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Pocono News Section
Brain Injury Awareness Month
Brain Injury Awareness Month - Thursday, March 19, 2009 at 5:23PM EST
Thursday, Mar 19, 2009 @ 05:23pm EST
March is national brain injury awareness month.
A recent tragedy puts awareness in the headlines.
Tony award winning actress Natasha Richardson died from a brain injury Wednesday.
She hit her head skiing, and it didn't seem very serious.
We talked to a brain injury survivor at the John Heinz Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine.
The way Dustin Brooks of Lake Ariel looks now isn't the way he looked 3 years ago.
He suffered a serious brain injury after being hit in the head playing baseball.
"Being a survivor of it, you know, I know what it's like to go through that stuff. But just to have that happen was just really horrible," says Brooks.
It took Brooks months to get his motor skills back at the John Heinz Institute of rehabilitation in Wilkes-Barre .
A brain injury like his is similar to what actress Natash Richardson just died from.
Kim Jacques works at John Heinz’s brain injury program and says, "It really needs to bring to light the awareness that we need in brain injuries."
Jacques works at Heinz and says cases like Richardson 's are best detected early.
March is national brain injury awareness month.
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Jacques says a simple fall can be deadly if not caught early.
"You can have very minor things that aren't picked up until you know, people start to fall through the cracks," says Jacques.
That's what doctor Gregory Basting says too
“Any time from an infant to an elderly person that suffers and injury to their head, people need to be aware that there could be some very complicating circumstances," says Basting.
Like persistent headaches, ones that over the counter medicine can't heal.
Also, drastic changes in behavior.
They're all signs that brooks recovered from here at Heinz.
He's doing well enough now to get back on the diamond.
"I just love baseball. I'm so determined with baseball it's like my passion," says Brooks.
The John Heinz Institute of rehabilitation medicine specializes in brain injuries.
It's the only facility in our area that specializes in this area. | | |
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