Chinese driver ordered executed in dragging death

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Posted on 31st July 2008 by Gordon Johnson in Brain Injury

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I am a trial lawyer. I am proud of what I do. I believe that our civil justice system, what we lawyers call the Tort system, is the best way to deter wrongful conduct and to compensate those who are injured by this wrongful conduct. With the approaching Beijing Olympics, the eyes of the world are on China, a country with a very different concept of justice. The below AP story illustrates the distinction of a man being sentenced to death for causing a car wreck which killed an 8-year-old girl.

I was thinking about the contrast between the American system of justice and the Chinese yesterday, while listening to an OnPoint podcast about whether the approaching Olympics have moved China closer to the human rights goals that were promised when China was awarded the 2008 Olympics. http://www.onpointradio.org/shows/2008/07/genocide-olympics/ The point that was made was that the mothers of the school children killed in the Sichuan earthquake were demanding justice against those who were responsible for the poorly constructed schools. Of course my American lawyer mind, hearing “justice” thought of compensation, with the ultimate deterrent that comes from the fear of money compensation. Reading the story below, perhaps I got it wrong. Maybe what they were seeking was another execution.

I believe our way is better. Not only is it not so barbaric, but it is more likely to deter. Chopping off the head of some corporate wrongdoer, is not going to change the corporate culture of greed. Only punishing a corporation where it hurts, in the pocket book is going to truly deter. And after the last 8 years of laissez faire from the Bush Administration, only the trial lawyers are likely to bring true deterrence to a profit system running amuck. The heparin disaster, of which I have blogged and written so much, is the perfect example.  http://heparindeaths.blogspot.com/  

The drug companies, such as Baxter, taking advantage of the FDA’s blind eye attitude, saw the opportunity to make quick profits from lower raw material costs in China, without any legitimate effort to ensure the purity of their products. The FDA didn’t even try to stop the greed. Now Baxter must face the trial lawyers in American style justice.  Unfortunately, hundreds of people died in the catastrophe. http://heparin-law.com

An eye for an eye, or a system of private enforcement with dedicated and motivated civic servants (yes, we trial lawyers) out to compensate the victims of greed, with the ultimate result a safer society?

Attorney Gordon Johnson
http://subtlebraininjury.com
http://tbilaw.com
http://waiting.com
http://vestibulardisorder.com
http://youtube.com/profile?user=braininjuryattorney
g@gordonjohnson.com
800-992-9447
©Attorney Gordon S. Johnson, Jr. 2008


Date: 7/31/2008 8:13 AM

BC-AS–China-Dragging Death/156


BEIJING (AP) _ A court in central sentenced an unlicensed driver to death Thursday for running over an 8-year-old girl and dragging her under his car for 320 feet (100 meters), state media reported.

The victim, Wen Mengtian, died from head injuries following the Jan. 26 incident, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

The court in the city of Chongqing ruled that Peng Jiang had committed murder by continuing to drive on after jumping the curb and knocking down Wen and another woman, Xinhua reported.

Two other men who were in the car with Peng and allegedly urged him to keep driving after the incident were given sentences of seven years each, the report said.

Xinhua said the three men fled the scene and later had the car wrecked.

Death sentences in China face automatic review by the Supreme Court and are usually carried out by firing squad.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.

Study: ‘Pre-dementia’ is rising, especially in men

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Posted on 28th July 2008 by Gordon Johnson in Brain Injury

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Date: 07/28/2008 04:33 PM


By MARILYNN MARCHIONE
AP Medical Writer

CHICAGO (AP) _ A milder type of mental decline that often precedes Alzheimer’s disease is alarmingly more common than has been believed, and in men more than women, doctors reported Monday.

Nearly a million older Americans slide from normal memory into mild impairment each year, researchers estimate, based on a Mayo Clinic study of Minnesota residents.

That’s on top of the half million Americans who develop full-blown Alzheimer’s or other forms of dementia — a problem sure to grow as baby boomers age. The oldest boomers turn 62 this year.

“We’re seeing that in fact there’s a much larger burgeoning problem out there” of people at risk of developing dementia, said Dr. Ronald Petersen, the Mayo scientist who led the study.

