Traumatic brain injury is a debilitating and costly trauma that affects people in all stages of life and occupation, from military personnel to professional athletes. According to the Department of Defense, nearly 179,000 service members have sustained a traumatic brain injury (TBI) in the past 10 years.
Men and women who enlist in the military services do so voluntarily, with bodies strong and intact. Performing their duties often renders service members who are wounded in action in need of costly medical care and rehabilitation. Their employer—the government—through the Defense Centers of Excellence for Traumatic Brain Injury and its operational wing, the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center (DVBIC), aims to help restore function, providing vestibular, cognitive, and driving rehabilitation; balance training; life skills training; assistive technology; and more—under the auspices of the Department of Veterans Affairs, civilian agencies, clinical experts, and academic institutions. TBI is often dubbed the signature wound for service members returning home from the Middle East conflicts.
Lessons learned from rehabilitating service members are helping civilian warriors as well. The National Football League has increased its efforts to raise players’ awareness of brain injuries, and the DVBIC and NFL are joining forces to better understand TBI. The fruits of those labors are found in updated concussion guidelines for the Department of Defense and NFL. DVBIC reps sit on the NFL Players Association Concussion Committee.
Brain injuries also exact a steep toll in the lives of everyday Americans, with some 1.5 million people annually seeking treatment after brain-jarring events. Many people cannot immediately return to work or work as they did before, and they often face hospital bills totaling more than $10,000 for a week of inpatient rehab, according to the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research.
Facilities such as the Kessler Foundation Research Center, West Orange, NJ, help piece together the TBI puzzle. Kessler has tapped Jordan Grafman, PhD, to become director of its Traumatic Brain Injury Research Laboratory as of next year. Grafman has accumulated nearly 30 years of experience in brain injury research at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and the National Institutes of Health, and served as director of the Neuropsychology Evaluation for the Vietnam Head Injury Study at Walter Reed. He’s considered a top expert on the long-term effects of penetrating brain injuries in military personnel. In his new post, Grafman will aim to synthesize recent research and practices in neuroplasticity and genetics to achieve targeted rehabilitation and optimal outcomes for patients.
Our field is not the battlefield or playing field, but rehab professionals are nonetheless agents of change as we commemorate Veteran’s Day on November 11.
—JUDY O’ROURKE
MANAGING EDITOR
