The Brain Injury Layers at Perantinides & Nolan are advocates of good care and good health. March is National Brain Injury Awareness month so we would like to share some info and make you aware of brain injuries so that you can avoid such injury at all costs. According to the Brain Injury Association of America, each year an estimated 1.7 million children and adults in the United States sustain a traumatic brain injury (TBI), and another 795,000 individuals sustain an acquired brain injury (ABI) from nontraumatic causes.
Other Facts from the Brain Injury Association
A traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a blow, jolt or bump to the head or a penetrating head injury that disrupts the normal function of the brain.
• 2.4 million people, including 475,000 children, sustain a TBI in the U.S. each year. 5.3 million individuals live with life-long disability as a result ofTBI.
• 52,000 people will die. 275,000 people will be hospitalized. 1.365 million people will be treated and released from an emergency department.
• TBIs are caused by falls (35%), car crashes (17%), workplace accidents (16%), assaults (10%), and other causes (21%).
• TBI is a contributing factor to a third (30.5%) of all injury-related deaths in the United States.
• About 75% of TBIs that occur each year are concussions or other forms of mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI).
• Just as no two people are exactly alike, no two brain injuries are exactly alike. For some, brain injury is the start of a lifelong disease process. The injury requires access to a full continuum of medically necessary treatment and community-based supports furnished by interdisciplinary teams of qualified and specialized clinicians working in accredited programs and appropriate settings.
The costs to treat brain injuries are staggering:
• Average hospital-based acute rehab is about $8,000 per day
• Range for post-acute residential is about $850 to $2,500 per day
• Day treatment programs (e.g., 4 hours of therapy) are about $600 to $1,000 with no room/board
• According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in the U.S., direct medical costs and indirect costs of TBI, such as lost productivity, totaled an estimated $76.3 billion each year.