Hawaii Personal Injury Blog - trauma

Whiplash and Headaches - The Most Common Personal Injury In Automobile Accident Cases in Hawaii

Wayne Parsons — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 14:37:27 GMT

In the 1950s the medical profession did not recognize whiplash as a medical condition. It was through attorneys seeking explanations of injuries from treating doctors that stimulated medical insight into the most common result of automobile accidents. The insurance industry has spent millions of dollars to prevent persons injured with whiplash from being compensated for their pain:

It appears that the Canadian health system has close links to the American insurance companies. In years past the American insurance companies did not recognize whiplash and its attendant disabling pain. Rather they banded together to create the concept of M.I.S.T. (Minor Injury Soft Tissue Injury). The concept held that whiplash was a psychosocial phenomenon. We all knew better and Centeno et al after reviewing the literature to date found a significant number of studies which refute the MIST concept. The authors concluded that a review of the literature did not support the validity of MIST.

At the Centeno-Schultz Clinicwe acknowledge the disabling pain and suffering that accompanies whiplash injuries. We understand that when an injury as illustrated below occurs, it is not a psychosocial phenomenon. This type of trauma is referred to as a cervical acceleration-deceleration injury.

There are many structures that can be injured including ligaments, muscles, cervical discs and cervical facets. We treat a large number of Canadians for whiplash with great success. Our ability to do so originates in knowing that this is a REAL injury with REAL pain.

One of the main medical problems that comes with a whiplash injury are headaches. The insurance industry and their well paid attorneys try to blame the headaches on other things and of course many things cause headaches. In cases which go to court the insurance industry uses doctors who make hundreds of thousands of dollars each year testifying against whiplash victims to testify that some other medical condition is causing the headaches. These doctors are usually referred to as "hired guns" or less polite names because they are captive witnesses for Big Insurance and they profit by distorting the truth in court cases against injured people.

New research about the connection of whiplash and headaches is now making the connection more solid. In the peer reviewed study - Incidence and predictors of chronic headache attributed to whiplash injury © published in the prestigious medical journal Cephalgia, by M Obermann, K Nebel, A Riegel, D Thiemann, M-S Yoon, M Keidel, P Stude, HC Diener & Z Katsarava from the Department of Neurology, University of Duisburg-Essen, Essen and Department of Neurology and Neurological Rehabilitation, Bezirkskrankenhaus Bayreuth, Germany (send correspondence to Mark Obermann MD, Department of Neurology, University of Duisburg-Essen ( e-mail mark.obermann@uni-due.de ). The new study is ex[plained as follows:

We identified clinical, demographic and psychological predictive factors that may contribute to the development of chronic headache associated with mild to moderate whiplash injury [Quebec Task Force (QTF) ≤ II] and determined the incidence of this chronic pain state. Patients were recruited prospectively from six participating accident and emergency departments. While 4.6% of patients developed chronic headache attributed to whiplash injury according to the International Classification of Headache Disorders, 2nd edn criteria, 15.2% of patients complained about headache lasting > 42 days (QTF criteria). Predictive factors were pre-existing facial pain [odds ratio (OR) 9.7, 95% confidence interval (CI) 2.1, 10.4; P = 0.017], lack of confidence to recover completely (OR 5.5, 95% CI 2.0, 13.2; P = 0.005), sore throat (OR 5.0, 95% CI 1.5, 8.9; P = 0.013), medication overuse (OR 4.2, 95% CI 1.4, 12.3; P = 0.009), high Neck Disability Index (OR 4.0, 95% CI 1.3, 12.6; P = 0.019), hopelessness/anxiety (OR 3.8, 95% CI 1.3, 8.7; P = 0.024), and depression (OR 3.3, 95% CI 1.2, 9.4; P = 0.024). The lack of a control group limits the conclusions that can be drawn from this study. Identified predictors closely resemble those found in chronic primary headache disorders.

The whiplash injury has been one constantly distorted by the junk science that the insurance industry proliferates to save money and deny claims. Research like this from Europe is difficult and the conditions are complex. I must comment that the abuse of injured people by insurance adjusters, high paid attorneys for the big insurance industry and the hoard of hired gun doctors getting rich writing false medical reports certainly came to mind when I saw that hopelessness, depression and lack of confidence to recover were associated with bad results in this study. Most automobile accident whiplash cases in Hawaii and my hometown of Honolulu have to fight for years just to get treatment because of a pattern and practice of roadblocks by the insurance company. And since Governor Lingle took office the Insurance Division of the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs has been taken over by insurance industry insiders or sympathizers so there is no place to get a fair hearing. The only hope for a person who suffers a whiplash injury in an automobile collision is to get before a jury in court because that is the first and only chance to get an unbiased listener. Thanks to jury trials and the right to trial by jury, the big insurance industry must eventually do the right thing.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Wayne Parsons

Billy May and TBI: Another Closed Head Injury Death?

