Sacramento Brain Injury Lawyer Blog

Actress Natasha Richardson died today from a brain injury she suffered during a ski vacation at a resort in Canada. It was reported that Ms. Richardson was taking a beginner's lesson when she fell on a flat portion of a run near the bottom of the mountain. Notably, she was not wearing a helmet.

Right after the fall Ms. Richardson was talking and joking, but shortly she complained of head pain and was taken to a local hospital for observation. "A patient can appear so deceivingly normal at first," said Graffagnino, director of Duke University Medical Center's Neurosciences Critical Care Unit. "But they actually have a brain bleed and as the pressure builds up, they'll experience classic symptoms of a traumatic brain injury." For more information you are welcome to contact Sacramento personal injury lawyer, Moseley Collins.

Such injuries are known as epidural hemorrhage. Blood gets trapped between the skull and the hard layer of skin between the bone and brain, known as the dura mater. As the blood flows from the ruptured artery, the fluid builds and punctures the dura. For comparison, physicians often describe the human brain as an orange. The brain is the meat of the orange, the peel is the skull, and the spidery layer around the meat is the dura mater. ("Dura mater" is Latin for tough mother.)

Physicians working on trauma teams are taught "if a group of people are in a car crash and someone dies, the team should assume everyone else has serious injuries -- even if they look good, and say they feel totally fine," Graffagnino said. This is a fundamental lesson for all of us who experience some kind of head trauma -- don't assume you are okay simply because you feel no immediate obvious effects from the trauma. Seek prompt medical attention.

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Many fans of professional football and hockey are thrilled when players deliver bone-crushing hits to their opponents. However, there are often serious health consequences in collision sports about which most casual fans hear little. A recent article in the New York Times reported that doctors from Boston University’s School of Medicine found another former National Football League player died from a brain injury called chronic traumatic encephalopathy. Former Tampa Bay Buccaneer player Tom McHale died in May 2008 at 45, from repeated head trauma. He is the sixth such NFL player known to have died from CTE.

CTE is a progressive condition that results from repetitive head trauma and can bring on dementia in people in their 40s or 50s. The condition is often associated with former boxers. On McHale, doctors used techniques that can only be administered after a patient dies. Doctors have identified CTE in all six NFL veterans between ages 36 and 50 who have been tested for the condition, further evidence of the dangers of improperly treated brain trauma in football.

These findings underscore the need for anybody suffering with a possible traumatic brain injury, whether it be apparently mild or severe, to seek immediate medical treatment. Concussions are very often the underlying injury that lead to CTE. Such injuries can occur in traffic accidents or contact sports at all skill levels.

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