Traumatic Brain Injury Overview

A traumatic brain injury is something we hope will never happen to us or our loved ones. Once injured, your life can be changed forever. Some forms of head injuries are treatable where others will leave you permanently disabled for the rest of your life. This could mean that you or your family member will require around the clock treatment for the rest of their life.

A traumatic brain injury (TBI) can happen a number of different ways. Car crashes, pedestrian accidents, on the job injuries, and sports accidents among others can all cause TBI. No matter how the injury happened these types of catastrophic injury accidents usually involve one of two circumstances. Either the head experiences a high impact collision with another object (or vice versa) or an object passes through the skull and enters the brain tissue. Both of these traumatic injuries can cause serious damage to the brain.

Symptoms of Brain Injuries

According to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, some of the symptoms of traumatic brain injury include the following:

Loss of consciousness for seconds or minutes
Headache
Lightheadedness or dizziness
Confusion
Blurred vision
Ears ringing
Fatigue
Bad taste in mouth
Change in sleep patterns
Change in mood
Difficultly remembering or concentrating

The Beginnings of Emergency Medicine in the United Kingdom

The specialty of Emergency Medicine developed in the United Kingdom out of a recognition of the need for injured people to receive better care. Over the years its scope has broadened to include serious illnesses, disease, infections and other more medically related problems.

The First World War provided the catalyst needed to kick-start the process of specialism within overstretched hospitals. A pioneering surgeon named Robert Jones was appalled by the lack of provision for those suffering gunshot wounds in the First World War. This led him to establish the British Orthopedic Association in 1918 with Robert Osgood, which became one of the most important developments in the care of the injured, and led to increased cooperation among orthopedic surgeons.

An early example of specialism for fracture patients was the establishment of separate fracture clinics in Manchester by Harry Platt in 1913-14. It was he who, many years later, as the chairman of the Accident and Emergency Services Sub-Committee of the Standing Medical Advisory Committee, produced the famous Platt report in 1962. This report highlighted major concerns over the level of care provided for the seriously ill and injured patients.