Wayne Parsons — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 15:48:36 GMT

Doctors are looking at a traumatic brain injury (TBI) as the possible cause of the tragic death of TV actor Billy May as Mike Bryant of Minnesota has reported recently in:

Doctors Will Be Looking At Potential Head Injury With Billy May's Death.

Everyone should be on alert that a blow to the head can start a small bleeding process in the brain that is unknown to the person whose head was hit - and can lead to death. Often the person is either unconscious for a period of time, or dazed. After a few moments the person goes through what doctors call a lucid interval where they seem OK.

This article is about the medical sign. For the Cephalic Carnage album, see Lucid Interval.
In emergency medicine, a lucid interval is a temporary improvement in a patient's condition after a traumatic brain injury, after which the condition deteriorates. A lucid interval is especially indicative of an epidural hematoma. An estimated 20 to 50% of patients with epidural hematoma experience such a lucid interval.^[1]^[2] The lucid interval occurs after the patient is knocked out by the initial concussive force of the trauma, then lapses into unconsciousness again after recovery when bleeding causes the hematoma to expand past the point at which the body can no longer compensate.^[3] After the injury, the patient is momentarily dazed or knocked out, and then becomes relatively lucid for a period of time which can last minutes or hours.^[3] Thereafter there is rapid decline as the blood collects within the skull, causing a rise in intracranial pressure, which damages brain tissue. In addition, some patients may develop "pseudoaneurysms" after trauma which can eventually burst and bleed, a factor which might account for the delay in loss of consciousness.^[4]

Because a patient may have a lucid interval, any head trauma is regarded as a medical emergency and receives emergency medical treatment even if the patient is conscious.

Delayed cerebral edema, a very serious and potentially fatal condition in which the brain swells dramatically, may follow a lucid interval that occurs after a minor head trauma.^[5]

Lucid intervals may also occur in conditions other than traumatic brain injury, such as heat stroke^[6] and the postictal phase after a seizure in epileptic patients.^[7]

The skull is solid and the brain is soft. Increasing the pressure with an internal bleeding process is a catastrophe waiting to happen.

I handled a TBI case years ago that I will never forget. A man hit is head when he fell off a ladder in his yard while trimming a tree. His wife was with him and got to him immediately. His eyes were open but when she asked if he was hurt he did not respond. He never was "unconscious" as we usually think of it. That was at 9 o'clock in the morning. By 5 PM he was dead. He went to his family doctor who asked him some questions that he answered correctly. The doctor did not order a CT Scan.

The 20th century has seen critical developments in diagnosis and treatment which have decreased death rates and improved outcome. These include imaging techniques such as computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging. Depending on the injury, treatment required may be minimal or may include interventions such as medications and emergency surgery. Physical therapy, speech therapy, and occupational therapy may be employed for rehabilitation.

During the afternoon the man slept at home and his headache worsened. He was unresponsive at 5 PM at home. Tragic. A CT scan might have shown the insidious bleed and treatment would have been available.

These head injuries are a leading cause of death in the United States from trauma:

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a leading cause of death and disability among persons in the United States. Each year, an estimated 1.5 million Americans sustain a TBI. As a result of these injuries, 50,000 people die, 230,000 people are hospitalized and survive, and an estimated 80,000-90,000 people experience the onset of long-term disability. Rates of TBI-related hospitalization have declined nearly 50% since 1980, a phenomenon that may be attributed, in part, to successes in injury prevention and also to changes in hospital admission practices that shift the care of persons with less severe TBI from inpatient to outpatient settings. The magnitude of TBI in the United States requires public health measures to prevent these injuries and to improve their consequences. State surveillance systems can provide reliable data on injury causes and risk factors, identify trends in TBI incidence, enable the development of cause-specific prevention strategies focused on populations at greatest risk, and monitor the effectiveness of such programs. State follow-up registries, built on surveillance systems, can provide more information regarding the frequency and nature of disabilities associated with TBI. This information can help states and communities to design, implement, and evaluate cost-effective programs for people living with TBI and for their families, addressing acute care, rehabilitation, and vocational, school, and community support.

Billy May was far too young to die. The first lesson is to get to a doctor or hospital immediately. The second is to look for the subtle signs and symptoms of an internal bleed in the head.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Wayne Parsons

Health Alert: Recognizing When Someone Is Having A Stroke Can Save Their Or Your Life

Wayne Parsons — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 16:07:00 GMT

STROKE IDENTIFICATION

We saw Natasha Richardson die of a traumatic brain injury (TBI) shortly after hitting her head on a ski slope. A short delay in recognizing the seriousness of her injury because she was alert and conscious, allowed the injury in her head to become fatal. There are many good resources about people who hit their head and suffer an obvious trauma or TBI, but a stroke often goes on without any outside influence. Something is happening inside the brain and the signs are subtle, even to the person having the stroke.

