There Is Life After Injury, Trauma Survivor Muji Karim Helps Fellow Survivors Cope

Karim meets with Celeste Corcoran, a victim who lost both legs in the Boston Marathon bombings (Photo Credit: Boston Globe)Muji Karim, a 29-year-old former all-star athlete, was seriously injured in a fiery car accident in August 2011. Both of his legs were amputated and most of his left hand was destroyed. Moreover, the injuries to his right arm left him without the full use of any limb. Karim felt extremely depressed and became very quiet until one day George Pessotti entered his intensive-care room at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. Pessotti, now a volunteer, suffered severe burns over most of his body from a kitchen fire in 1979. Encouraged by Pessotti, Karim set out on his recovery. His tenacity became well-known—he ate more protein than doctors ordered to help his body rebuild and doubled prescribed exercises to increase his strength. As a result, he has made great progress. After the Boston Marathon bombing, Muji has served as a mentor to help console victims and he plans to take a peer-counseling course with the Phoenix Society to make his role with the support group official. In giving, he is building his own strength. “It’s making me feel better and more at peace,” Karim said.

Click below to read Chelsea Conaboy’s article in the Boston Globe:

Boston Globe: "Trauma survivor now action as a beacon of inspiration”

Study: Brain Can Rewire Itself after Damage

Per ScienceDaily, "Credit: © unlim3d / Fotolia"Life scientists Michael Fanselow, Moriel Zelikowsky and Bryce Vissel from UCLA and Australia have conducted a research on rats that offers breakthrough results in brain science. The researchers found that the rodents can learn new tasks even after damage to the hippocampus. This experiment demonstrates that parts of the prefrontal cortex take over when the hippocampus, the brain’s key center of learning and memory formation is disabled. "I expect that the brain probably has to be trained through experience," said Fanselow, a professor of psychology and member of the UCLA Brain Research Institute, who was the study's senior author. "In this case, we gave animals a problem to solve." It is also the first demonstration of neural-circuit plasticity, which means that when the brain’s primary “learning center” is damaged, complex new neural circuits arise to compensate for the lost function. The regions of the brain involved in creating those alternate paths are often far from the damaged site. This finding could provide potential insights to help scientists develop new treatments for Alzheimer's disease, stroke and other conditions involving brain damage. More information is available at:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/05/130515165027.htm 

The Leveraged Freedom Chair Helps the Disabled in Developing Countries Gain Independence

The Mechanics of the Leveraged Freedom Chair (photo courtesy of the GRIT website)Check out the Global Research Innovation & Technology’s website to see learn about their awesome product, the Leveraged Freedom Chair. With this “mountain bike of wheelchairs,” the team at GRIT aims to help disabled people in developing countries to maneuver through rough terrain.  As the below video mentions, there are 20 million people in developing countries who need a wheelchair. We applaud GRIT and their efforts to help them more effectively and enjoyably live their lives. 

Click the following link for the Global Research Innovation & Technology’s website and check out the video below to see the Leveraged Freedom Chair in action.

President Obama's BRAIN Initiative seeks to Map the Human Brain

 The Obama administration’s proposed initiative, Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN), offers a new surge towards mapping the human brain. A new understanding of the brain could provide promising new treatments for conditions such as traumatic brain injuries, Alzheimer’s, autism, and strokes among others. As a linchpin of this initiative, President Obama has asked Congress to contribute $100 million in 2014 to researchers studying the complexities of the brain. Describing BRAIN, Obama notes, “As humans we can identify galaxies light-years away. We can study particles smaller than an atom, but we still haven’t unlocked the mystery of the three pounds of matter that sits between our ears.” Hopefully, Congress will get on board with the President and make this worthwhile investment in understanding the brain through BRAIN!

To learn more about the BRAIN Initiative, check out the below links...

NPR: President Obama Calls for a BRAIN Initiative

The White House: President Obama is Callin on the Science Community to Join Him in Pursuing a Grand Challenge

or watch Dr. Francis Collins, the Director of the National Institutes of Health, describe BRAIN in this quick video

Recent Canadian Study Helps Youngsters to Prevent Brain Injury

Dr. Michael Cusimano, photo courtesy of St. Michaels HospitalAccording to a new study by St. Michael's Hospital in Canada, hockey took up 44.3 percent of all injuries and almost 70 percent of them occurred in children over 10 because of player-to-player contact or being hit into the boards. The study collected data from the Canadian Hospitals Injury Reporting and Prevention Program to look at almost 13,000 children and youth aged 5-19 who had a sports-related brain injury between 1990 and 2009. The results also found that the youngest age group was at the highest risk for getting seriously injured in baseball. Most of the 15.3 percent of injuries occurred in children under the age of 14, with 45 percent of them in children under nine. "These results give us a very specific prevention message for kids under nine who play baseball: make helmets and supervision mandatory," said Dr. Cusimano, a neurosurgeon and leader of the study. He further suggests that "having educational programs, proper equipment, rules and other incentives that support a culture of safety in sports should be a mandate of parents, coaches, players, sports organizations, schools, sports sponsors, and other groups like governments."

More information is at: Science Daily, "New Study Aims to Prevent Sports-Related Brain Injury in Youngsters"