Beasley, Allen, Crow, Methvin, Portis & Miles, P.C.

Recent clinical studies indicate that people who received a traumatic brain injury in the past may be at risk of dying earlier from complications resulting from the injury, according to a report published by ABC News.

The report cites a 2007 study of 767 traumatic brain injury patients in the UK. Research published in the Oxford journal Brain indicated that TBI sufferers were twice as likely to die as the general population seven years after their injury.

Results of a similar study that monitored 2,178 patients in 2004 and released by the Institute of Medicine showed that people with moderate to severe TBI had a lower life expectancy by as much as nine years.

Given the elusive nature of TBI and the brain itself, neither study could conclude with certainty that the premature deaths were related to TBI. According to one doctor cited in the ABC report, the longer a patient survives after a TBI, the more their risk of a premature death decreases.

Still, though, the death of a 26-year old Colorado man illustrates the most poignant fears of the destruction TBIs can have years after they were received. Timothy Whalen was 18 years old when he was struck on the back of his head following an altercation he had with another teenager near the University of Colorado’s Boulder campus.

Nine years after the incident, Whalen died suddenly. There were no obvious signs as to what caused his death. Results of Whalen’s autopsy aren’t expected for several more weeks, but some doctors and researchers believe that TBI could be the ultimate culprit.

Seizures, for instance, affect at least 30 to 40 percent of TBI patients receiving treatment in ICU and can occur, seen or unseen, years after the injury. In some cases, the seizures can lead to death by cardiac arrest or a closing of the air passages.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 2nd, 2009 at 7:00 am and is filed under News, brain injury. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.