Brain Injury – Page 2

A Year Later and Still Suffering

Bruce H. Stern on March 2, 2015

Category: About Brain Injuries, Brain Injury News, Brain Injury Resources & Links
Tag: Amy Zellmer, Attorney, Brain Injury, Fall on Ice, Personal Injury Attorney, Slip and Fall, TBI, TBI Survivor

I read a wonderful story by Amy Zellmer, a professional photographer and TBI survivor who published a firsthand account of her struggles with a mild traumatic brain injury. According to her story, Amy fell on a patch of ice and sustained a “mild” traumatic brain injury. Despite people telling her “it’s just a concussion,” a year later Amy is still struggling with the effects of her traumatic brain injury. I strongly recommend you read Amy’s story to understand what TBI survivors struggle with on a daily basis.

You can find the link to the story here.

If you have suffered form a traumatic brain in jury, contact Stark & Stark today for a free consultation.

New York Court Grants Motion Precluding Defendant from Contesting Scientific Validity of Diffuse Tensor Imaging (DTI)

Bruce H. Stern on February 5, 2015

Category: About Brain Injuries, Brain Injury Legislation, Brain Injury News
Tag: Brain Injury, Brain Injury Attorney, DTI

Generally, it is defendants that move to attack the admissibility of diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) asserting that this objective neurodiagnostic test fails to meet either the Daubert or Frye standard. Most recently, a plaintiff went on the offensive, filing its own motion for an order precluding defendant’s expert from denying at trial the general acceptance and reliability of diffusion tensor imaging and from denying the existence of non-hemorrhagic brain white-matter lesions. Defendant’s expert witness disclosure asserted that defendant’s expert was expected to testify that DTI “has not been recognized as a reliable technique to be utilized on an individual patient due to lack of any standardized and general accepted methods for acquiring, analyzing and interpreting DTI data.” Defendant’s also cross-moved for an order seeking to preclude the admission at trial the results of the DTI and precluding any of plaintiff’s expert witnesses from testifying regarding those results.

The court, relying on the scientific articles submitted by plaintiff, coupled with the fact that numerous courts in various jurisdictions, as well as in New York, have admitted DTI results in evidence, established that there is general acceptance of DTI in the medical community as a means of diagnosing traumatic brain injury. The court denied plaintiff’s motion with regard to defense expert’s opinions regarding the existence of non-hemorrhagic brain white-matter lesions finding that issue was based explored on cross-examination.

The case citation is Klipper vs. Liberty Helicopters, Inc., Supreme Court of the State of New York, County of New York: Part 10, Index No. 110711-2003.

DTI Used to Demonstrate Brain Changes in High School Football Players Even in Absence of Concussion

Bruce H. Stern on January 20, 2015

Category: Brain Injury News, Brain Injury Resources & Links
Tag: Brain Injury, Brain Injury Attorney, Brain Injury Legal Cases

At the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA), Christopher C. Whitlow, M.D., Ph.D., M.H.A., an associate professor of radiology at Wake Forest School of Medicine and radiologist at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center presented the findings from his research that some high school football players exhibit measurable brain changes after a single season of play, even in the absence of concussion

Dr. Whitlow and his fellow researchers studied twenty-four high school football players between the ages of sixteen and eighteen, none of whom had a history of having sustained a concussion. During all games and practices, the twenty-four players were monitored with Head Impact Telemetry System (HITs) helmet-mounted accelerometers.

Utilizing this data, the players were divided into two groups “heavy hitters” and “light hitter.” All twenty-four players underwent pre- and post- season evaluation with Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI). Although none of the players suffered a concussion during the season “the results showed that both groups demonstrated global increases of FA over time, likely reflecting effects of brain development. However, the heavy-hitter group showed statistically significant areas of decreased FA post-season in specific areas of the brain, including the splenium of the corpus callosum and deep white matter tracts.”

“’Our study found that players experiencing greater levels of head impacts have more FA loss compared to players with lower impact exposure,” Dr. Whitlow said. ‘Similar brain MRI changes have been previously associated with mild traumatic brain injury. However, it is unclear whether or not these effects will be associated with any negative long-term consequences.’