Think of Ms. Richardson when you become aware of the subtle signs of a stroke. Stroke is invisible often. No head trauma. No violent events. If you see a friend stumble and lose their balance or fall at a summer BBQ, ask yourself if perhaps this person - or you if it is you who stumbled - is having a stroke? Most people will assure everyone that they are fine will refuse assistance saying that they must have caught their foot on something. Calling for paramedics is out of the question they will say.

They will get up and the host will bring them a beverage or some food, and the embarrassed guest will go about enjoying the rest of the party. If it was a stroke you will get a call later that the person had been taken to the hospital later and sadly has passed away. If those who saw the person stumble and fall knew how to identify the signs of a stroke, perhaps death could have been prevented.

Here is what you need to know:

A neurologist says that if he can get to a stroke victim within 3 hours he can often totally reverse the effects of a stroke...totally. He said the trick was getting a stroke recognized, diagnosed, and then getting the patient medically cared for within 3 hours, which is tough.

RECOGNIZING A STROKE:

Commit to memory the '3' steps, STR - ask three simple questions:

S: Ask the individual to SMILE.

T: Ask the person to TALK and SPEAK A SIMPLE SENTENCE, coherently. (i.e.. It is sunny out today.)

R: Ask him or her to RAISE BOTH ARMS.

If he or she has trouble with ANY ONE of these tasks, call the emergency number (911 in many places) immediately and describe the symptoms to the dispatcher.

Another 'sign' of a stroke is to ask the person to 'stick' out his or her tongue. If the tongue is crooked, if it goes to one side or the other, that is also an indication of a stroke.

There are great resources on stroke and STR is not the only catch phrase for us to apply. How about F.A.S.T. as in do something FAST? That comes from the National Stroke Association:

If you think someone may be having a stroke, act F.A.S.T. and do this simple test:

Act F.A.S.T.

FACE
Ask the person to smile.

Does one side of the face droop?

ARMS
Ask the person to raise both arms.

Does one arm drift downward?

SPEECH
Ask the person to repeat a simple sentence.

Are the words slurred? Can he/she repeat the sentence correctly?

TIME
If the person shows any of these symptoms, time is important.

Call 911 or get to the hospital fast. Brain cells are dying.

Stroke Symptoms include:

SUDDEN numbness or weakness of face, arm or leg - especially on one side of the body.

SUDDEN confusion, trouble speaking or understanding.

SUDDEN trouble seeing in one or both eyes.

SUDDEN trouble walking, dizziness, loss of balance or coordination.

SUDDEN severe headache with no known cause.

Call 9-1-1 immediately if you have any of these symptoms

Note the time you experienced your first symptom. This information is important to your healthcare provider and can affect treatment decisions.

If you have experienced any of these symptoms, you may have had a TIA or mini-stroke.

Let others know about S.T.R. and F.A.S.T. -- Saving a life is a beautiful thing.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Wayne Parsons

Misdiagnosis of Brain Injury - Its Not Just a Headache - Remembering Natasha Richardson

Wayne Parsons — Sun, 03 May 2009 14:20:41 GMT

Think about tort reform in the context of medical negligence - misdiagnosis of traumatic brain injury - on a national basis. It happens everywhere from Honolulu to Hilo to Washington, D.C. Why don't the tort reform advocates talk about the 15,000 people in the united States whose life threatening head injury will be misdiagnosed by careless physicians this year?

Natasha Richardson died of a headache. She fell while skiing. She seemed OK afterward – there was no panic. All she had was a bad headache. Then in a few short hours she became very ill and then she slipped into a coma. Tragically she died. It was more than a headache. It was more than a bump. In her case I do not know if she was misdiagnosed. But her case draws attention to what every person needs to know when they bump their head.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWMiBoaJQp8

As doctors and their insurance companies and high paid lobbyists twist the arms of naive legislators in states across the country, begging for tort reform, about 15,000 people in the United States will be misdiagnosed at an emergency room or in a doctors office this year with a brain injury that may kill them. More than 30,000 people in the United States suffer this injury every year: Jonathan A. Edlow & Louis R. Caplan, Avoiding Pitfalls in the Diagnosis of Subarachnoid Hemorrhage, 342 New Eng. J. Med. 29, 29 (2000).

The medical diagnosis is:

Ruptured brain aneurysm, or

Subarachnoid hemorrhage

The plain language version is internal bleed. A ruptured brain aneurysm usually results in blood collecting at the base of the brain. A subarachnoid hemorrhage often is seen with blood collecting on the surface of brain at the site of the blow that caused the injury or at the opposite side of the brain.

Blood flows into the fixed space inside the skull and there is nowhere for it to go. Something has to give. The brain is crushed. It can take an hour or it can take a year. It depends on how fast the bleed is going. There are treatments - both surgical and new drugs - but time is crucial. Not a minute can be wasted and delay can be fatal as it was in the death of Natasha Richardson this past winter.

