Brain Injuries

A strongly worded editorial in the Canadian Medical Assn. Journal calls for the end of fighting in the National Hockey League, saying the risk of intentional head trauma is too great to stand by and watch these guys pummel each other. In "Stop the violence and play hockey," neurologist Dr. Rajendra Kale, the journal's interim editor-in-chief makes the case that allowing fighting in the sport and risking major, permanent head trauma is not worth it, despite how popular it may be with spectators.

The top-seeded USC men's tennis team defeated rival UCLA, 4-1, in a wild NCAA semifinal at Athens, Ga., and earned a chance to win its fourth consecutive national championship Tuesday. The Trojans (32-1) will meet third-seeded Virginia at 2 p.m. PDT in Athens. USC beat the Cavaliers in last year's final. Virginia defeated seventh-seeded Pepperdine to reach the championship match. Lightning and thunder interrupted action midway through the first sets of both semifinal matches, forcing them to move indoors to be played out on two courts apiece.

In the last 20 years, it's become more likely that a patient will survive an injury to the brain. But with better lifesaving techniques has come a pressing need to find out just how well the brain is functioning -- or if it is at all. Several teams of doctors and scientists are now trying to do that. Using brain-imaging techniques and behavioral tests, they're searching for more objective methods to determine a patient's level of consciousness. Doctors use a scale of brain responsiveness, says Mariano Sigman, director of the Integrative Neuroscience Laboratory at Buenos Aires University, where research into methods of testing conscious function are underway.

Former NFL star Junior Seau's death by apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound follows a pattern of suicides by other high-profile football players who suffered from long-term effects of repeated brain injury. That list of players includes Andre Waters of the Philadelphia Eagles and Terry Long of the Pittsburgh Steelers. And just last year, former Chicago Bears player Dave Duerson shot himself in the chest, but not before requesting that his brain be donated to science so that researchers could study the long-term effects caused by concussion and other repeated brain injuries.

Jamal Lewis , Dorsey Levens and two other former NFL players have sued the league over brain injuries that they say left them struggling with medical problems years after their playing days ended. Lewis and Levens, along with Fulton Kuykendall and Ryan Stewart , filed the lawsuit against the National Football League and NFL Properties LLC this week in U.S. District Court in Atlanta. The players maintain the NFL knew as early as the 1920s of the potential for concussions to harm its players but only went public last year.

Re "War injury leads to advances at home," Oct. 5 It's a national tragedy that so many of our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan are suffering brain injuries. Only now is public attention being focused on this serious disability. As you report, an estimated 2% of Americans have brain injuries severe enough to affect their lives. In addition to head trauma, strokes create brain injuries, and heart attacks, fevers and infectious diseases can cause brain damage. Medical treatment, rehabilitation and therapies help considerably during the immediate aftermath of a brain injury, but then a person must go home and face a lifetime of adjustment.

High-tech medicine can now save the lives of people injured in accidents that a generation ago would have proved fatal. But it still can do little to heal a severe brain injury. "We've looked at dozens of drugs and treatments over the years, and we've never found one that's effective," said Dr. Kenneth Smith, director of neurosurgery at St. Louis University. "We're kind of stuck." So Smith and other researchers are trying a different approach.

With the exception of a few highly publicized cases involving celebrities such as actor Gary Busey and singer Barbara Mandrell, brain injuries don't get the attention of many other medical calamities. A recent public opinion poll found that a third of Americans aren't even familiar with the term "brain injury." Yet brain injuries are the leading cause of death and disability among U.S.

Short of a public blowup between Mickey Mouse and Goofy, I can't imagine anything amusement park execs would rather read about less than possible links between brain injuries and park rides. Surely it's not the kind of thing Disney's Imagineers could build an ad campaign around, unless it were something like, "Come to Disneyland, Minimal Threat of Brain Damage!" Yet that was the unwelcome prospect that greeted the amusement park industry last week. The nonprofit Brain Injury Assn.

The third annual Singers' Salute to the Songwriter, which will benefit the Betty Clooney Foundation for Persons With Brain Injury as well as its newly opened Betty Clooney Center in Long Beach, will take place at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Los Angeles Music Center.

