Brain Injuries May Cause Death or Mental Illness

Brain injury warnings have made headlines repeated in 2011, and nearly 100 current and former professiona football players have agreed to donate their brains to the Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy at Boston University School of Medicine for a long-term study ofchronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, which is an incurable progressive form of dementia and other mental illnesses.

Pledges to donate increased following the suicide of NFL Hall of Famer Dave Duerson. He had suffered from memory loss and headaches for years, and those problems may have been related to repeated concussions and other blows to the head. 

Annually, around 135,000 children between ages 5 and 18 are treated for sports-related head injuries, including concussions. Several states, including Virginia and North Carolina, have enacted laws requiring that a high school athlete who has suffered a concussion be benched until he or she gets a physician's approval to continue playing.

Brain injuries may be serious, causing someone to miss work or school, incur high medical costs, and suffer mental distress. A Virginia personal injury attorney evaluates the causes of a head injury  to hold the responsible parties accountable for damages.

LC