Now for the most frightening fact for the 30,000 people who will go to a doctor – usually an emergency room doctor – in 2009, with this condition: the common doctor negligence of failure to diagnose the condition is estimated at 53%:

Unfortunately, many will be discharged without receiving the correct diagnosis or the emergency medical treatment they desperately need.

Failure to diagnose is the most common negligence in the treatment of patients with aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage,² and this failure may be as high as 53 percent in patients visiting the emergency room for the first time.³Physicians fail to obtain an adequate history, perform a thorough neurological exam, or understand the significance of the history and physical exam findings. Jose I. Suarez et al., Aneurysmal Subarachnoid Hemorrhage, 354 New Eng. J. Med. 387, 388 (2006).

Less often, but still with troubling regularity, negligence involves failure to obtain or accurately interpret diagnostic tests.

Delay in diagnosis and treatment has dire consequences. In some cases, even minimal delay can mean the difference between life and death.”

Many of these patients will present with a severe headache, some will recall being unconscious and others with think they were only dazed (doctors call that a lucid interval) and every one of them needs a careful examination.

How does a doctor detect an internal bleed? CT Scan is the standard of care for seeing an internal bleed. Remember that: CT scan. The exact procedure will be described later in this article:

Q: What if internal bleeding of the brain occurs due to injury?

One of two things can happen; the blood can clot and block circulation to that part of the brain, or the blood can continue to accumulate an create a hemorrhagic area and pressure within the brain on a vessel or surrounding brain structure. In either case, it can lead to an "evolving" stroke with temporary or permanent disability, depending on the area involved and the time until the blockage or pressure is remedied. Also, a generalized response of fluid accumulation around the brain (cerebral edema) can occur to increase pressure around the brain as a whole.

A CT scan or MRI scan can determine the type, area and extent of bleeding to choose the appropriate treatment, which may include "clot-busting enzymatic" drugs, high-dose steroids (hydrocortisone or methylprednisolone) or diuretics to draw fluid away from the brain.

Time is critical, since the brain uses the greatest amount of oxygen in the body (about 20% for a 3-lb organ, far more than the heart), consequently it is exquisitely sensitive to anoxia.

An X-ray will not show an internal bleed. And remember, if you are sent home with instruction to call or come back if it gets worse, if the bleed gets to the point of crushing the brain it will not wait for you to drive back to the emergency room and even if you make it before you die, there is little that the doctors can do at that point – it is too late.

Here is an explanation of what happens inside the skull:

Aneurysms are ballooned areas on arteries. They are often referred to as berry, saccular, or congenital (existing at birth) aneurysms. The most likely cause is a weak area of the artery wall due to a congenital defect combined with degenerative changes that further weaken the tissue.

Aneurysms are typically located on large arteries at the base of the brain and usually occur at branching points. If they stretch and ultimately rupture, arterial pressure forces blood to leak from the aneurysm into the subarachnoid space—the area between the arachnoid membrane and the pia mater, a membrane adherent to the brain. The blood then quickly spreads into the cerebrospinal fluid surrounding the brain and spinal cord.

The problem is greater for women than for men, greater for blacks than for whites and is more common in pregnant women particularly in the third trimester accounting for from 6% to 25% of maternal deaths.Jonathan A. Edlow, Diagnosis of Subarachnoid Hemorrhage in the Emergency Department, 21 Emerg. Med. Clinics of N. Am. 73, 75 (2003),

The sequence is subtle. Many people will have only a small leak at first. At tiny bleed that grows and as the pressure builds causes other leaks and then a cascade due to mounting pressure that all of a sudden becomes critical. That first leak is called a sentinel leak by doctors:

Up to 70 percent of patients will experience a sentinel (warning) leak before suffering a larger hemorrhage. Often these patients have a headache but no other signs or symptoms. Half of the patients with sentinel leaks seek immediate attention, but up to 60 percent of them are misdiagnosed and later suffer a larger hemorrhage. If the sentinel leak is diagnosed and treated promptly, a more serious hemorrhage and the associated significant complications can be prevented.”

Rosen’s Emergency Medicine: Concepts in Clinical Practice (John A. Marx et al. eds., 6th ed. Mosby, Inc. 2006), (subscription required)

At the emergency room the doctor should look for the following signs and symptoms:

severe headache with sudden onset,

nausea, vomiting,

sensitivity to light,

neck pain.

The examination by the doctor must include looking for neck stiffness, an altered state of consciousness (for example, drowsiness, restlessness, or agitation), neurological impairments such as weakness or paralysis, visual problems, abnormal eye movements, or paralysis of eye movements. Rosen’s Emergency Medicine, n. 7.

The doctor should examine the back of the eye, called a funduscopic examination, to see if a retinal or preretinal hemorrhage exists.

