Free Republic

With the apparent suicide of NFL great Junior Seau, who played 20 years in the world's most violently glamorous sport, American football is dying. It's about time. The nationally televised gambling and meat-rendering factory cannot survive without new players. And the parents of future players are asking themselves this: Is football worth it for my child?

A gray-haired woman in a green floral dress is screaming the worst moment of her life in front of the entire world. Luisa Seau stands in front of microphones, in front of cameras, on televisions across the country wailing the sometimes incoherent words of every mother’s worst nightmare. “I pray to God,” she screams, “please take me, take me and leave my son, but it’s too late. Too late.” You might’ve seen the heartbreaking video already. If you watched television at all Wednesday, or opened up a web browser, it was hard to miss and harder to stomach that Junior...

LEICESTER, England, April 25, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) - According to the Daily Mail newspaper, a young British man owes his life to an insistent father who would not allow his son’s organs to be removed from his body, despite assurances from four doctors that his son could not recover from the wounds he had suffered in a recent car accident. The Mail reports that Stephen Thorpe, then 17, was placed in a medically-induced coma following a multi-car pileup that had already taken the life of his friend Matthew, who was driving the vehicle. Although a team of four physicians insisted that...

Gary Harvey (WASHINGTON D.C.) - Where does one turn when you become disabled, vulnerable or old and become unlawfully a victim of the system? There are no kind words for the injustice that Chemung County New York has visited upon my husband, Gary Harvey and me. Gary at work. My husband a veteran who served his country and fought for our freedom is being denied his.Until January 2006, my husband was leading a normal life. I am telling this story on behalf of a “Person”. Not a corporation, not a piece of “Human Capital” and definitely not a legal...

One of the most memorable experiences that I ever had was with the Miraculous Medal! It changed my life. In the fall of 1948, the year after my ordination, I was in what we call the Tertianship. This is a third year of Novitiate before taking final vows.In October of that year, a Vincentian priest came to speak to us young Jesuit priests. He encouraged us to obtain faculties, as they are called, to enroll people in the Confraternity of the Miraculous Medal. Among other things, he said, "Fathers, the Miraculous Medal works. Miracles have been performed by Our Lady...

OLYMPIA — Sarah Harris goes through the motions of her day trying hard not to think about what life was like a year ago — or what it would be like now if not for "the incident." She feels guilty leaving the house, even if only for a couple of hours to visit her mom or sister, to run errands, or go grocery shopping. She still cries every night. Her husband, the first boy she kissed and the only man she's ever loved, suffered a catastrophic brain injury when his head slammed into a concrete wall after a brief footchase...

This city has proclaimed today Terri Schiavo day. Last year Mrs. Schiavo, 27, suffered a loss of potassium in her body that caused her heart to stop beating and resulted in a coma. She underwent surgery, performed by Dr. Yoshio Hosobudhi of the University of California at San Francisco in December, to implant a stimulator in her brain. The brain stimulator implant was a success, said her husband, Mike. Mrs. Schiavo is slowly emerging from the coma at the Mediplex Medical Center, a neurological care center in Bradenton, he said. She will undergo at least a year of speech, occupational...

It's not often when one can draw parallels between professional athletes and elected officials in Washington, D.C.. Today, however, one of those opportunities surfaced, causing me to conclude that politicians, like professional football players, should donate their brains to science.

Jodie Beckner demonstrated a move at Pilates Plus in La Jolla, where she teaches classes. Six years ago, Beckner suffered a permanent traumatic brain injury after a head-on collision on an icy Vermont road. She graduated from SDSU in December and hopes to go to nursing school. Peggie Peattie / Union-Tribune Mike Beckner was fixing dinner when he got the phone call parents dread — the one from a doctor trying to break awful news gently.Earlier that day, Nov. 11, 2003, his daughter, Jodie, had driven up a mountain to catch the first day of snowboarding season at a...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 8, 2009 – The price appears to be right for former game show host and naval aviator Bob Barker, who donated $3 million to help build a premiere Defense Department center for wounded warriors suffering traumatic brain injuries. The donation brings the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund to its $60 million goal to build the National Intrepid Center of Excellence, Bill White, president of the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund, announced yesterday. The 72,000-square-foot, two-story facility is expected to open next year next to the new Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md. The Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund...

