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The Brain Injury Association of Minnesota and PAHCS presented "Brain Injury Basics" on Wednesday, Oct. 3, in the Blakely Room at PAHCS. Staff members and people from the community were invited to attend. Karla Fleming, speech therapist at PAHCS, welcomed everyone and then introduced Jill Wahman as the guest speaker. Ms. Wahman has been with the Brain Injury Association of Minnesota for 12 years and became interested in the association when her daughter received a traumatic brain injury in a car accident.
Every 21 seconds, one person in the United States sustains a traumatic brain injury. That means 55 Minnesotans experience an injury every day for a total of 20,381 persons each year. While brain injury can have a devastating impact on individuals, families, and their loved ones, it also has a dramatic economic toll. According to the National Institutes for Health, the average lifetime cost of care for a person with severe traumatic brain injury ranges from $600,000 to $1.9 million dollars. These figures do not include lost earnings of the injured person or costs incurred by the social services system.
Ms. Wahman discussed the terms Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and Acquired Brain Injury (ABI). A TBI is a sudden insult to the brain, due to an external physical force. Most often, TBIs occur in car accidents, sports activities, falls, or shaken baby syndrome. Concussions are a common TBI. An ABI is not hereditary, congential, or degenerative. An ABI is usually caused from a lack of oxygen to the brain, due to an aneurysm, brain infection, near drowning, or stroke. The resulting impairments from any brain injury can be mild to severe and can affect any combination of cognitive, emotional, and physical functions.
One grim statistic is that more than 50 percent of all motor vehicle crashes resulting in a TBI involve alcohol. The only cure for brain injury is prevention. By wearing your seat belt in the car, buckling up your children, wearing helmets while riding motorcycles, snowmobiles, or bicycles, you are protecting yourself and others.
If you're uncertain as to what the signals are for brain injury, check out these common warning signs:
About one in ten people (almost two percent of the population in the United States) is touched by brain injury, whether it happens to them, a family member, or friend. But less than one in 20 people actually get the help they need. If you have had a brain injury or if you know someone who has, contact the Brain Injury Association of Minnesota to get more information. Call the Brain Injury Hotline at
1-800-669-6442 or contact them via e-mail at [email protected].
Area Support Groups:
Only for People with Brain Injury:
Both groups are self-help, self-supporting, independent groups that voluntarily collaborate with the Brain Injury Association of Minnesota. Call Craig at 320-685-3680 for more information
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