Funduscopic examination is a routine part of every doctor's examination of the eye, not

just the ophthalmologist's. It consists exclusively of inspection. One looks through the ophthalmoscope, which is simply a light with various optical modifications, including lenses. The ophthalmoscope illuminates the retina through the normal iris defect that is the pupil. Light rays forming the image of the retina re-emerge through the pupil. The viewing aperture (window) of the ophthalmoscope contains a lens that modifies light rays to assist the user. In the procedure, one looks at structures lying in the innermost aspect of the globe, collectively known as the eyegrounds: retina, retinal blood vessels, optic nerve head (disk), and to a limited degree, subjacent choroid. The pupil is frequently dilated pharmacologically to render retinal inspection easier, and for examination of the macula. One paralyzes the pupilloconstrictor muscle of the iris with nonabsorbable, short-acting topical parasympatholytic drugs, resulting in a larger pupillary aperture. In comparison to the ophthalmologist, the internist, neurologist, or pediatrician concentrates particularly on funduscopic manifestations of systemic disease and less on local ocular disease. Synonyms for funduscopic examination include funduscopy, ophthalmoscopy, and direct ophthalmoscopy. Only ophthalmologists perform retinoscopy and indirect ophthalmoscopy, which require other equipment and provide different information.

Figure 117.4 The value of pupillodilation. (A) External examination (more...)

Figure 117.4

The value of pupillodilation. (A) External examination shows miotic pupil at baseline. (B) Scant fundus is revealed through this pupil. (Peripheral clouding is an artifact of photography through undilated pupil; actual funduscopy in this case showed retina only where photograph is vivid, and no image where photograph is cloudy or spotted.) (C) Pharmacologically dilated pupil provides much better aperture. (D) Retinal field of view enlarges after mydriatic treatment. Funduscopy grows easy. Almost all retinal photographs are taken through dilated pupils. The student expects a comparable view in undilated patients. The rude reality makes him wonder, unnecessarily, if his technique is defective.

The term temporal is used in describing ophthalmoscopic landmarks and findings, rather than "lateral"; and nasal replaces "medial." The optic nerve head or disk is seen when one looks through the pupil from an angle about 15 degrees temporal to the optical axis (the patient's line of sight, "straight ahead"). The disk is a yellow-pink color that stands out from the redder, browner, or more orange retina proper.

The disk is sharply demarcated temporally and to a lesser degree nasally from the background retina, which is all the retina that is not disk, vessels, or macula. Frequently, a narrow crescent of stippled pigment adjoins the sides of the disk, especially the temporal side (house staff have called the author to see "lesions" that turned out to be this normal feature). The disk is slightly taller than wide. The central part of the disk is paler, and is called the optic cup or physiologic excavation; normally this occupies less than one-third the diameter of the disk. In glaucoma and in high myopia the cup is enlarged. The transverse diameter of the disk is a standard yardstick in fundal description, so that, for example, a lesion may be characterized as "one-half disk diameter out at two o"clock, and extending two disk diameters superiorly therefrom." Although some examiners realize that the disk is 1.5 mm wide, nobody describes a lesion as 3 mm across. Near mid-disk, the central retinal artery and vein emerge from the optic nerve, with which they have run forward into the orbit. Each soon bifurcates into superior and inferior branches, which run "flat," that is, parallel with the retinal surface. Beyond one disk diameter out, they are called arterioles and venules. With all retinal vessels, the artery/arteriole appears slightly smaller, and distinctly lighter, more orange-red and less purple than the vein/venule. The color difference reflects the contained blood column that is visualized: the vascular walls are transparent, and deoxygenated venous blood is darker than arterial blood. Before it crosses the disk edge, each large vessel divides into a nasal and a temporal branch. Thus the principal arteries, veins, and quadrants of any retina are the superior temporal, inferior temporal, inferior nasal, and superior nasal. The avascular, dusky area two disk diameters due temporal to the disk is the macula. This is the area of greatest visual acuity. Apart from this zone, the background retinal color will parallel the patient's skin and hair pigmentation, from pale in light-skinned blondes to an umber shade in the darkest black people.

Normally, the largest veins pulsate slightly and the arteries do not, the reverse of the situation elsewhere in the body. No hemorrhage is seen in normal fundi. Any yellow, yellow-white, gray, or black interruptions of the background retinal color pattern suggest pathologic exudate, edema, or scar. No wrinkling of the retina should be seen. Chalky whiteness or erythema of the disk is abnormal, as are indistinct disk margins. Any sharp change in elevation that renders one area out of focus with the ophthalmoscope, while the remainder of the retina remains in focus, is abnormal. Tortuous blood vessels usually bespeak pathology.

About 50 percent of patients with aneurysmal hemorrhage will have no alteration in consciousness, and most will lack focal neurological signs.