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – People who suffer a traumatic brain injury from a car crash or other mishap are more apt to survive if they had been drinking at the time of the injury, according to a study published Monday. The finding "raises the intriguing possibility" that giving alcohol to brain injured patients may improve outcome, the study team suggests in the Archives of Surgery. Alcohol and driving "is and will always continue to be bad -- it contributes to over 40 percent of traffic-related fatalities," first author Dr. Ali Salim of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles emphasized in...

No direct impact caused Paul McQuigg’s brain injury in Iraq three years ago. And no wound from the incident visibly explains why Mr. McQuigg, now an office manager at a California Marine base, can get lost in his own neighborhood or arrive at the grocery store having forgotten why he left home. But his blast injury — concussive brain trauma caused by an explosion’s invisible force waves — is no less real to him than a missing limb is to other veterans. Just how real could become clearer after he dies, when doctors slice up his brain to examine any...

Julia a three year old US citizen has just won substantial compensation in the US Federal Court for autism caused by MMR vaccine – says her mother. What is different about this case? They kept the “autism” word out of the case. Many parents in other US cases have been advised to do this:- CBS News has found that since 1988, the vaccine court has awarded money judgments, often in the millions of dollars, to thirteen hundred and twenty two families whose children suffered brain damage from vaccines. In many … cases, the government paid out awards following a judicial...

CHANDLER, AZ – A 21-year-old man is in custody for allegedly throwing his girlfriend's 2-year-old girl onto concrete ground, critically injuring the child. Police said Jeremiahs Aguilar admitted to police that he threw the toddler because she wouldn't stop crying. On Saturday, Josepha Talavara, 20, allegedly called 9-1-1 and said her daughter was unresponsive. Police responded to her home near Chandler Boulevard and Fresno Street where they discovered the child in critical condition. The victim was transported to a local hospital and later airlifted to a trauma center, according to police. As of late Monday, she remained on life support...

The smiles on their faces mirror the sweetness of their newfound friendship. For Sarah Scantlin, it's a Friday, the day her friend Stacia Thrash comes to visit. Thrash will do Sarah's makeup, and maybe they'll talk about what Sarah had for lunch. In their hour together, they'll sing a song and read a story. Thrash, a volunteer through the Reno County Volunteer Center, will paint Sarah's fingernails. Nancy Wilson, activity director at Golden Plains Health Care Center, wiped away the tear that rolled down her cheek as she watched the two women together - Thrash, 20, a sophomore at Hutchinson...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The National Right to Life Committee (NRLC) will have a special screening of the new documentary, “The Terri Schiavo Story” from Franklin Springs Family Media, at their national convention in June. Additionally, National Right to Life will be endorsing the film in their April edition of the National Right to Life News which is sent out to nearly 400,000 subscribers. NRLC State Organization and Development Director Jacki Ragan stated, “This story is one that pro-lifers ought to review once a year.” The NRLC review of the documentary goes on to say, “The DVD does an excellent job...

The role of traumatic brain injury -- blamed for symptoms plaguing thousands of soldiers returning from Iraq -- might be overstated, contends a provocative military study that offers hope for successful treatment. In many cases, post-traumatic stress and depression may be driving the symptoms, doctors reported Wednesday. And that's good news because those are treatable. The study by U.S. military doctors was praised by outside experts who found the conclusions convincing. Returning soldiers have struggled with memory loss, irritability, trouble sleeping and other problems. Many have suffered mild blast-related concussions, but there is no easy way to separate which symptoms...

"Paulo Melo, 29, has been in a coma at the Royal Darwin Hospital for two weeks, after severing his spinal cord in a car crash." - read more below: doctor requested, family objected, court granted

Memories help construct lives and life experiences—without them, living life would be nearly impossible. Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases are debilitating illnesses capable of ruining victims’ lives and inflicting pain and sadness on their families. Recent findings at UC Irvine show that the use of stem cells can reverse memory loss after brain injuries and diseases, such as Alzheimer’s. “This study can very well benefit people with diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, as well as physical brain injuries and neuron loss, if it becomes transferable to humans,” said Debbie Morisette, a stereologist working on the study. “But as of right...

