Changes Needed in Diagnosing Brain Injury

Changes in Procedure Needed in Diagnosing Brain Injury

By Gordon S. Johnson, Jr.

Helping people with brain injury is one of my callings. I am not a doctor, but the internet has allowed my advocacy pages to reach millions. The best-selling brain injury book might only reach thousands. I am also the survivor of a moderate brain injury, which motivates me further to help other survivors.

We need to make some changes in order to improve diagnosis of brain injury. Vital to doing so is the next day follow through and detailed inquiry into amnesia. If diagnosis is missed in the first 30 hours or so, the best time to intervene may be lost. The best tool for diagnosis in the first 30 hours is looking into how the brain saved memories. Therefore, we will start our discussion with amnesia.

Improving diagnosis begins with amnesia because it is the most short-lived. The identification of amnesia is one of the most important steps to diagnosing brain injury. Amnesia is the clue that the brain is losing memories because something is wrong with the save button.

If we compare the brain to a computer, we will not overlook the subtleties of amnesia. The brain’s save button is the hippocampus. It is not an all-or-nothing process. Physiological and emotional processes at the time of injury may be able to force through. Some things might be stored and others might not.

This discussion of brain injury centers around how the brain functions to aid in understanding how brain injury pathologically changes brain function. We will focus on diffuse brain injury, or brain injury to the white matter, the axonal tracts of the brain.

Understanding Focal Injury – the Big Stuff

Focusing on severe brain injury zeroes in on the “big stuff,” because focal damage affects large and specific brain structures. However, mild brain injury affects many more people than severe brain damage. About 50,000 brain injury cases are severe, while there are millions of mild injuries. Even if only ten percent have persistent problems, that is much more than those who suffer from severe brain injuries. The initial injury may be mild, but persistent problems can affect future functions as significantly as severe brain injuries do.

Gordon Johnson

Attorney Gordon Johnson is one of the nations leading brain injury advocates. He is Past-Chair of the TBILG, a national group of more than 150 brain injury advocates. He has spoken at numerous brain injury seminars and is the author of some of the most read brain injury web pages on the internet.

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