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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...