DALLAS -- A wounded Iraq veteran and his wife have lost a third child from injuries the boy suffered in a car accident on the way to visit his father in the hospital. Three weeks after his siblings died in an Oct. 13 accident on the gusty West Texas plains, 9-year-old Tyler Johnson died Saturday at Children's Medical Center Dallas. Army Spc. John Austin Johnson was waiting for his wife, Lisa, and their three kids to visit him at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio when the deadly crash occurred on Interstate 10 about 12 miles east of Ozona....

Irvine, CA (LifeNews.com) -- A new study by researchers at the University of California, Irvine finds another advance in the use of adult stem cells. In this case, researchers used the stem cells from the brain of a mouse to restore memory following a brain injury. The team used the neural stem cells to protect existing cells that were still healthy following the injury and to restore neuronal connections that had been damaged. Scientists were able to restore the brain to pre-damaged levels three months following the treatment. Lead researcher Mathew Blurton-Jones, a postdoctorate fellow at the university, told the...

FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. - Before they leave for Iraq, thousands of troops with the 101st Airborne Division line up at laptop computers to take a test: basic math, matching numbers and symbols, and identifying patterns. They press a button quickly to measure response time. It's all part of a fledgling Army program that records how soldiers' brains work when healthy, giving doctors baseline data to help diagnose and treat the soldiers if they suffer a traumatic brain injury — the signature injury of the Iraq war. "This allows the Army to be much more proactive," said Lt. Col. Mark McGrail,...

FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. (AP) - Before they leave for Iraq, thousands of troops with the 101st Airborne Division line up at laptop computers to take a test: basic math, matching numbers and symbols, and identifying patterns. They press a button quickly to measure response time. It's all part of a fledgling Army program that records how soldiers' brains work when healthy, giving doctors baseline data to help diagnose and treat them if they come back with a traumatic brain injury - the signature injury of the Iraq war....

The war in Iraq is not over, but one legacy is already here in this city and others across America: an epidemic of brain-damaged soldiers. Thousands of troops have been diagnosed with traumatic brain injury, or TBI. These blast-caused head injuries are so different from the ones doctors are used to seeing from falls and car crashes that treating them is as much faith as it is science. "I've been in the field for 20-plus years dealing with TBI. I have a very experienced staff. And they're saying to me, 'We're seeing things we've never seen before,'" said Sandy Schneider,...

An unusual study by doctors treating blast victims at a field hospital in Iraq has found that ruptured eardrums may help reveal which troops are at risk of hidden brain injury. The finding is important because many such brain injuries have been missed in the past, especially when more severe or obvious wounds demanded attention. Researchers report their observation in a letter in Thursday's issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. Diagnosing brain injury, especially mild damage, is based largely on subjective symptoms like irritability and forgetfulness. Imaging tests like CAT scans do not help, and neurological function tests...

AMERICAN FORK — Many travelers to foreign countries have goals to see new sights and try exotic foods. Travis Ashton Travis Ashton's goal was a bit loftier — to receive stem-cell treatments at a hospital in China to help recover from a brain injury he suffered in a car accident seven years ago. Travis, 18, and his parents traveled to Hangzhou, China, in June for a five-week stay at the Beike Biotechnology Clinic where Travis was to receive four stem-cell treatments. He received six. "We had planned on four, and he ended up having two more," said Missy Ashton, Travis'...

"The good news is that the majority of these people who become ill or injured ... are going to survive and are going to be able to return either to the military or to civilian life and be productive."

WASHINGTON, March 5, 2007 – Traumatic brain injury, the signature wound of a conflict punctuated by daily bomb attacks on coalition forces and Iraqi civilians, is receiving increased emphasis from Defense Department leaders and the military medical community. DoD has made great strides in treating severe traumatic brain injuries -- those with obvious symptoms like open head trauma or loss of consciousness -- but the challenge lies in better identifying and treating mild brain injury, two top officials in the DoD health care community said. These mild injuries, which can be caused by repeated concussions or indirect exposure to...

A Texas children's hospital is working with the University of Texas' Medical School in a unique clinical trial using bone marrow stem cells to treat children's brain trauma. This trial, which does not involve ethically problematic and controversial embryonic stem cells, is the first to use stem cells in the treatment of traumatic brain injury, for which there is currently no reparative therapy. Dr. James Baumgartner, M.D., is an associate professor of pediatric neurosurgery and one of the principal investigators on the project. He says this procedure will be "an absolutely novel treatment, the first ever with potential to repair...