Dr. Ralph Nixon, a New York University psychiatrist and scientific adviser to the Alzheimer’s Association, was blunt.

“We’re facing a crisis,” he said.

There are no treatments now to prevent this mental slide or reverse it once it starts.

But that may be changing. Researchers on Monday reported early, somewhat encouraging results from an experimental nose spray that seemed to improve certain memory measures in a study of mildly impaired people.

The drug, for now just called AL-108, needs testing in a longer, larger study. It is being developed by Allon Therapeutics Inc., based in Vancouver, B.C.

Doctors said it shows the potential for new types of medicines that target the protein tangles that kill nerve cells, instead of targeting the sticky brain deposits that have gotten most of the attention up to now.

The studies were reported at the International Conference on Alzheimer’s Disease in Chicago.

Petersen is the scientist who defined mild cognitive impairment, or MCI, as a transition phase between healthy aging and dementia. It is more than “senior moments” like forgetting where you parked the car, but not as severe as having dementia, where you forget what a car is for.

People with it have impaired memory but not other problems like confusion, inattention or trouble putting thoughts into words.

The Alzheimer’s Association says more than 5 million Americans have Alzheimer’s, but no estimate for this “pre-dementia” has been available until now.

Petersen’s federally funded study involved roughly 1,600 people, ages 70 through 89, living in Olmstead County, which surrounds the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. All tested normal when they were enrolled in the study, but more than 5 percent had developed mild impairment when evaluated a year later.

Men were nearly twice as likely as women to develop it. That’s a surprise, because some studies have found more women with Alzheimer’s than men. But there may be a simple explanation:

Even though more men may be impaired, women outlive them and therefore have more time to develop full-blown dementia.

“This is a very large and important issue for our country and for the world,” said Duke University psychologist Brenda Plassman. A smaller study she published earlier this year backs up the Mayo study’s findings.

The mild impairment rate is two to three times larger than many researchers had expected, Petersen said.

“It’s the iceberg under the tip,” agreed Dr. R. Scott Turner, incoming director of the memory disorders program at Georgetown University Medical Center. A prime goal is finding drugs to treat the mild impairment before Alzheimer’s develops.

The AL-108 study tried to do that. Scientists gave 144 people with mild impairment either a low or high dose of the drug or a dummy drug for 12 weeks. The study missed its main goal — a composite of various memory scores — and the low dose showed no effect. But those on the higher dose improved on some memory tasks after one month and benefits lasted a month after they stopped treatment, said the study’s leader, Dr. Donald Schmechel of Duke University.

The study was sponsored by the drug maker.

In another study presented at the conference on Sunday and published on the Internet by the British medical journal The Lancet, researchers reported that dementia rates in developing countries may be considerably higher than official estimates and closer to rates in wealthy countries.

Scientists used a more liberal definition of dementia more suitable to poorer, less educated populations, where respect for family often means relatives don’t regard dementia as a burden so much and may be less likely to report problems.

The study involved nearly 15,000 people in 11 sites from China, India, Cuba, Mexico and other nations. Dementia rates ranged from nearly 6 percent in rural China to nearly 12 percent in the Dominican Republic, said co-author Martin Prince of King’s College in London.

The World Health Organization and the Alzheimer’s Association were among the study’s sponsors.

___

AP Medical Writer Margie Mason in Hanoi, Vietnam, contributed to this story.

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On the Net:

National Institute on Aging: http://www.nia.nih.gov

Alzheimer’s Association: http://www.alz.org

http://tbilaw.com

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.

More fit Alzheimer’s Patients had less brain atrophy

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Posted on 27th July 2008 by Gordon Johnson in Brain Injury

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The below AP Story about the relationship between fitness and Alzheimer’s disease has an interesting personal relevancy for me. Last Saturday, I ran in a race with a very mentally sharp older individual, who has no hint of senility. This individual was 90 years old. This individual was my father, Gordon S. Johnson, Sr. of Winter Haven, Florida.

I often have said about my father that he is the “world champion 80-year-old”, substituting whatever age he was at the time.  That reference was not just to his running, but also to his mental health and agility.

He worked as an engineer well into his 80′s.  On his 80th birthday, he ran a 10K in something under 54 minutes.  

