Under congressional and public pressure, the NCAA Football Rules Committee announced last week two proposals for making the game safer for players. If the proposals pass, NCAA players will no be allowed to taunt other players and it will be tougher for head-injured players to return to the game, according to a Canadian Pressarticle. Specifically,… Read More
‘Vegetative’ Brain Injury Patients Communicate With Brain Waves
A recent study published in the New England Journal of Medicine reveals that some patients formerly diagnosed as ‘vegetative,’ might still retain the ability to hear and respond to questions, an indication that consciousness might remain intact even in otherwise comatose or vegetative patients. The Oxford English Dictionarydefines vegetative as, “alive but comatose and without… Read More
Update on Kevin Pearce, Brain-Injured World Class Snowboarder
In previous coverage on our blog, we reported that Kevin Pearce, an Olympic snowboarding shoe-in, sustained a traumatic brain injury after hitting his head on the hard icy side of a frozen halfpipe while training for an Olympics tryout in Mammoth Lakes at the end of December 2009. Kevin has since regained consciousness and his… Read More
Brain Injury Research Center Meets With Early Success
In 2008 Dr. Ann McKee and three of her colleagues started the Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy (CSTE) at Boston University. The center was founded to raise awareness about the dangers of repetitive head injuries. TheBoston Globe reported that in just 17 months, the center has succeeded in drawing massive attention to the… Read More
Pro Equestrians to Run NY Marathon to Raise Funds for Spinal Cord Injury Research
Olympic equestrian Mark Todd and 19 other New Zealanders will run the New York Marathon to raise money for spinal cord injury victims. This November, the 20 New Zealand athletes will run the marathon as part of a team to support the CatWalk Spinal Cord Injury Trust of New Zealand. Catriona Williams, the quadriplegic founder… Read More
Haiti Earthquake Victims Rescued By Surgeon
Twenty-eight-year-old Suy Bazelais was found buried in the crumbled ruins of a five-story building in Haiti. He had suffered a severe spinal cord injuryand he lay underneath a dead woman waiting to be rescued, according to a Chicago Tribunearticle. Bazelais received very little treatment for his injury due to the chaotic aftermath of the January… Read More