GRESHAM, Oregon October 10, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A young boy, who had previously been diagnosed as being in a “permanent vegetative state,” has awakened from a 22 month-long coma and is breathing on his own.Devon Rivers collapsed in a seizure during a phys-ed class in 2004 and his condition was never explained, though some doctors suggested it was caused by an unknown viral infection. Doctors agreed, however, that he had little hope of recovery. His mother, Carla Rivers, visited him regularly and, in addition to physical therapy by his paediatric nursing home to keep his limbs supple, she talked...

MELBOURNE, Australia, October 5, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Patients designated as in a “persistent vegetative state (PVS)” should be used for medical experiments, according to several top bioethicists, regardless of whether or not prior consent was obtained.Several articles published in the recent issue of the Journal of Medical debated the potential use of patients with non-responsive brain function for such medical experiments as animal organ transplants—to bypass ethic prohibitions against using a living human being for medical experimentation, some even suggested designating such patients as “dead,” saying their cognitive impairments justified treating them as cadavers.Dr. John Shea, medical advisor to...

ROME, September 15, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A new case-study raises more doubts about the ethical determination of “brain-death”, since researchers discovered that a patient suffering from a “persistent vegetative state” (PVS) demonstrated similar brain activity to healthy conscious individuals according to Zenit news. Under the leadership of neuroscientist Dr. Adrian Owen, the team of scientists from Cambridge University and the Belgian University of Liège applied MRI technology to discover that the brain activity of a PVS patient indicated she was “consciously aware of herself and her surroundings.” In their experiment, the researchers gave oral commands to a 23-year-old comatose Englishwoman,...

The Senate is close to meeting the military brain-injury challenge it nearly failed. Three weeks ago, lawmakers drew fire for trying to halve the budget of the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center by leaving $7 million out of this year's appropriations bill... Thankfully, the cut is being corrected thanks to Sen. George Allen's amendment this week. Allen stepped up Tuesday with a measure to reverse the funding cut and increas[e] the center's budget to $19 million. The measure passed by unanimous consent [and] is expected to reach the floor later this month. ... We spoke this week with the...

Doctors have their first proof that a man who was barely conscious for nearly 20 years regained speech and movement because his brain spontaneously rewired itself by growing tiny new nerve connections to replace the ones sheared apart in a car crash. Terry Wallis, 42, is one of the few people known to have recovered so dramatically so long after a serious brain injury. He still needs help eating and cannot walk, but his speech continues to improve and he can count to 25 without interruption.

Many of you replied when I originally posted my husband's horrible hospital odyssey of several months ago. Things were going okay in the Catholic hospital, until my husband knocked out his trach in his sleep. The alarm didn't go off. My husband can breathe on his own, and the ventilator was giving him some small support. His heart stopped. They resuscitated him, and he's been in a twilight since. The dr. he has has given up on him - this has only been a week. My husband IS starting to respond and focus, but the dr. doesn't care. He's pressuring...

DULUTH, Minn. -- A retired police officer and youth hockey coach was critically injured by a hockey puck Saturday during a father-son game. Dennin Bauers, 52, was struck behind the left ear by a puck at around 9:30 a.m., when about 20 high school players - mostly from Duluth Central High School -- took on their fathers at the Duluth Entertainment Convention Center. He was wearing a helmet, but collapsed and was taken to the hospital. He remained in critical condition Sunday afternoon at St. Luke's Hospital in Duluth, according to the hospital's intensive care unit. "He's in bad, bad...

(KUTV) An incredible and un-suspecting accident leaves a Utah Boy Scout just inches from death when he was stabbed right between his eyes. Jeff Jaeger spoke to Kevin Coulter and tells 2News how this was a truly freak accident. While raking leaves for a Boy Scout event, one of the leaders flung a knife from his hand while trying to catch another scout who had tripped. “It was dark, it was like 8:30 and there was a light and I saw it flash before it hit me,” said Kevin. The blade landed in between his frontal lobes. It was 2...

"[There's] no real support system for a trauma, for a life-threatening immediate incident that takes place. That throws your whole life into a tailspin," said Tracy East. East is another mom who camped at her injured child's bedside day and night. She realized there isn't anything to get parents through this.

