Will Sandy Hook get America to take brain injury seriously?

By Patrick B. Donohue, Founder, The Sarah Jane Brain Foundation,

According to a 2008 CDC study, 82.8 percent of male prisoners in Minnesota reported having had one or more brain injury over the course of their lifetime. Marlena M. Wald and her colleagues found the causes ranged from assaults (37%), auto crashes (25%), sports-related (11%) to falls (11%). Another study showed that 87 percent of a county jail population had a history of brain injury (Slaughter, Facc & Ehde, 2003). This study also showed that many of these prisoners experience mental health problems such as severe depression and anxiety. Other studies have shown co-occurring problems such as alcohol and substance abuse, suicidal thoughts and attempts as well as significant anger management issues for this population.

In 1986, Dr. Dorothy Lewis and Dr. Jonathan Pincus published a study of 15 death row inmates and found every one of them had suffered severe brain injuries in childhood, about half were caused by assaults and six were chronically psychotic. Another study of 14 juveniles sentenced to death found all of them had suffered from a brain injury, most in auto crashes but assaults as well. Twelve had been brutally physically abused and five were sodomized by relatives.

We know where this tipping point begins. Over 765,000 American youth suffer a new brain injury every year, over 80,000 are hospitalized and over 11,000 die annually. Every 40 seconds another American family enters an Emergency Room with a new brain injury. And these are the ones who are actually identified, when two to three times are not identified. These numbers do not include the tens of thousands of non-traumatic acquired brain injuries such as meningitis which President Obama’s daughter had as an infant to strokes, brain tumors and seizure-disorders.

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Tell Frank Pallone to have a heart? How about we just send him home!

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Anna Little Shines Light On Pediatric Acquired Brain Injury Plan

Congressional candidate Anna Little (R, NJ-6) held a press conference this morning to shed light on Pediatric Acquired Brain Injury and the plan for the treatment of brain injuries created by the Sarah Jane Donohue Foundation that has the bi-partison support of 110 members of the House of Representatives.

Little’s opponent, Congressman Frank Pallone, is preventing congress from holding an up for down vote on the the Pediatric Acquired Brain Injury Plain by refusing to allow  H. Con Res. 198 from being released from the committee he chairs.

Appearing Little was Patrick Donohue, Sarah Jane’s father, Kim Illions, President of the Pediatric Hydrocephus Foundation and Craig Sears a traumatic brain injury survivor.

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