Tag: 10 Myths of Brain Injury

This myth has been rejected by the National Institute of Health. In its consensus statement, NIH writes that the consequences of TBI include a dramatic change in the individual’s life course, profound disruption of family, enormous loss of income or earning potential and large expenses over a lifetime.

Over and over again defense doctors testify that everyone who sustains a mild traumatic brain injury gets better; that mild traumatic brain injury is not a permanent condition. This simply is untrue.

One of the greatest myths perpetrated is that children have better recoveries from traumatic brain injury than adults. This myth rests upon the refuted theory known as plasticity, which claims developing brain can better rebound from injury.

It is not unusual that a neuropsychological evaluation report prepared by a defense neuropsychologist finds a specific patient is faking or suffering from some other problem other than a traumatic brain injury because the neuropsychological findings do no fit “a normal or predictable pattern.”

Because standard and traditional neuroimaging such as MRI, CT scans, and EEGs normally are neither specific nor sensitive enough to detect the damage done to the axons and neurons of the brain, the only objective testing which may be sensitive enough to detect and diagnose mild traumatic brain injury is neuropsychological testing.

James Smith was stopped at a red light when his car was struck in the rear. At the scene, he was dazed and told the rescue squad personnel that he had pain in the back of his neck. He was taken to the local emergency room where again he complained of neck pain. He was examined, evaluated and released a couple hours later.

Another misconception is that if a person has sustained or suffered a traumatic brain injury, today’s sophisticated diagnostic tests will detect it. There is a belief that if those tests are negative or normal, no brain injury has been sustained. Unfortunately, this is another myth.

Through movies and television, we have all come to expect that in order to suffer a brain injury one must either strike their head or have their head struck by a foreign object. This is not so. The brain has the consistency of gelatin.