After a person suffers a hemorrhage, his or her electrocardiogram may suggest acute myocardial infarction. This may complicate the patient’s evaluation and delay the correct diagnosis while an acute heart attack is being ruled out.

The physician should know that the patient may not have any of the physical or neurological findings discussed above:

About 12 percent of patients who arrive at the emergency room with severe acute-onset headaches and normal neurological exams have suffered a hemorrhage.¹⁷ Therefore, patients with sudden severe headaches should be thoroughly evaluated for subarachnoid hemorrhage even if they have no other signs or symptoms or the headache abates spontaneously or with pain medication.

Once the differential diagnosis includes subarachnoid hemorrhage, diagnostic testing should immediately follow. Computerized tomography (CT) of the head, without contrast material, is the diagnostic test of choice. It is about 95 percent sensitive for detecting acute subarachnoid hemorrhage if performed within hours of aneurysm rupture. CT is noninvasive, relatively inexpensive, and it can be completed in minutes. CT sensitivity decreases to about 50 percent one week after rupture.Rosen’s Emergency Medicine, supra n. 7.

When the patient is suspected of having suffered a hemorrhage but the CT scan is normal or inconclusive, a lumbar puncture should be performed to look for blood in the cerebrospinal fluid. This is an inexpensive and low-risk procedure that can be completed and evaluated in minutes.

Once a diagnosis of subarachnoid hemorrhage is made, complete diagnostic cerebral angiography should be performed as soon as possible to localize the source of bleeding. Angiography is the gold standard for identifying cerebral aneurysms. Surgical clipping (in which the neurosurgeon opens the skull and places a clip across the neck of the aneurysm to prevent rupture) or less-invasive endovascular treatment (in which coils are placed in the aneurysm via a catheter) should be performed as soon as possible.

Patients with a hemorrhage should be stabilized immediately with particular concern for airway maintenance, blood pressure treatment, correction of any coagulopathy (abnormal blood clotting), and pain and agitation control. They must be admitted to a critical care unit for monitoring and management.

Treatment involves preventing and managing secondary complications—rebleeding, vasospasm (constriction of large-capacity intracranial arteries), hydrocephalus (enlargement of the ventricles in the brain), hyponatremia (abnormally low sodium levels in the blood), and seizures.²¹Testing of serum electrolyte levels, a complete blood cell count including platelets, and clotting time studies should be done to determine whether the patient has other conditions such as an infection or clotting abnormalities.

Frequent neurologic exams should be performed to evaluate the patient for changes in neurological status or evidence of rebleeding. For untreated ruptured aneurysms, there is a 3 percent or 4 percent risk of rebleeding in the first 24 hours, a 1 percent to 2 percent risk per day in the first month, and a long-term risk of 3 percent per year after 3 months. Jonathan A. Edlow & Louis R. Caplan, Avoiding Pitfalls in the Diagnosis of Subarachnoid Hemorrhage, 342 New Eng. J. Med. 29, 29 (2000).

Rebleeding may be due to sudden changes in blood pressure rather than absolute blood pressure. Bed rest, analgesics for headaches, and antihypertensive medications are generally recommended. Because blood in the subarachnoid space can cause seizures, patients should be monitored for seizure activity and given antiepileptic prophylaxis. To prevent vasospasm, the calcium channel blocker nimodipine should be used.

Vasospasm typically occurs between 5 and 14 days after the rupture and gradually resolves over 2 to 4 weeks. If the aneurysm has been treated, ischemia associated with vasospasm can be reduced or prevented using “triple H therapy”or angioplasty to dilate narrowed vessels. However, despite optimal therapy, 15 percent to 20 percent of patients with vasospasm die. Textbook of Clinical Neurology 1041 (Christopher G. Goetz ed., 3d ed., Elsevier 2007).

Hydrocephalus following a rupture occurs in about 20 percent of cases. The patient may undergo a ventriculostomy procedure to drain cerebrospinal fluid, but this intervention can lead to rebleeding and carries a small risk of infection. In symptomatic patients, chronic hydrocephalus may require a shunt to permanently divert cerebrospinal fluid.

Hyponatremia reduces blood sodium levels in 10 percent to 34 percent of patients, and seizures occur in 25 percent of these patients.

As many as 46 percent of the people who survive a ruptured brain aneurysm have long-term cognitive impairment, and one-third of those who survive require lifelong care. The average case fatality rate is 51 percent.Textbook of Clinical Neurology 1041 (Christopher G. Goetz ed., 3d ed., Elsevier 2007).

A patient’s prognosis largely depends on three factors: the patient’s age, level of consciousness on presentation, and the amount of subarachnoid blood seen on the initial CT scan. Younger patients with a good level of consciousness and minimal blood visible on the CT scan tend to do significantly better—and if diagnosed and treated without delay have dramatically better outcomes than patients who present later in the course of a hemorrhage or have diagnosis and treatment delayed.

