TBI - DEMOGRAPHIC OVERVIEW

    /24-7PressRelease/ - February 28, 2007 - Although at least 1.4 million people seek treatment for a traumatic brain injury (TBI) in the United States each year, it is not known how many people do not seek care. The unknown number of TBI victims is of grave concern since some of the symptoms and consequences of TBI can take months or years to surface or to become evident. It also makes it more difficult to accurately estimate the costs of brain damage to its victims, their families, and society at large.

For the most part, however, men are up to twice as likely as women to sustain a TBI. It is not known for what reason, on the other hand, men seem to respond better to TBI treatment. The apparently worse outcomes in female victims of TBI may have something to do with sex hormones and differences in brain structure.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), age groups from zero to four and from 15 to 19 are the likeliest to suffer a brain injury. Those in the former group have a high incidence of falls and those in the latter are more likely to be involved in motor vehicle accidents, the leading cause of TBI. Individuals over 75 years of age are also more likely than average to suffer a TBI due to slip and fall injuries attributed to medications and the aging process.

After motor vehicle accidents, the next leading causes of TBI are falls and injuries from firearms. But except for motor vehicle accidents, which are the leading cause of TBI across all age ranges and genders, the next leading cause of TBI varies in different demographic groups. For example, while children are likelier to sustain TBI from a blow to the head in an abusive situation, the elderly are almost as likely to sustain a TBI from a slip and fall as they are to sustain one in a motor vehicle accident.

Some overlooked causes of and contributors to TBI injuries include:

· Attempted suicide
· Alcohol (an estimated 32 to 73 percent of TBI cases involved some degree of alcohol abuse)
· Boating
· Swimming
· Occupational accidents

While death is the most dramatic and expensive result of TBIs, the resulting lifetime disabilities impose a significant economic cost to the U.S. in the form of medical expenses, state assistance and loss of wages and taxes from victims as well as their care giving families. Out of the 1.4 million TBI cases per year, at least 50,000 victims die from their injuries while 80,000 will suffer long-term disabilities.

Of course one cannot place a dollar value on the suffering surrounding a case of brain damage. But some studies estimate that the total economic cost to the U.S. attributable to TBI is over $60 billion.

Victims of traumatic brain injury may have recourse to litigation depending on how the brain injury occurred and who is at fault. One good resource to find an experienced brain injury lawyer is http://www.PersonalInjury.com.

# # #