Brain Trauma

The number of children in the U.S. seeking emergency medical care for concussions incurred playing competitive sports more than doubled in the five years leading up to 2005, according to a study published Monday in the journal Pediatrics. Much of that increase came not from high school athletes who have been the mainstay of emergency-room visits for concussions, but from middle-schoolers and even elementary school students who have flocked to play on elite travel teams and in competitive youth leagues across the country.

A Northern California nursing home has been fined $100,000 after its staff allegedly failed to prevent a patient from falling twice and suffering a fatal head injury for which he was not treated, state public health officials announced recently . The 85-year-old patient, who had a heart condition and diabetes, was supposed to use a walker and be supervised when walking, according to a state investigator's report released Aug. 3 on ...

A world away from the roadside bombs and combat injuries of Iraq and Afghanistan, Americans are suffering the same type of brain injury seen in troops coming home from those war-torn countries. On American roads, at workplaces and on playing fields, more than 11 million have been hurt since the fighting overseas started. Almost 1 in 5 of these civilians will struggle with lingering, often subtle symptoms -- headaches, dizziness, concentration difficulties and personality changes -- for a year, and often longer.

In the 1946 issue of the Annals of Surgery, U.S. Army Maj. Ralph A. Munslow chronicled in exquisite detail the emergency care of 140 soldiers and civilians who suffered grievous head wounds ? mainly from shell fragments ? during the 5th Army's 1944 operation to seize and hold a beachhead in Anzio, Italy. While liberally sprinkling antibiotic sulfa powder, and later penicillin, directly into his patients' gaping head wounds, Munslow meticulously collected all traces of foreign bodies and skull fragments, he reported.

The 15 beaked whales that beached themselves last week on the Canary Islands off northwest Africa during a multinational naval exercise suffered ear and brain trauma that may have been caused by high-intensity sonar, according to a preliminary analysis. Dr. Michel Andre, a veterinarian leading the investigation, noted Monday that "necropsies showed the presence of unspecific lesions, including in the brain and the hearing system, consistent with acoustic impact."

Mira Bartok's memoir of her schizophrenic, homeless mother, Norma, is relentlessly sad. Unlike memoirs like "Angela's Ashes" or "The Liar's Club," there is very little triumph over tragedy in the author's life; no forgiveness, no "closure. " There is only this beautifully constructed, richly detailed book. "The Memory Palace" is a creative act that required pure courage and the transformative powers of an artist. Bartok brings a painterly eye to her memories; colorful birds, paintings that mother and daughter both loved, objects in her grandmother's house that were invested with hope or despair.

At 25, Chaz Kekipi, the athletic trainer at Anaheim Servite High, doesn't look too far removed from his football playing days. Thick-muscled and burly, he could easily be mistaken for a starter on one of the lines. But don't expect to hear him advising any of his teenage athletes to tough out a significant injury. He says he's more likely to err on the side of caution. And occasionally, that puts him at odds with a coach. "They still want every kid to play through everything," Kekipi said.

David Hernandez, 20, and Sheila Valenzuela, 18, the parents of a newborn boy, pleaded not guilty Tuesday in Antelope Valley Superior Court to charges of felony child abuse. Their 1-month-old son suffered brain trauma and was placed on life support Saturday, court officials said.