In Textbook of Clinical Neurology 1041 (Christopher G. Goetz ed., 3d ed., Elsevier 2007) at page 1043 - 1044, they state that a retrospective study has demonstrated that rebleeding occurs in 48% of misdiagnosed patients:

In a major retrospective study involving patients who were treated at four different tertiary-care hospitals, the rate of rebleeding or other deterioration in patients who were initially misdiagnosed was 48 percent, while the rate in patients correctly diagnosed was under 3 percent. The authors concluded that “in patients in whom correct diagnosis was promptly established, the rates of subsequent deterioration and of untoward outcomes were significantly decreased.”

While the public is being bombarded by doctors asking not to be required to pay for their medical negligence as a part of their tort reform agenda, 15,000 Americans will be misdiagnosed with life threatening head and brain injuries this year. Perhaps the doctors should spend less time picketing the state house and spend more time with their patients. By the way, how much time did your doctor spend with you the last time you went in for treatment?

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Wayne Parsons

Child On Guam Ejected From Car

Wayne Parsons — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 14:43:14 GMT

A 5-year-old boy was ejected from the passenger side of a car Friday morning. The car crash happened across from Our Lady of Peace and Safe Journey Church in Chalan Pagowho, Guam. The boy is in stable condition, said Guam Memorial Hospital nursing supervisor Josephine Eustaquio.

"He's awake and alert," she said. "He may be sent home soon."

The boy suffered a serious head trauma and was taken to GMH, said Guam Fire Department spokesman Capt. Joseph Flores according to the story reported in Guam Pacific Daily News.

He had surgery that afternoon for head trauma, GMH nursing supervisor Cely Mangrobang said on Friday. The boy was fortunate that a couple of brain surgeons visiting from Queens Medical Center in Hawaii were at the Tamuning hospital. Specialists from the Honolulu hospital make their periodic visits to Guam.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Wayne Parsons

AIG In Another Scandal Over Denying Health Care Claims For American Workers Injured In Afghanistan and Iraq

Wayne Parsons — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 15:09:33 GMT

Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.) has recently said there were “serious deficiencies in the health coverage of civilian employees who have been injured while working overseas.” His outrage about insurance companies denying and delaying payments for needed medical care for overseas American civilian workers, is well known to personal injury attorneys in Hawaii and across the country. Despite slick television advertising by insurance companies portraying themselves as caring friends to injured policy holders, the legal profession sees the daily denials of claims and the withholding of payments to doctors. The motto of the casualty insurance industry has long been:

We accept your premiums and deny your claims!

Now the true profile of deceit of the insurance industry is being exposed through a Congressional investigation and some excellent journalism by T. Christian Miller in stories published by the Los Angeles Times and ABC News as well as ProPublica - Journalism in the Public Interest. I also commend you to read the article by Chrissie Cole at The Injury Board: "Congressman Calls For Inquiry Into AIG’s Handling of Contractor Claims".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kshlHjqmonY

As you read this story, know that it is not just about overseas workers. AIG and the other casualty insurance companies do this on a daily basis to Americans here at home. In Honolulu the AIG office is considered one of the most outrageous when it comes to denying valid claims and delaying payments to doctors for necessary treatment. And unfortunately, the Insurance Commissioner, under a Republican Governor, has been little more than a spokesman for AIG and other insurers and has refused to give Hawaii policyholders any protection from this unregulated and abusive group of highly profitable corporations. The allegiance of powerful democrats like Calvin Say in the Senate, to the insurance industry, Hawaii citizens have no protection from the systematic denial of payments of claims, and the gross underpayment of doctors and hospitals who are trying to get injured people well so they can go back to work. The recent punitive damage award in a court case on Kauai against HEMIC for insurance abuse in denial and delay, hopefully will spur the legislature and the courts to focus on the abuses in the insurance system.

This article is about Iraq and Afghanistan, not Honolulu so let me get back to the breaking news about AIG. The Pro Publica report states that, "A senior member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform wants his panel to investigate whether insurance giant American International Group Inc. and other providers have unnecessarily denied and delayed costly medical treatment for civilian contractors injured in Iraq and Afghanistan."

Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.) has asked for the Department of Labor to be investigated for its oversight of the federally financed insurance system for civilians working overseas. Cummings made his case for the inquiries in a letter Tuesday to Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich (D-Ohio), chairman of the Subcommittee on Domestic Policy.

Insurance companies routinely challenge serious injury claims of civilian workers returning from the war zones. These patriotic Americans are routinely denied treatment for basic medical needs such as artificial limbs, surgery and psychological counseling.

"The men and women who sacrifice their lives to protect our nation on the battlefield should be able to return to their families without having to wage another battle here at home to receive the healthcare they are more than entitled to receive," Cummings said. "I was absolutely disgusted to read about the atrocities that individuals are being forced to endure as they attempt to get treatment for the injuries they received while serving our country."

