Traumatic Brain Injury

Using a flawed study to deny effectiveness of therapy:

During the past few decades, scientists have become increasingly persuaded that people who suffer brain injuries benefit from what is called cognitive rehabilitation therapy — a lengthy, painstaking process in which patients relearn basic life tasks such as counting, cooking or remembering directions to get home.

But despite pressure from Congress and the recommendations of military and civilian experts, the Pentagon’s health plan for troops and many veterans refuses to cover the treatment — a decision that could affect the tens of thousands of service members who have suffered brain damage while fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.

This is a very in-depth story, centering around the plight of a Chapel Hill couple:

An Open Letter To Government Leaders and Health Care Advocates:

I am writing to you to ask that you support an affordable National Public Health Care Plan with a waiver option. My husband and I have been married for more than 22 years. We have three children with Cystic Fibrosis, one adult child with a severe Brain Injury, and one healthy child. Cystic Fibrosis is a genetically inherited terminal disease which greatly decreases life span and affects all organs of the body. The costs for treating Cystic Fibrosis patients includes multiple expensive non-prescription and prescription only medications, therapies, and excessive costs for the purchase of food because their bodies require more calories than usually recommended for average individuals. Our adult sons Brain Injury was caused by a drunk driver hitting us when he was five years old which has left him the mental and intellectual equivalent of a five to seven year old child for the rest of his life.