR Newswire (click for full article)

 

New research to help children suffering from brain injuries such as severe head trauma, concussion and stroke is now underway at the University of Calgary-Alberta Health Services' Alberta Children's Hospital Research Institute for Child and Maternal Health (ACHRI), thanks to a generous $1.6 million donation from the Ronald and Irene Ward Foundation.

"Our vision is to find better ways to prevent, treat and even reverse the devastating impact of brain-related illness and injury," said Dr. Brent Scott , Director of ACHRI and Husky Energy Chair in Child and Maternal Health. "We're grateful to the Ward Foundation for its leadership in helping us achieve those goals."

"Support from the Ward Foundation is helping us attract more brain health scientists to Calgary," said Dr. Winne Meeuwisse , physician, researcher at the Hotchkiss Brain Institute (HBI) and a leader of the campus-wide Brain Injury Initiative at the University of Calgary. "This investment is facilitating collaboration at new levels. It is helping us bring together experts who are passionate about not just treating brain injury and illness, but also understanding what happens inside the diseased or traumatized brain, why it reacts as it does and how we can develop new therapies."

Healing hormone provides hope for brain injury

Excerpt from: Emory.edu (click for full article)

 

If Don Stein were the kind of man who listened to what others said, he would have shut down his lab years ago. The Emory neuroscientist spent more than two decades investigating progesterone as a treatment for traumatic brain injury (TBI) — a pursuit that was unappreciated at best and maligned at worst. A naturally occurring hormone was too simple a solution to too complex a problem, according to the prevailing wisdom.

Today Stein stands if not on the threshold of vindication, at least within the general neighborhood. After better-than-hoped-for results from the first human trial, progesterone is being tested in two nationwide phase 3 trials and also internationally in more than 20 countries.

And Stein is now expanding his scope to test whether progesterone can work its magic in other conditions, such as stroke, pediatric TBI and brain tumors.

Judge Rules Against Football Helmet Manufacturer

Excerpt from: New York Times (click for full article)

 

 

A jury in Colorado has found that Riddell, the country’s largest helmet manufacturer, was at fault for failure to adequately warn players wearing their football helmets about the dangers of potential concussions.

The company was ordered to pay several million dollars in damages to a 22-year-old man who was injured in 2008 while playing high school football.

The award, which came from the jury in Las Animas County District Court in Trinidad, Colo., early Saturday morning, is a rare victory for those injured while wearing football helmets. It could provide a prelude to a parallel case brought by N.F.L. retirees, who have also sued the company.

According to the verdict, Riddell is responsible for $3.1 million, or 27 percent of $11.5 million in damages that were awarded to Rhett Ridolfi, who sustained a head injury and was paralyzed on the left side of his body during a football drill in 2008.

 

Inspiration from (a girl named) Heaven

Excerpt from: Eyewitness News 4 (click for full article)

 

Heaven Mojica was just two years old when she beaten so badly by her mother's ex-boyfriend, doctors didn't expect her to live.

Now, nine years later at age 11, she's thriving with her adoptive mom and overcoming the challenges of a traumatic brain injury. 

Mojica is a miracle by all accounts. When asked how to draw a picture of Heaven she said, "I draw a picture of me." 

She's a survivor with so much love to give.

"I'm thankful for everyone in here, yet." And she loves to laugh. We first met Heaven in 2005. Even then, her charitable spirit was alive, unscathed by a tumultuous path.

"I had many surgeries," Heaven said. "I had brain surgery, eye surgery, hip surgery and leg surgery."

The Impact Of Traumatic Brain Injury On Sexuality And The Importance Of Rehabilitation Strategies

Excerpt from: Medical News Today (click for full article)

 

Each year more than three million Americans are living with traumatic brain injury (TBI), a condition that is associated with physical, cognitive, and emotional problems that often affect their sexuality, and subsequently their marital stability, identity, and self-esteem. Taking an in-depth look at the impact of TBI on sexuality, an investigative team critically reviews fourteen studies representing a collective study sample of nearly 1,500 patients, partners, spouses, control individuals, and rehabilitation professionals to examine brain injury and sexuality. It is published in NeuroRehabilitation: An International Journal.