What does AIG have to say? Hawaii attorneys who deal with AIG on a weekly basis hear this all of the time. If you believe the AIG response I have a bridge to sell you the runs between Maui and the Big Island:

In a statement Tuesday, AIG said it paid the "vast majority" of claims without dispute. Labor Department officials said they had done their best to police the system with limited resources.

The Defense Base Act, is the law and it makes federal contractors purchase workers' compensation insurance for civilian employees working overseas.

Once an obscure corner of the federal bureaucracy, claims have soared from a few hundred a year to more than 11,000 in 2007. The increase is a direct result of the privatization of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, where civilian contractors outnumber troops in the battle zones. More than 1,400 contractors have died in Iraq and 31,000 have reported injuries.

AIG has 90% of all claims filed by injured civilians or by the families of dead contractors. Congressional investigators have previously questioned the high cost of the company's premiums, which are paid by taxpayers as part of the price of a federal contract. Let's think about this. AIG is the biggest piece of the recent financial bailout of Wall Street. They definitely know how to gouge taxpayers. Finally a Congressman is turning the lights on about this company and about the government agencies that are supposed to regulate the industry.

Well that is another scandal in itself. Only major league baseball and the insurance industry are exempt from anti-trust laws! So the insurance industry isn't regulated! These companies are hands off to most politicians as evidenced by the fact that in Hawaii even the democrats - traditionally on the side of labor and consumers, are cozy with the insurance industry at the expense of the voters.

How much money is involved in the overseas worker scandal?

Last year, the government reform committee determined that AIG had collected $1.3 billion in premiums on the insurance between 2002 and 2007, while it had paid out about $800 million -- leaving the company with a nearly 40% profit. The Pentagon has recently begun an inquiry into whether such premiums can be lowered.

The recent reports indicate that "[a]nalysis of Labor Department data found that insurers had denied about 44% of all serious injury claims -- those involving more than four days of lost work. The companies also turned down about 60% of contractors who claimed to suffer psychological damage such as post-traumatic stress disorder. The Times sued the government for access to Labor Department records."

"There are clearly serious deficiencies in the health coverage of civilian employees who have been injured while working overseas to keep us safe here at home -- costing not only the men and women who are being refused coverage for the treatment they need, but also for the American taxpayers who are footing the bill for their coverage," Cummings said.

For real reporting on this and other stories of financial misconduct I highly recommend ProPublica and T. Christian Miller (t.christian.miller@propublica.org). Miller, is a former New York Times staff writer, and is currently a senior reporter for ProPublica, the nonprofit journalism organization based in New York.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Wayne Parsons

Kidney Injury Increases Risk Of Serious Kidney Disease

Wayne Parsons — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 13:25:10 GMT

Acute kidney injury (AKI) is often caused by trauma, illness, or surgery. Research now shows that people who have suffered AKI have a higher risk later in life of getting the most serious form of chronic kidney disease (CKD), known as end stage renal disease (ESRD). If you or a loved one have suffered an injury or illness to the kidneys close medical follow-up is important for maintaining your future health.

Around the world and in Hawaii, Kidney disease is a serious and growing problem. Diabetes, aging and hypertension increase the risk of risk of developing AKI and researchers suspect that AKI may also lead to kidney disease, but this potential link has not been thoroughly studied.

Allan J. Collins, MD, of the United States Renal Data System (USRD) in Minneapolis, MN, reviewed Medicare claims of 234,000 patients aged 67 years or older who were hospitalized. The incidence of AKI was 3.1%. Seventy-two percent (72.1%) of the AKI patients with AKI developed CKD within two years, indicating that AKI may initiate CKD. In addition, AKI patients were 6.74 times more likely to develop ESRD than those without injury. Acute Kidney Injury Increases Risk of ESRD among Elderly. Journal of the American Society Nephrology, November 19, 2008; January 2009 print issue

Dr. Collins noted that CKD is often complicated by AKI, and patients with both conditions are particularly susceptible to the development of ESRD. careful medical monitoring of such patients is critical to their health.

Physicians should take advantage of relatively simple lab tests to check kidney function. Interventions such as lifestyle changes and medications can help slow the progression of kidney disease. Science Daily

Despite the good prognosis generally associated with AKI, kidney injury and damage can lead to ESRD if proper monitoring is not done over the years and immediate treatment of lingering effects is not instituted.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Wayne Parsons

Act F.A.S.T.
FACE	Ask the person to smile. Does one side of the face droop?
ARMS	Ask the person to raise both arms. Does one arm drift downward?
SPEECH	Ask the person to repeat a simple sentence. Are the words slurred? Can he/she repeat the sentence correctly?
TIME	If the person shows any of these symptoms, time is important. Call 911 or get to the hospital fast. Brain cells are dying.