The thesis behind the study discussed below is that there is a direct correlation between the volume of any portion of the brain, and the number of functioning brain cells.  Neuroradiologists have been opining for years that atrophy in the brain can be correlated, not just to Alzheimer’s, but also to brain damage.   We have known for decades that exercise clearly reduces the risk of vascular dementia. What this study contributes to that body of research is that exercise seems to lessen the impact of Alzheimer’s.  

Traditionally, it was thought that exercise was primarily beneficial to the cardiovascular system. The evidence is mounting that it can have an equally important impact on our mental capacities.  I think I had best keep exercising.  
Attorney Gordon Johnson
http://subtlebraininjury.com
http://tbilaw.com
http://waiting.com
http://vestibulardisorder.com
http://youtube.com/profile?user=braininjuryattorney
g@gordonjohnson.com
800-992-9447
©Attorney Gordon S. Johnson, Jr. 2008


Date: 07/27/2008 10:20 PM

NEW YORK (AP) _ Patients in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease who performed better on a treadmill test had less atrophy in the areas of the brain that control memory, according to a study released Sunday.

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) showed less shrinkage in the hippocampus region of patients’ brains in the Alzheimer’s patients with higher fitness scores. In Alzheimer’s the hippocampus is one of the first parts of the brain to suffer damage.

Exercise and physical fitness have been shown to slow age-related brain cell death in healthy older adults.

The new study was released at the International Conference on Alzheimer’s Disease in Chicago. Researchers at the University of Kansas Medical Center in Kansas City, Kan., studied the connection between cardiorespiratory fitness and regional brain volume in more than 100 people over 60. About half were healthy older adults and half were in the early stages of Alzheimer’s.

In a statement, lead researcher Robyn A. Honea said the study suggests “that maintaining cardiorespiratory fitness may positively modify Alzheimer’s-related brain atrophy.”

But it isn’t clear whether exercise helped avoid brain damage or if brain-damaged people had less ability to exercise.

The study was funded by the National Institute on Aging and National Institute on Neurological Disorders and Stroke.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.

The hardest part of waiting for someone to emerge from a coma

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Posted on 24th July 2008 by Gordon Johnson in Brain Injury

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From someone who felt the need to connect with our http://waiting.com community:

“The hardest part of waiting is the feeling of being alone. No matter how many people surround me, I feel alone. I push people away, don’t feel like talking to anyone, yet I am forced to talk. I feel rudest to those closest to me. Its hard how suddenly your the center of attention and it feels inadequate. I’ve learned that people don’t know what to say to you so they offer their help. They want to do something for you, and you should let them. It is hard as all hell in the beginning, but as you go on, you learn that it will be less of a stress to you. Let your friends in. Support is what you need. Take it when you can get it. Call people, talk to people.”

waiting.com began as the merging of two ideas more than 11 years ago. First, provide as much information as possible to those who were actually waiting in a trauma center waiting room. Two, create a virtual connection to those who had gone thru it before, to those who were going thru it now. When it went online in 1997, it was the first time something like it had ever been done online, not just in brain injury, but in any field. To this day, it is the idea for which I am most proud.



Thank you Y Uribe for your contribution. We will soon add it permanently to the Bridge from Despair.

Ben Vereen’s commitment to Brain Injury Goes Back Decades

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Posted on 21st July 2008 by Gordon Johnson in Brain Injury

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In the below AP story, Ben Vereen’s commitment to brain injury advocacy is discussed and applauded. We had the honor of meeting Mr. Vereen in the late 1990′s at another brain injury fundraising function, at a Mardi Gras celebration. A picture of Mr. Vereen and my co-advocate, Becca Martin is below.


The Mardi Gras seminar was one of my first opportunities to share my brain injury advocacy and I participated in this conference almost annually until the Katrina Hurricane. Several of the references on my bio on http://gordonjohnson.com are to speeches I gave at that conference.  

I had not been back to New Orleans since Katrina, until I was there last month. While the French Quarter is largely unchanged on the surface, much of what made it special is just a little off, especially the food. But I have committed to get back to the Mardi Gras program this year.  New Orleans has always played an important role in my advocacy and I feel the obligation to give back to that city.

