Missouri Concussion Law Takes Effect Aug. 28

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Posted on 31st July 2011 by Gordon Johnson in Brain Injury

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In August Missouri’s new law, which sets the protocol for treating young athletes who may have concussions, will go into effect. The “Show Me” State is one of many across the nation to enact such a law.   

http://www.kansascity.com/2011/07/13/v-print/3012400/head-injury-bill-becomes-law.html

The legislation was signed July 13, and takes effect Aug. 28, according to the Kansas City Star. 

The Interscholastic Youth Sports Brain Injury Prevention Act is one of many laws passed throughout the country as schools and lawmakers try to protect athletes from the sometimes long-term impact of repeated brain injury.

Under the Missouri law, any sports player who is suspected of having a concussion will be prohibited from competing in their sport for a minimum of 24 hours. And to return to the field, they will have to present written permission from a doctor.

According to the Kansas City Star, the new law also mandates that parents sign a brain-injury information sheet before a student athlete can practice or compete for a team.

At this point the law pertains to high school sports that are administered by the Missouri State High School Activities Association.

Retired Players Sue NFL Over Denials Of Long-Term Concussion Brain Damage

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Posted on 21st July 2011 by Gordon Johnson in Brain Injury

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Retired pro football players, who allege that the National Football League ignored mounting evidence of the long-term brain damage caused by concussion, are playing hard ball with the league.

This week those 75 retired NFL players filed suit in Superior Court in Los Angeles against the NFL and Riddell, which manufactures helmets, according to The New York Times. The plaintiffs include Ottis Anderson, who had playd for the Giants, and Vernon Dean, who had played with the Washington Redskins. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/21/sports/football/retired-players-sue-nfl-over-treatment-of-concussions.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=NFL%20suit&st=cse

The lawsuit is trying to hold the NFL liable for over the years downplaying growing evidence that head injuries cumulatively lead to permanent brain damage. It wasn’t until 2010 that the league warned players about the long-term effects of concussions, which mean retired players never got any warning. And many of them are paying the price now.

The suit alleges that the NFL didn’t “regulate practices, games, equipment and medical care so as to minimize the long-term risks associated with concussive brain injuries.” As a result, these veteran players contend that they now suffer from memory loss, headaches and other side effects from their years of playing.

NFL officials have no one to blame but themselves for this litigation. The NFL created a committee on concussions in 1994, and it aggressively supported the position that concussions didn’t cause lasting brain damage. 

Nonetheless, the NFL told The Times that it will “vigorously” fight the lawsuit.

As The Times pointed out, the players have filed their suit while the NFL is close to reaching a new contract with players. Part of that new deal has clauses that aim to limit the chance of brain damage during off-season workouts.

The NFL has already made changes to protect players from the long-term damage of concussions. But it wasn’t exactly a noble action. The league didn’t aggressively make changes until after a Congressional committee in 2009 put a national spotlight on the NFL’s mishandling of concussions. 

For example, nowadays a player believed to have sustained a concussion is  benched for the rest of the day, and can’t return to the field until he gets clearance from an independent medical expert.

The suing players are seeking unspecified damages for injuries that they incurred while playing in the 1980′s. It may be hard to prove that the NFL should have been warning these players about the impact of concussions back then.

But it seems that the NFL should pay a price for not just ignoring reports about the dangers of concussion, but publishing studies that claimed that mild brain injury didn’t pose a long-term threat to players. 

  

       

 

Army Rolls Out Facilities To Treat Soliders For Concussions Near The Front Lines

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Posted on 16th July 2011 by Gordon Johnson in Brain Injury

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 Whether the military is sugarcoating its results or not, the Army is claiming to be succeeding in its efforts to treat brain injury on-site in war zones such as Afghanistan. 

 The Associated Press did a lengthy story Friday on the Army’s quest to treat what has become the signature wound of combat in Iraq and Afghanistan: brain injury, caused by roadside and suicide bombs.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5h-LbEalGbPQbhjog4084bfQTyD6w?docId=335e5d702a5e49439148e0aebd84057d

 The story chronicles the case of Staff Sgt. Isidoro Castillo, who sustained brain injury from the compression wave of a suicide bomb. The North Carolina native spent his recovery in one of the new housing facilities the Army has built for soldiers who have sustained concussions. There are seven such units now in Afghanistan, according to AP, an initiative led by the 101st Airborne Division.

Castillo is used as a case study of the Army’s announced strategy of trying better and quicker ways to address concussions and other brain injury on the spot, without shipping soldiers out of combat. The military’s policy is to treat concussions while not far from the battlefield.

