Lately, we have heard a lot about NFL head injuries. Professional football players are hit in the head so many times throughout the course of a practice and game that the National Football League has been under fire lately. The criticism surprisingly hasn’t been centered upon the helmets themselves per se but instead, the hits the players take and how quickly they are allowed to return to the game following such a hit. The studies have expanded to high school sports including football, hockey and soccer and the head injuries caused by these sports.
It has always been surprising to me that professional and high school baseball pitchers are not required to wear helmets. The batters wear helmets for obvious reason – they are at risk of being hit by a pitch. Why not the pitchers who are at risk of even worse – being struck in the head by a 100 MPH fastball hit right back at them?
Traumatic brain injuries occur frequently outside of the sports realm. While there isn’t much focus on the statistics surrounding brain or head injuries in falls or car accidents, what’s important is that awareness is brought to these injuries.
As an Illinois and Missouri accident injury attorney, I have represented a lot of people who have suffered a traumatic brain injury (TBI). My clients have suffered brain injuries as a result of hard falls, motorcycle crashes, car accidents, and tractor trailer wrecks. Most people think that a brain injury requires a significant blow to the head, a cracked skull, or something else severe. That isn’t correct and in fact, a serious brain injury can result without a blow to the head at all.
The CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) has called for changes to our injury surveillance systems responsible for reporting head and brain injuries. The hope is that we can learn more about what causes the injuries and what the long-term outcomes are.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has advocated that TBIs, including the more mild cases known as concussions, should be considered a serious public health problem. Although efforts have been made to improve prevention and early treatment of these injuries, a new CDC report says such measures don’t go far enough.
Image Credit: CBS/istockphoto
© Lindsay Rakers 2013
Illinois Injury Attorney
Missouri Injury Attorney
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