Dr. Whitlow cautions that these findings are preliminary, and more study needs to be done.” If you or a loved one has been affected by a brain injury, contact Stark & Stark today.

Click here for the link to the RSNA press release.

Long Term Effects of MTBI and PTSD

Bruce H. Stern on January 8, 2015

Category: About Brain Injuries, Brain Injury Resources & Links
Tag: Brain Injury, Brain Injury Attorney, MTBI, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, PTSD, TBI, TBI Attorney

There has been much research with regard to the long term effects of mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI) and post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as independent conditions. However, there has been very little research studying the combined effect of MTBI and PTSD.

This month’s Journal of Neurotrauma contains an article by Walter High, M.D. and his colleagues at the University of Kentucky, Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Neurosurgery and Psychology. Dr. High and his colleagues conducted a multi site study looking at the collective as well as the individual effects of MTBI and PTSD on an individual’s psychological, and cognitive functioning abilities.

The participants in the studies underwent a series of neuropsychological testing to measure their cognitive functioning. The participants were classified as MTBI only, PTSD only, or both. The results of the studies suggested that veterans suffering from both PTSD and MTBI have a poor cognitive and psychological outcome than those diagnosed with only one of the two conditions. A link to the University of Kentucky press release can be found here.

Brain Injury Professional Publishes Special Issue on Brain Injury Litigation

Bruce H. Stern on December 18, 2014

I just received the recent issue of Brain Injury Professional, the official publication of the Brain Injury Society which I had the honor and pleasure to serve as guest editor.

This issue was entitled “Special Issue on Brain Injury Litigation.” The issue included articles on “The Use of Diffusion Tensor Imaging” and “Life Care Planning and Acquired Brain Injury and the Affordable Care Act.” The former article was authored by Dorothy Clay Sims, Esq. and Manley Kilgore, M.D. The latter article was authored by Harvey E. Jacobs, Ph.D.

The journal included an article on the Economics on Mild Traumatic Brain Injury Disability authored by Joseph T. Crouse, Ph.D. and Anthony M. Gamboa, Ph.D., MBA. Brandon Woodward, Esq., Gregory A. Kendall, Kyle S. Dayton, B.S. and Douglas Rennie, Esq. contributed an article entitled “Pitfalls of oversimplied headache diagnosis in TBI litigation.” Ken Kolpan, Esq., who for over 26 years has co-chaired the NABIS Legal Conference wrote an article entitled “What to You Expect When You Become An Expert.” Finally, Frank Toral, Esq. contributed an article entitled “No Really, It Takes a Team.”

If you are not a member of NABIS, I strongly encourage you to join. An application can be downloaded from the website www.nabis.org.

Family Sues over Daughter’s Soccer Injury

ttomlinson on October 1, 2014

Category: Personal Injury
Tag: Brain Injury, Concussion, Sports Injury

During a preseason soccer scrimmage at Downingtown High School East, an incoming freshman going for a header collided with another player and fell to the ground in tears. After that, her coach did something that used to be routine, but has increasingly come under scrutiny: He put her back in the game, according to a lawsuit filed by her family last week in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia against the district, the coach, and others.

The suit says the girl, now 16 and identified as M.U., suffered a traumatic brain injury that made her miss most of freshman year and that continues to cause headaches, fatigue, anxiety, and other symptoms two years after the collision on Aug. 20, 2012. The soccer player experienced headaches, dizziness and vision problems. She also missed almost 80 days of school.

Pennsylvania, like most states, has a statute – called the Political Subdivision Tort Claims Act – that limits when school districts and their employees can be sued for actions taken in the performance of their everyday duties. Sean Fields, a staff attorney with the Pennsylvania School Boards Association, said that usually meant that coaches or other school supervisors couldn’t be sued in a state courtroom for negligence.

Lawyers sometimes turn to the federal courts in school sports-injury cases because the federal laws are somewhat different.

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