Hawaii Injury Lawyer Blog

Recently, a number of studies have looked into ways to help victims of catastrophic brain and spinal cord injuries.

This past week, the Wall Street Journal reported on scientists’ progress in re-wring brain waves to assist those paralyzed because of Spinal Cord Injuries (SCIs), stroke or disease. SCIs refer to any type of injury to the spinal cord that causes a loss of function – this may be a car accident, sport accident, medical malpractice, or other trauma. In many SCI cases, paralysis occurs at the area below the level of injury.

In both SCIs and brain injuries, accident victims are unable to transmit the brain’s messages to the rest of the body.

By finding ways to “re-route” these brain signals, scientists hope to enable those paralyzed to perform some everyday functions. A leading neurobiologist at Duke University’s school of medicine explains with paralysis “the body you live in has changed. You need to remap … how commands from the brain get to the rest of the body.” Duke has recently received a grant to begin testing on a full-body prosthetic controlled solely by the patient’s brain waves.

Scientists have also reported similar studies aimed at helping those with Traumatic Brain Injuries.

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This week marks “international brachial plexus injury awareness week,” a week dedicated to raising awareness about a condition that affects thousands of newborns each year.

Brachial plexus injuries -including Erb’s palsy - are characterized by a loss of movement or weakness of the arm caused by damage to the collection of nerves around the shoulder. In infants, a brachial plexus injury may occur as the result of a difficult delivery, such as a prolonged labor or when the health care professional delivering an infant exerts excessive force, stretching one side of the baby’s neck severely causing nerve damage. Erb’s palsy also results from “shoulder dystocia,” a condition where the infant’s shoulder gets stuck in the birth canal.

For children born with Erb’s Palsy, treatment and outcomes vary. In some cases therapy can help regain arm functionality, while in others permanent paralysis occurs. Although figures of how many infants are affected vary, estimates place the number at two to five infants out of every 1000.

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The United States Supreme Court heard argument today on a significant case involving whether drug companies can be sued as the result of serious side effects from childhood vaccines. As reported in the Hawaii Star Advertiser, the parents of a girl sought the right to sue the drug maker Wyeth, after her daughter suffered injuries from a vaccine she received in infancy. At issue is how far a federal law reaches in barring state lawsuits over vaccines. If the Court finds in favor of the plaintiff, parents in nearly 5,000 cases could litigate whether autism, and other serious injuries, have been caused by the vaccinations such as the measles and mumps vaccine.

Last year, a U.S. appeals court ruled that the family’s lawsuit was preempted by the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986, a compensation program for vaccine-injury claim that also immunized vaccine-makers from some lawsuits, such as where the side effects were “unavoidable.” Much of the debate focuses on what is meant by “unavoidable.” Here, the girl developed a seizure disorder after receiving a vaccine manufactured by Wyeth when she was six months old.

The family argues that Wyeth could have produced a safer vaccine but chose not to.
NPR reports that the justices appear spilt, questioning “ferociously” both the plaintiff’s attorney and the government, trying to determine a manufacturer’s burden to pursue different, safer vaccines and whether Congress intended to make the vaccine court the “exclusive” system to determine these claims.

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Researchers are looking at new ways to help those suffering from brain trauma, often the result of an automobile accident, a concussion, or for many soldiers, a bomb blast. One group of researchers in the Midwest is researching the use of microelectronic circuitry to assist the growth of axons for those suffering brain damage. The theory is that by re-wiring the brain and bypassing the region damaged by trauma, normal behavior and movement can be restored. Professors at Case Western Reserve University and Kansas University Medical Center believe that repeated communications between distant neurons in the week after an injury may “spark long-reaching axons to form and connect.”

The research was developed in response to the significant number of ground troops returning from Afghanistan and Iraq. However, the treatment could be used on anyone who suffers a brain injury including victims of car accidents, sports accidents or any type of personal injury. The results of a brain injury can be devastating to the victim and his or her family, often resulting in a impaired physical and cognitive development requiring a lifetime of care and rehabilitation.

The researchers explain that “The month following injury is a window of opportunity.”

Although research is at its incipient stage, this month they received a $1.44 million grant to continue work. If tests are successful, this approach may be available in patients 10 years from now.

Currently, few methods exist to help those who have sustained serious head and brain injuries. Hopefully this research will create new ways to help those suffering the potential devastating effects of TBIs.

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