Castillo was in fact diagnosed with a concussion, and he spent a recovering in one of the new units. According to AP, Castillo recuperated by doing activites like watching TV and playing video games. He met with doctors every day who kept tabs on his concussion symptoms, such as headaches and lack of concentration. He then was tested to determine when he was ready to return to his unit.

The soldier told AP that staying in the special housing reduced his stress and helped speed his recovery. One doctor quoted in the story said that it was imperative that soldiers with with concussions get eight hours straight of sleep, something that’s not likely in combat.

 The miliary’s policy in Afghanistan, according to AP, is that a soldier be given at least a day of rest after their first concussion; a week of recuperation after their second concussion; and a detailed neurological exam following their third concussion. 

The military seems to be taking concussions, invisible to the eye, as seriously as an open, bloody wound. Let’s hope it continues to do so. 

   

 

Congress Expands Investigation Of Heparin Deaths, While Baxter Loses First Heparin Lawsuit

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Posted on 11th July 2011 by Gordon Johnson in Brain Injury

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Just weeks after Baxter International lost the first heparin suit that’s gone to trial, Congress is moving forward with its probe to determine who is to blame for contaminated batches of the blood thinner that killed what some believe were several hundred people.

http://energycommerce.house.gov/News/PRArticle.aspx?NewsID=8768&IID=9

In letters dated June 29 the  House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce contacted a number of pharmaceutical makers seeking ”all documents relating to heparin-related firms in China.”

http://republicans.energycommerce.house.gov/Media/file/Letters/062911%20Letter%20to%20John%20Ducker.pdf

The information is due by July 29.

In 2008 Baxter recalled heparin produced in China after scores of deaths linked to the blood thinner in the United States. On June 15, a Cook County Circuit Court awarded $625,000 to the survivors of Steven Johnson, who died in December 2007 after taking heparin produced by Baxter. This is the first heparin lawsuit that’s gone to trial against Baxter, according to the website Securing Pharma. 

http://www.securingpharma.com/40/articles/959.php

The lawsuits stemming from the tainted heparin have been consolidated in two venues, Cook County in Illinois and North Ohio District Court, according to Securing Pharma.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee didn’t pull any punches in the press release about its investigation. The headline was “Three Years After U.S. Deaths and Serious Complications, Chinese Government and FDA Still Have Not Identified Culprit or Contamination Source.”

The release said that the  House Energy and Commerce Committee leaders “are further expanding their investigation of the now 3-year unsolved case of toxic and sometimes lethal contaminated heparin supplies that were imported from China and given to U.S. patients.”

Committee Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich.,  Chairman Emeritus Joe Barton , R-Texas, Health Subcommittee Chairman Joe Pitts , R-Penn., Health Subcommittee Vice Chairman Dr. Michael Burgess, R-Texas, and Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Chairman Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., said they are contacting 10 companies because documents provided by the FDA indicate that they have information related to the Chinese heparin industry and Chinese heparin supply chains.

The committee is seeking documents and information from Amphastar Pharmaceuticals, Momenta Pharmaceuticals, Siegfried USA Inc., Sagent Pharmaceutical, APP Pharmaceuticals, Sanofi Aventis, Drug Source Company LLC, Global Pharma Sourcing LLC, Pacific Rainbow International and Sandoz.

The committee leaders wrote, “We believe there is substantial public interest in solving this case.  More than 80 percent of the U.S. unfractionated heparin supply is sourced from China and more than 16 percent of U.S. pharmaceutical ingredients are imported from China. There is reason to believe all or some of the individuals responsible for the adulteration are still actively engaged in the Chinese pharmaceutical supply chain and pose a continuing threat to pharmaceutical products imported to the U.S. How the heparin came to be contaminated and the exact nature of the contaminant remain unknown. It is important to determine how the adulteration happened so that industry and government can take more effective proactive measures to reduce the risk of such adulteration in the future.”

In their press release, the committee leaders said that they “firmly believe discovering the root cause of the heparin crisis is an urgent matter of public health and that the public deserves long-overdue answers about the contamination of this widely used blood-thinning drug in order to prevent similar dangers in the future.”

The committee isn’t letting the Food and Drug Administration off the hook, either.

“Dating back to 2008, Committee Republicans have been pressing the FDA for answers about the agency’s handling of the investigation into the contaminated heparin,” the Committee said in its press release. “The U.S. Government Accountability Office also faulted some of the FDA’s efforts, including the decision to continue allowing drugs to be imported from Chinese facilities that refused to allow inspections.”

