Do repeated head injuries or sports-related concussions cause a brain disease that is similar to Lou Gerhig’s disease?  Researchers from Boston University seem to think so.

Evidence shows repeated head injuries may be linked to brain diseases

As reported by the Wall Street Journal recently, researchers took a look at the brain and spinal cords of deceased athletes.  And what they found was that there was evidence to support the position that multiple head trauma or repeated head injuries – MTBI – was linked to a condition very similar to Lou Gehrig’s disease also known as ALS.

The researchers also determined that with repeated concussions the risk increases for a variety of brain disorders – Alzheimers’s, Parkinson’s and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a muscle-wasting disease.

More research is needed, of course, to verify the scientist findings and to explore additional and related issues.  However, this information may be useful to doctors and scientists in treating brain injuries in athletes and personal injury victims.

Researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston are urging that Traumatic Brain Injury, also known as TBI or acquired brain injury, be reclassified as a chronic disease and not a singular event.

TBI classification impacts research and funding

And as reported by Science Daily – here is why: a traumatic brain injury is actually not a single event.  It is the beginning of a process.  It impacts many aspect of an injury victim’s physical, emotional, psychological, and cognitive being.  And it impacts their friends and family as well.

This position is not only supported by research it is common sense to anyone who has ever cared for a brain injury patient or family member.

But the importance of the classification resides in far more than a name or label; the label effects the care and nature of the funding and research that goes toward addressing this disease.

Traumatic brain injury impacts and is associated with the following diseases and disorders, according to the researchers:

•    Neurological disorders that reduces life expectancy, including epilepsy;
•    Neurodegenerative disorders that lead to gradual declines in cognitive function after injury, including Alzheimer’s dementia, Parkinson’s disease;
•    A host of neuroendocrine disorders;
•    Psychiatric and psychological diseases;
•    Non-neurologic disorders, including sexual dysfunction;

Additional funding is required if a potential cure both traumatic brain injury as well as these related disorders is going to be properly researched.  Re-classifying traumatic brain injury as a chronic disease may help to provide researchers with those needed resources and opportunities.

As reported by the Hartford Courant, a former employee at the Kleen Energy power plant in New Jersey has filed a lawsuit against the plant owners over injuries he sustained during a gas blowout in February.

Nicholas Novik claims in his lawsuit that he and other workers should not have been required to be on site during a dangerous procedure known as a “gas blow.”

The explosion killed six workers and Novik suffered a serious head injury and permanent brain damage. An OSHA investigation found the conditions during the gas ventilation were “deadly” and the owners committed numerous safety violations.

As reported by the San Francisco Chronicle, a personal injury victim who was riding on a friend’s SUV when he fell to the pavement died late Sunday night.

The injury victim – a 19 year old young man from Contra Costa County – had been standing on the running board of a 1997 Toyota SUV when the accident took place.

According to police reports, the Toyota had only traveled a short distance at relatively low speed when the young man lost his grip and fell the the pavement.

It is unclear at this point whether the injury victim hit his head or was run over by the vehicle.

The accident is still under investigation.

As reported by various media sources, a class action lawsuit has been filed in California alleging that AT&T has charged ‘exorbitant’ fees for international roaming.  These charges apply even when the calls placed by AT&T customers are not answered, according to the lawsuit.

The complaint also asserts that AT&T structured their bills so that customers are not aware of these charges, according to court documents.

The class action was filed on Aug. 5 in federal district court in Oakland.  According to court filings the communications company also hid from customers how they could avoid the roaming fees.

The lawsuit also alleges violations of federal truth-in-billing laws – false advertising and deceptive trade practices under New York law – breach of contract – as well as other causes of action.

As reported by Bloomberg News, the the drugmaker AstraZeneca Plc will settle approximately 17,500 personal injury and/or product liability lawsuits for about $198 million involving their antipsychotic drug Seroquel, which causes diabetes in some patients.

The settlements came out of a court ordered mediation and put drug makers one step closer to resolving the 26,000 total Seroquel cases believed to exist.

According to financial media reports, the markets will view this settlement favorably as it is lower than some estimates for the potential liability and because it removes the uncertainty of having all those claims pending against the U.K.’s second largest drugmaker.

A new brain injury study shows that prismatic eyeglasses may help certain injury victims who have suffered traumatic brain injury – TBI.

We here at San Jose Injury Attorney Blog have written about new therapies and treatments for traumatic brain injury victims recently (click here and here and here).

And as more and more military personnel return home from Iraq and Afghanistan suffering from both TBI and MTBI the number of different therapies and treatments for traumatic brain injury sufferers is certain to grow.

The prismatic eyeglasses are used to address common brain injury symptoms such as headaches, dizziness, neck pain and anxiety.  And the study in questions shows that such symptoms can be reduced significantly – 71.8% – with about four months of treatment.

In an article about the new treatment on the Dallas publication examiner.com, Mark S. Rosner, M.D.emergency department staff physician at Saint Joseph Mercy in Ann Arbor and adjunct clinical instructor in the Department of Emergency Medicine at The University of Michigan Medical School (also in Ann Arbor), was quoted as stating: “Vision was known to be affected by TBI, but now it appears that the vision abnormalities caused by the TBI are causing the other post-concussive symptoms.”

The researches are hopeful that this new approach will aid traumatic brain injury victims from the military as well as personal injury accidents.

As reported by the Boston Globe, the Department of the Defense is investigating whether a brain injury study improperly involved members of the armed forces who had suffered traumatic brain injuries.

The study involved potentially 80 injured American service members in Iraq.  It was sponsored by the US Navy through its medical center in San Diego.  The study was designed to test and determine whether a drug that had been manufactured and used to treat Tylenol overdoes could also be used in treating traumatic brain injury among services members.

Traumatic brain injuries – both TBI and MTBI – have become the signatures injuries in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The study in question looked at the impact of an antioxidant known as N-acetyl-cysteine, commonly referred to as NAC.  Researchers wanted to determine if NAC was administered to injury victims that had suffered exposure to a blast or shock-wave, cable of causing a traumatic brain injury, would it benefit those injury victims in terms of loss of balance and cognitive problems.

According to media reports, while the tests may have been conducted improperly, it appears that the results indicate that the drug may help brain injury patients.

The investigation is on-going.

According to media reports, the family of an injury victim who claimed that he was abused by a priest has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the Catholic diocese of Pittsburgh. The wrongful death action stems from the injury victim committing suicide allegedly as a result of the abuse.

The injury victim killed himself in May while at the Austen Riggs Center in Massachusetts, a few months after he learned the diocese would no longer pay for his treatment.

The injury victim claimed he had been sexually molested for several years by a priest for the dioceses.

Here at San Jose Injury Attorney blog we make it a point to normally not provide the name of injury victims involved in wrongful death, personal injury, traumatic brain injury, or workplace injury matters.

As reported by the San Jose Mercury News, Toyota is recalling 412,000 Avalons and Lexuses due to personal injury and product liability concerns that could result from steering problems.

The Avalons that will be impacted date from between 2000 and 2004.  The cars have improperly cast steering lock bars that appear to have been a factor in three personal injury accidents reported to the company.

The product defect could potentially cause a crack to develop on the surface of the steering wheel, which in turn may increase the risk of a collision or accident.

In other Toyota Recall related news, Bloomberg News reported that Toyota is set to recall 80,000 Land Cruisers for another problem involving steering shafts.

When these recent recalls are taken into account, the total of recalled Toyotas world wide for the past year is approximately 9 million vehicles.  And Toyota continues to face hundred of personal injury and product liability lawsuits for related injuries and product defects.