WASHINGTON - Matt Pizzo has a law degree, can-do attitude, proven leadership skills, and expertise in communications and satellite technology from his four years in the Air Force. Yet the 29-year-old has been told that he's overqualified, too old, too "non-traditional," and that he's fallen behind his civilian contemporaries. "It was disheartening, to say the least," he said of his latest job rejection. "But it's typical, I'm afraid. " For unemployed veterans of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, rejection is a special ordeal.

While Louisiana state police and the FBI started a wiretapping probe into the New Orleans Saints and General Manager Mickey Loomis , assistant head coach Joe Vitt called allegations that Loomis had his Superdome booth wired so he could listen to opposing coaches "ludicrous. " "It's absolutely ludicrous. It's impossible," Vitt said Tuesday. "I've never heard of it before. That's something from 'Star Wars.' When I first heard something about it being a wiretap, I thought they were talking about Sammy 'the Bull' Gravano or something.

Could freestyle skier Sarah Burke, who died Jan. 19, nine days after a devastating crash, have been helped by an experimental drug? A new study offers a glimmer of hope for future victims of traumatic brain injury. In the hours after she has sustained a blow to the head, the victim of a traumatic injury experiences a slow down of blood flow to the brain--arguably when she needs it most. That mismatch between a brain's response and its needs in the wake of injury has set many a neuroscientist thinking: Can a way be found to keep the flow of oxygenated blood pumping normally?

The hospital was built in the years after World War II. Its ceilings are low, corridors long and corners sharp — all possible stress triggers for those who have been in combat. Not to mention that a hospital waiting room can make anyone edgy. But the Veterans Affairs hospital in Fresno has found a way to make the experience easier: live music. A musician playing amid the hustle and bustle is familiar to anyone who has ever sat at a cafe with entertainment or taken the subway.

Jamal Lewis , Dorsey Levens and two other former NFL players have sued the league over brain injuries that they say left them struggling with medical problems years after their playing days ended. Lewis and Levens, along with Fulton Kuykendall and Ryan Stewart , filed the lawsuit against the National Football League and NFL Properties LLC this week in U.S. District Court in Atlanta. The players maintain the NFL knew as early as the 1920s of the potential for concussions to harm its players but only went public last year.

A strongly worded editorial in the Canadian Medical Assn. Journal calls for the end of fighting in the National Hockey League, saying the risk of intentional head trauma is too great to stand by and watch these guys pummel each other. In "Stop the violence and play hockey," neurologist Dr. Rajendra Kale, the journal's interim editor-in-chief makes the case that allowing fighting in the sport and risking major, permanent head trauma is not worth it, despite how popular it may be with spectators.

Last month, when University of Southern California wide receiver Garrett Green bobbled the football on a key play against Washington State, red flags went up among the Trojans' athletic trainers on the sidelines. Only minutes before, Green had tackled an opponent -- hard -- on a kickoff return. His sudden lack of coordination struck team trainer Russ Romano as a pretty likely sign of concussion. Romano called Green to the sidelines, asked him a few quick questions and got back answers confused enough to take the senior from Chatsworth out of the game.

Daniel Graham got there after he ran his motorcycle into the center divider of the San Bernardino Freeway. Frank Braico made it after the car in which he was riding careened off the road and slammed into a mountainside. Julian Paniagua's path was different; a jealous boyfriend smashed a liquor bottle over Paniagua's head, kicking and hitting him after he fell to the ground.

The brain of former National Hockey League player Derek Boogaard showed signs of early chronic traumatic encephalopathy, researchers report, shedding light on the neurological condition that may affect some athletes who sustain brain injuries during play. Boogaard died at age 28 from a drug overdose in May, and his brain was autopsied by Dr. Ann McKee, a neuropathologist at the Bedford VA Medical Center and co-director of the Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy at Boston University.

"The Descendants" Ad Hominem Enterprises U.S. release: Nov. 18 The premise Elizabeth King (Patricia Hastie) is in a water skiiing accident off Waikiki Beach. She suffers severe head trauma, falls into a deep coma and is maintained on life support for more than three weeks. Her husband, Hawaiian land baron Matthew King (George Clooney), must now assume full care of their two daughters while coping with the news that his wife had been having an affair and was preparing to leave him. Elizabeth's physician, Dr. Johnston (Milt Kogan)