Campaign aims to raise awareness of brain injuries

On a Wednesday morning in July 2005, 14-year-old Joseph Green crossed an intersection in Shoreline while on his way to help work on his uncle's house. As he started walking, a speeding car hit him and kept going.

The man behind the wheel of the Oldsmobile Cutlass later confessed to police he knew he hit someone, but was scared and kept driving. He was charged with felony hit-and-run and served a jail term.

		Dan DeLong / P-I
	Jennifer Green stretches her son Joe's leg and Achilles' heel during a therapy session Friday in their Shoreline home. Joe was hit by a car in 2005 and suffers from a traumatic brain injury.

Green suffered a traumatic brain injury that changed his and his family's lives forever.

On Monday, the state Department of Social and Health Services and the Washington Traumatic Brain Injury Strategic Partnership Advisory Council are launching a campaign to raise awareness and provide a way for people to get information about available resources.

The campaign provides a toll-free number for people to call for help and information and a new Web site with traumatic brain injury resources.

Traumatic brain injuries are caused by external traumas to the head such as from a fall, car crash, being shaken or from a concussion blast -- now the leading cause of traumatic brain injury for active-duty military personnel in war zones. The injury can be mild or severe and last for days, weeks or years.

The campaign sheds light on a condition that is getting more national attention because of the Iraq war, and is exposing an underserved population with traumatic brain injuries, said Dr. Laura Dahmer-White, a clinical neuropsychologist in Olympia and a member of the traumatic brain injury council. She said people now are surviving brain injuries, when 30 years ago they would have died.

"This campaign gives people a place to go to get information," she said. "We hope to increase training and awareness for health professionals. Mild, moderate or severe injuries -- there are different things that need to be done and physicians may not know where to go."

Green was flown by helicopter to Harborview Medical Center, where he spent five weeks in a coma, said his mother, Jennifer Green. Surgeons removed the damaged frontal lobe of his brain, and he spent another month in and out of consciousness at Seattle Children's Hospital.

Once home, Jennifer Green and her husband had to potty-train their teenage son and teach him how to do everything all over again. He suffered seizures and had to wear a helmet to prevent more damage to his brain.

Green said her son, who turns 17 on Friday, once was respectful and happy, but now is always angry about his injury. He has gained 100 pounds since the accident. He attends a private high school twice a week and undergoes therapy and counseling. The missing part of his brain causes him to be overly familiar with people and inappropriate, especially with girls, she said.

"With head injuries it's ever-changing, one problem goes away and another one comes up," Green said. "He knows that he's different and he's angry about that. Something like this affects you the rest of your life."

Dahmer-White said traumatic brain injury programs are closing statewide because insurance companies don't reimburse enough for them to stay open. Not getting the proper care results in people not being able to work or live on their own, she said.

"As we begin to understand all the different people across our state with traumatic brain injury we'll see the holes we as a state need to fill to meet those needs," she said. "It's a huge task, but we're at the beginning of promoting global awareness of traumatic brain injury."

Green remembered sitting in the emergency room after her son's accident and the doctor telling her not to count on him surviving. If he did, she should be happy for whatever life he ended up having. Despite his anger, she believes that with continued counseling and more resources, he will continue to get better.

"This program will give hope and help to so many people," she said. "We want all of these people to have a better life."

CAUSES OF TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY

Falls: 28 percent

Motor vehicle crashes: 20 percent

Struck by/against incidents: 19 percent

Assaults: 11 percent

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates at least 5.3 million Americans (about 2 percent of the population) have a long-term or lifelong need for help to perform activities of daily living as a result of a traumatic brain injury.

Traumatic brain injury causes a wide range of functional changes affecting thinking, sensation, language and emotions. It also can cause epilepsy and increase the risk for conditions such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and other brain disorders that become more prevalent with age.

MORE INFO

For more information about traumatic brain injuries call 877-824-1766. The number is staffed Monday through Friday, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Also visit www.tbiwashington.org