When Jeffrey Pula was only 17 years old he was seriously injured in a car accident caused by a distracted driver sending a text. After spending nine grueling months in a coma, Jeffrey emerged to discover that his injuries would leave him blind for the rest of his life.
Now, 3 years after the accident, Jeffrey is telling his story to discourage others from texting while driving. The dangers are real and, by raising awareness, hopefully he can help prevent similar tragedies from happening.
For his story as reported by Elysia Rodriguez on 22 New click here or check out the video below...
Should parents let their children play tackle football despite the risks of concussions and their potential long-term consequences? This is a question that NPR’s Tom Goldman investigated in his recent article, Head Injuries Rattle Even Devout Football Parents (click the link to read).
Goldman discovered through his observations of youth football in Texas, where he aptly mentions the sport is often considered a religion, that while parents are increasingly more aware about concussions and the dangers they pose, many are still willing to let their kids gear up. It is currently estimated, according to USA Football, that nearly 3 million children, ages 6 to 14, participate in organized tackle football. As Dr. Robert Cantu, a neurosurgeon and co-author of Concussions and Our Kids, is referenced saying in this article, “Children are among the most vulnerable to concussion because of weak necks, immature musculature, and brains that are still developing.” Per Dr. Cantu’s recommendation, children under age 14 should not play tackle football.
Wesley Rolan, one of the parents interviewed, said he will let his 8-year-old son play until he suffers a concussion and then “that’s it—no more tackle.” When it's your child's brain at stake, is it even worth letting it get to that point?
For more about the risks young athletes face, click the link to read about research done recently at Virginia Tech that shows youth football players suffer similar degrees of head impacts that college players do. Also, check out this video version of this article below.
Did you know that October 7-13 is National Fire Prevention Week? Safe Kids Worldwide and the United States Fire Administration are encouraging all families to develop and practice an escape plan in the case of a home fire. As Safe Kids notes, every day there is atleast one child who dies in a home fire and 293 children who sustain non-fatal injuries due to a fire or burn. These tragedies unfortunately occur daily and while we hope that you never have to use your escape plan, we can all agree that it is better to be prepared to keep our families safe.
Check out Safe Kids’s website for more tips on fire prevention, preparation, and safety:
A recent study published in the Journal of Neurosurgery argues that the current method of diagnosing sport-related concussions and head injuries based on the athletes’ reported symptoms is inadequate. According to the lead researcher, Ann-Christine Duhaime, MD, “The term ‘concussion’ means different things to different people, and it’s not yet clear that the signs and symptoms we now use to make a diagnosis will ultimately prove to be the most important pieces of this complicated puzzle.”
In Emergency Departments, patients that are diagnosed with a concussion usually exhibit “immediate changes in consciousness” due to a “clearly identified head impact.” However, after studying 450 contact-sport athletes with specialized sensors in their helmets, Duhaime and her team determined that of 48 concussions sustained, 17 of them could not be associated with a specific head impact and many of the athletes were unaware of the symptoms until several hours after their games. Clearly, not all concussions follow the same pattern and different athletes have various timings of symptoms and ways of describing them.
It seems that athletes would benefit from a broader categorization of concussions and a more encompassing method of diagnosing them. As Duhaime concludes, “A lot of work is needed before we can understand to what extent patients’ reported symptoms—compared to such factors as the actual force imparted to the brain, previous head injuries and genetic background—influence the eventual consequences of repeated head impacts, consequences that may vary from patient to patient.”
Follow the below link to read more about this on MedicalXpress.com:
After studying data gathered from 1997 to 2009, researchers at the Yale School of Medicine have concluded that instances of serious injury due to child abuse are increasing. According to results of this study, which considered “serious injuries” as those resulting in hospitalization, the overall rate for children 18 years and younger has risen about 5%. Most alarmingly, the rate of injury for children 1 and under is up 10.9%.
As one author of this study, Dr. John M. Leventhal, notes, “These results highlight the challenges of helping parents do better by their children and the importance of effective prevention programs to reduce serious abusive injuries in young children.”
Wednesday, October 24, 2012 at 11:33PM 