For 20 years, Sarah Scantlin was seemingly unaware of the world around her after she was hit by a drunk driver in an accident that sent her into a comatose state in September of 1984. Then in February, she shocked her parents and doctors when she began to speak. In her first national television interview, after undergoing surgery on her long-unused limbs and speech therapy to unlock her long-dormant tongue, Scantlin speaks with The Early Show national correspondent Tracy Smith in a two-part interview to be broadcast Thursday and Friday. Smith also speaks with Sarah's parents, Jim and Betsy Scantlin,...

It's a new world' Sarah Scantlin making gains in regaining control of her arms in infinitesimal increments By Clara Kilbourn The balls of gauze that protected Sarah Scantlin's feet for two decades have been traded in for a pair of high-top sneakers. A welcome spot of breakfast lingers on her T-shirt, and she smiles when her mother, Betsy Scantlin, talks about Sarah's newfound fondness for Zingers and French fries. "Where's the catsup?" Sarah asked when the French fries were served, Betsy said. In the six months since she spoke her first "OK" - after 20 years of no verbal communication,...

No Explanation for NYC Firefighter's Stunning Recovery From Brain Injury Nearly 10 Years' Later =========================================================== NEW YORK May 3, 2005 — Nearly 10 years after a brain injury left a firefighter virtually mute, he suddenly started talking to his wife and sons last weekend. A couple of years ago, it happened with a severely injured car accident victim who'd spent 19 years in silence. And before that, a paralyzed policeman whose brain had been damaged in a shooting suddenly regained his speech after eight years. Normally, brain-injured patients who get better do so within the first five years, especially in...

When Sandy Burke looks at Terri Schiavo, she sees her son. Fifteen years after his car crashed into a tree, Richard Burke hovers between what doctors say is a persistent vegetative state and minimal consciousness. He sits propped in a wheelchair during the day, his face largely blank, his eyes flickering open and shut. At 43, he relies on others for every need. When his mother speaks to him, he sometimes turns his eyes in her direction and smiles or offers a thumbs up or down. Sometimes, he doesn't. No one knows how much he understands. A few years ago,...

(From HOLY KARBALA) - People witnessed on Sunday 28 November, 2004, a miracle of grandson of holy Prophet Muhammad bin Abdullah (p), Chief of Martyrs Al-Imam Al-Hussein bin Ali bin Abi Talib (p), in favor of a young renowned Husseini dirge-chanter Ghassan Al-Karbalayi. According to details, Ghassan Al-Karbalayi, born in Baghdad, had been serving the Husseini pulpit in Iran, Bahrain, Kuwait, Lebanon, Syria and many other countries until the day he faced a road accident two years ago at a road from Tehran to Isfahan while returning from Kuwait after observing and reciting dirges there to mark Arbaeen Al-Husseini, or...

Judge George Greer ruled that the State of Florida has no right to take custody of Terri Schiavo, which ruling came hours after an appeal by Terri's parents to re-insert the feeding tube was refused by the U.S. Supreme Court. Meanwhile, another hearing was scheduled tonight before US District Judge James D. Whittemore .. the same judge who previously heard and denied the request subsequent to the 'de novo' intention of the law past last weekend by the Congress and signed by President Bush, in an effort to confirm that no stone was left unturned before Terri would endure legally...

STARVATION: DAY 8 Jeb Bush not likely to ride to rescue Florida governor indicates he won't defy court order Posted: March 25, 2005 1:00 a.m. Eastern © 2005 WorldNetDaily.com Those hoping Florida Gov. Jeb Bush will step forward to save Terri Schiavo from imminent, court-ordered starvation death are likely to be disappointed, based on his comments to a group of reporters following county court Judge George Greer's ruling against the state's effort to take custody of the brain-injured woman at the center of a worldwide euthanasia controversy. While Bush reiterated his motivation to save Schiavo, based on new evidence that...

Non Embryonic Stem Cell Treatment Allows Paralysed Brazilian To Walk, Talk Again RIO DE JANEIRO, November 23, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Brazilian scientists have successfully transplanted adult stem cells into a woman's brain, facilitating her recovery from a brain hemorrhage that left her paralysed and unable to talk. Maria da Graca Pomeceno, 54, had bone marrow stem cells taken from her pelvis and injected into her damaged brain. Local television broadcasts showed her walking up stairs and talking. Hans Fernando Dohmann, director of Rio's Pro-Cardiaco Hospital, said that hers was the first reported successful treatment of this condition, but that trials...