"Sexuality in patients with chronic disease or physical handicaps warrants attention and consideration so that effective intervention plans can be formulated. A healthy sex life may decrease muscular and emotional tension, increase pain threshold, reduce physical stress, improve sleep, and diminish emotional stress within relationships," says Jhon Alexander Moreno, doctoral candidate in the Department of Psychology at Université de Montréal, Québec, Canada. He has made this important issue the central topic of his research work, which is conducted under the international direction of Professors Michelle McKerral at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Rehabilitation in Montréal, and Juan Carlos Arango Lasprilla from the University of Deusto, Spain, in collaboration with Caron Gan from Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital in Toronto, Canada. "A lack of information and education on sexuality and disability is a major contributing factor towards the stigma attached to them."

A Court Test for Suits About Head Trauma

Excerpt from: The New York Times (click for full article)

 

The N.F.L. will face off in court Tuesday against thousands of retirees in a case that will help determine the league’s role in caring for players with dementia and other neurodegenerative diseases.

The issue in front of United States District Court Judge Anita Brody in Philadelphia is whether to grant the N.F.L.’s request to dismiss more than 200 cases brought by more than 4,000 former players who accused the league of hiding information about the dangers of head trauma. The players are seeking damages for their injuries.

The league has insisted the cases, filed in the last few years, essentially involved workplace safety issues covered by the collective bargaining agreements that players agreed to. Therefore, the players should plead their cases to arbitrators in grievance procedures, not a judge, the league has said.

Brain-injury survivors, including war and sports victims, are honored in exhibit

Excerpt from: The Washington Post (click for full article)

 

Hemorrhages, blunt-force trauma and bullet wounds don’t exactly scream “art.” But in a new exhibit, the National Museum of Health and Medicine is honoring men and women who survived such traumatic brain injuries (TBI).

The temporary exhibit — titled “Whack’ed . . . and then everything was different” — expands on the museum’s standing TBI installation, which showcases human brain specimens as well as medical tools used for surgery, treatment and rehabilitation. Artist and TBI survivor Eliette Markhbein created the larger-than-life portrait series to raise awareness of TBIs.

Taking brain injuries from the battlefield to the classroom

Excerpt from: KOSU (click for full article)

 

TBI isn’t a new injury, and it’s not unique to recent wars. But many experts believe that the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, with their blurred front lines and improvised explosive devices, have particular harm to the brains of the people fighting in them.

“These wars are different from, say, World War II,” says David Hovda, Director of the UCLA Brain Injury Research Center. “In Iraq and Afghanistan, you could be walking down any street and have somebody blow up an IED or a car and the explosive that’s being used is so powerful, it’s a devastating way to be exposed to an injury.”

Just how many veterans have a traumatic brain injury is a surprisingly difficult question to answer. Estimates vary widely; the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center says almost 270,000 traumatic brain injuries have been diagnosed in service members between 2000 and 2012 — most of which are not deployment-related – and a report from the Rand Corporation suggests that almost 20 percent of service members who served in Iraq or Afghanistan say they experienced a traumatic brain injury during deployment.

Parents should lay down law on importance of bike helmets

Excerpt from: The Oakland Press (click for full article)

 

Not wearing a bike helmet to be “cool” is knuckling under to peer pressure. Those parents should use this opportunity to explain peer pressure and its consequences to their son.

He needs to understand that he must make decisions for himself, and his “friends” should accept him for who he is. He needs to learn to stand his ground and be who he wants to be despite what others think of him. He also needs to learn to make decisions that affect his life based on facts, and not follow the crowd. True friends will most often make the same sound decisions that he makes, or accept his decision without pressuring him.

One other comment: Require the kid to wear a helmet or forfeit the right to ride a bike. It’s called “tough love” and although it is tough, it is also rewarding. More parents need to have sound, well-thought-out rules and stick to them. — PARENT FIRST, FRIEND SECOND