Marcovitz H. Brain Trauma

Farmington Hills: Lucent, 2009. — 106 p. — (Diseases and Disorders).Each year, more than 1.5 million Americans sustain traumatic brain injuries, caused mostly by motor vehicle accidents, falls and similar mishaps, violence, and sports injuries. Such injuries can be as mild as a concussion or as severe as having a foreign object, such as a shard from a broken window, penetrate the skull and lodge in brain tissue. The more serious the injury, the more likely it will cause permanent brain damage which can impair the victim’s ability to speak, think clearly, or otherwise function normally. In the most traumatic cases, head injuries can be deadly.
The risk of traumatic brain injury, or TBI, is particularly high among young people because this age group is more likely to engage in activities and behaviors that expose them to head injuries. Adolescent boys, for example, are very prone to TBI because they often ride bicycles or motorbikes without helmets or participate in contact sports. Many young people do not even perceive the risks of head injuries when performing wild stunts or playing a hard-hitting football game.