Vereen hosts fundraiser for $32M brain center

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Posted on 21st July 2008 by Gordon Johnson in Brain Injury

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Date: 07/18/2008 05:53 PM

By PEGGY HARRIS
Associated Press Writer

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) _ Because of his own injuries, Ben Vereen seems like a natural to highlight a fundraiser for an institute that researches brain damage, but it took an introduction from the woman who walks his dog to make it happen.

Vereen was in Little Rock on Friday to visit hospital patients and raise money for a $32 million center at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. The Psychiatric Research Institute, opening in December, is one of a few centers that offer outpatient and inpatient care, research and education in one setting.

A car crash June 9, 1992, damaged an artery in Vereen’s brain. He suffered a stroke the same day and that night was hit by a sport utility vehicle and thrown 130 feet while walking along the Pacific Coast Highway.

“The doctor said it would be at least three years before I would even walk again,” Vereen said in a telephone interview from New York City before his trip to Arkansas. “They told me that I should start thinking about another career.”

Ten months later the Tony winner was back on Broadway, performing opposite Gregory Hines in “Jelly’s Last Jam” and later performed in “Fosse.”

Now he dedicates much of what he does to others. He said he wants those suffering from brain injury, post-traumatic stress disorder and mental illness to know he’s with them in their battle to take back their lives.

When the research institute began planning a fundraiser, board member Nell Spears approached Vereen through her daughter Molly, an aspiring dancer and actress in New York. Molly walks dogs to supplement her income.

“And whose dog did she walk? Ben Vereen’s,” said institute spokesman Tim Taylor. The dog is a miniature pinscher named Satchmo.

Dr. G. Richard Smith, the institute’s director and the psychiatric department chairman at UAMS, said Vereen’s high profile and commitment to veterans and servicemen who have suffered brain injuries or post-traumatic stress will help highlight the work of the Psychiatric Research Institute.

“It’s very exciting for PRI,” Smith said. “To have somebody who can champion the causes that we’re after is such an important plus.”

Vereen, 61, said that when he visits hospitals, he tries to offer encouragement as someone who faced the terror of a debilitating injury.

“It was frightening. It was scary. But I had to take a breath and breathe and trust in the higher power within, in the divine within me,” he said. “My job as a wounded warrior of life was to receive and to show up for those blessings to take place. I couldn’t just lay there (and say) ‘the blessing’s going to come, the blessing’s going to come.’ The blessings are coming, but you’ve got to get up to receive them.”

At the John L. McClellan Veterans Hospital on Friday, Vereen laughed and compared surgery scars with Vietnam veteran Tom Sziszak. The Navy vet was nearly killed in February when he was run over by an 18-wheeler. The two men shared a friendly conversation, Vereen perched on the end of a table and Sziszak in a wheelchair.

When Sziszak said the doctors considered amputating a limb, Vereen said softly, “Let’s cancel that. Let’s cancel that,” as if to brush away anything negative.

As he visited with patients, Vereen stopped often to accommodate fans for autographs and cheerful conversation.

Vereen scheduled a benefit performance — tickets cost $250 to $1,000 — that includes “a little bit of Broadway, a little bit of contemporary.”

His career includes the Broadway hits “Hair” and “Jesus Christ Superstar.” He won his Tony in 1973 as best actor in a musical for the show “Pippin.” His 1978 network special, “Ben Vereen: His Roots,” won six Emmys.

He appeared in the movie “All That Jazz.” But he may be best known for his portrayal of Chicken George in the 1977 TV miniseries “Roots.”

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.

Brain Injury is not New to Iraq

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Posted on 7th July 2008 by Gordon Johnson in Brain Injury

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Today’s blog, is a video blog, a bit of a rant about someone who should know better, who made this statement:

“Correct if I am wrong, but I think Traumatic Brain Injury is a new injury unique to the war in Iraq. Suffered by people who have concussive injuries from being near the explosions, not from being hit directly, but from reverberations of the explosion. And um doctors are still trying to figure out how to deal with it. I think there are a lot of questions about medical compensation for it. “

The question came from Terry Gross on an NPR Podcast, Fresh Air. See http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90696597

The link to my Youtube video in response to that statement is here. http://youtube.com/watch?v=9huVQtkN2ZY