In February, Committee leaders called on the Food and Drug Administration to release documents related to its response to the unsolved case.

 

Ballparks Need To Protect Fans Like Shannon Stone From Fatal Falls

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Posted on 10th July 2011 by Gordon Johnson in Brain Injury

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It’s time for Major League Baseball stadiums to take action to prevent horrendous deaths like the one that took place last Thursday in Texas, where a father plunged headfirst to his death trying to catch a ball for his son.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/09/sports/baseball/grief-and-questions-after-death-at-ballpark.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=josh%20hamilton%20&st=cse

 The death of small-town fireman Shannon Stone during a Texas Rangers game, witnessed by the poor man’s 6-year-old son — and by many more via online video — is not the first  of its kind at a ballpark. And it won’t be the last unless something is done. In May a man fell 20 feet headfirst to his death, exacly like Stone, at a Colorado ballpark.

By now you may have seen the horrific video of Stone, who was 39, tumbling down as he reached to catch a ball that Rangers outfielder Josh Hamilton tossed into the crowd. Stone had bought his son a baseball glove for the game, and he was aiming to snatch a special souvenir for his boy.

Miraculously, Stone wasn’t immediately killed by his fall. Although witnesses said that his head was bleeding profusely, he was still conscious. And he was thinking.

“Please check my son,” Stone told medics, “”My son’s up there alone.”

The firefighter from Brownwood went into cardiac arrest shortly thereafter and died. 

At the same Rangers’ game Thursday, a fan was hit in the face with a ball and needed stiches.

You can’t blame the stadium for that. Baseball spectators should always be aware of what’s going on in a game, but they still might not be fast enough to get out of the way of a fast shot. That’s the risk you take when you attend a game.

Stone’s case was different. MLB teams need to put up proper protective fencing and netting to stop spectators from falling over railings, or to cushion their fall if they do. 

A traumatized 6-year-old boy in Texas would still have his dad if these measures had already been taken.  

 

 

 

 

Call It Irony, Call It Karma: Motorcyclist Killed While Protesting Helmet Laws

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Posted on 3rd July 2011 by Gordon Johnson in Brain Injury

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Truth is indeed often stranger than, and more ironic than, fiction.

This weekend in Onondaga, N.Y., which is near Syracuse, a motorcyclist who was part of the 11th Annual Helmet Protest Run against helmet laws died, He was killed when he flew over his bike’s handlebars and hit his head on the road. Police said that if he had been wearing a helmet, it likely would have saved his life.

And that is, of course, the point of helmet laws: to save lives.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/03/motorcyclist-dies-helmet-protest_n_889427.html?icid=maing-grid7%7Cmain5%7Cdl1%7Csec3_lnk1%7C75265

In a story reported by The Post-Standard of Syracuse and the Associated Press, the man killed in the accident Saturday was identified as Philip Contos, 55, of Parish, N.Y. He was riding a 1983 Harley Davidson as part of a group — the Onondaga County chapter of American Bikers Aimed Towards Education (ABATE) — that was rather unwisely protesting the helmet law by not wearing helmets.

I guess they really made their point, didn’t they?

According to press accounts, the fatal accident happened after Contos put on his brakes and his Harley fishtailed. Contos lost control of his bike and went over its handlebars, hit the pavement head first and was pronounced dead a local hospital. The accident happened after one of Contos’ “bootlaces got stuck in a chain,” according to The Post-Standard.

But that’s not the end of this cautionary story.

In an article in The Post-Standard Sunday, Contos’s older brother Richard insisted that if his dead brother could have done it again, he still would have rode in the protest without a helmet.

http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2011/07/death_of_motorcyclist_during_h.html

The older brother said that his deceased younger brother was a rebel who didn’t believe the government should tell people what to do, including instructing them to wear motorcycle helmets.

ABATE is lobbying to convince state and national officials to spend money on educating and training motorcyclists, rather than mandating the wearing of helmets.

The Syracuse paper quoted an ABATE official who said that the fact that Contos died is no reason to stop protests about helmet laws, since “it’s your own risk.”

Well, I disagree. If you want to take a cold hard look at this, someone who dies or sustains traumatic brain injury because he or she wasn’t wearing a helmet costs taxpayers money, in terms of police and paramedis time and using hospital resources.

Americans have enough financial worries today. The should not be obligated to pick up tab for emergency responders and medical costs of those too stubborn, and stupid, to bother wearing a helmet.