Traumatic Brain Injury - Dipnarine Maharaj M.D.
Today, we
understand a great deal more about the healthy brain and its response to
trauma, although science still has much to learn about how to reverse damage
resulting from head injuries.
TBI costs the country more than $56 billion a year, and
more than 5 million Americans alive today have had a TBI resulting in a
permanent need for help in performing daily activities. Survivors of TBI are
often left with significant cognitive, behavioral, and communicative
disabilities, and some patients develop long-term medical complications, such
as epilepsy.
Our work with TBI patients is some of the most
important that we do. Our brave men and women in the military
deserve the very best.
Other statistics dramatically tell the story of head
injury in the United States. Each year:
- approximately 1.4 million people experience a
TBI,
- approximately 50,000 people die from head injury,
- approximately 1 million head-injured people
are treated in hospital emergency rooms, and
- approximately 230,000 people are hospitalized
for TBI and survive.
