The Washington Times
  • Subscribe
  • Times News Services
  • RSS
  • Mobile Headlines
  • e-edition
  • E-MAIL ALERTS
  • REGISTER
  • LOG IN
  • E-MAIL ALERTS
  • WELCOME
  • Your Profile
  • Log Out
  • Front Page Image
  • Classifieds
  • Autos
  • Real Estate
  • Jobs
  • Special Sections
  • Customer Service
  • Home
  • News
  • Opinion
  • Sports
    • NFL
    • NBA/WNBA
    • MLB
    • NHL
    • Tennis
    • Golf
    • Motorsports
    • Soccer
    • NCAA
    • Olympics
    • Outdoors
    • Other
  • Culture
    • Home & Living
    • Family & Kids
    • Fashion
    • Food
    • Travel
    • Health
    • Washington Visitors
    • Books
    • Military History
    • Life
    • Auto
    • TV Listings
    • Movie Listings
    • Death Notices
    • Entertainment
  • Themes
  • Communities
  • Marketplace
    • Autos
    • Jobs
    • Real Estate
    • Classifieds
    • Shopping
    • Dining Out
    • Education
    • TWT Store
  • Videos
    • Two Guys
    • Birnbaum on Washington
    • Liz Glover
    • Amanda Carpenter
    • Morning Briefing
    • Documentaries
    • Joe Giganti
    • Video Game Minute
  • Podcasts
    • About Headlines
    • Audio and Radio
    • America's Morning News
  • World

    Stalled talks may kill Israel's Labor Party

  • Security

    Obama: No religious faith justifies Fort Hood shootings

  • Local

    Families meet as sniper's execution nears

  • Politics

    EXCLUSIVE: Warner: Obama misplayed health care debate

  • National

    Justices weigh juveniles' life without parole

  • National

    Leadership changes at The Times

Saturday, July 12, 2003

Devastating reality of brain injury

Rate this story

Average 0.00
after 0 votes
Login or register to rate this story

  • Font Size -+
  • Print
  • Email
  • Comment
  • Tweet this!
  • Share
  • Article
  • Comments ()
  • Click-2-Listen
  • Videos

More Stories

  • Obama: 'No faith justifies' Fort Hood rampage
  • Blackouts plunge Brazilian cities into darkness
  • Cashing in big on viral videos
  • Clinton pushes Dems to pass health bill

By

Antonio Uribe lies very still on a hospital bed in the middle of a Victorian home in Manassas. Remarkably handsome, he has limpid brown eyes with black lashes that look as if they've been touched up with a curling iron.

When he moves, it's the flex of his left arm, perhaps, or the upturn of a cheek and lip into a smile.

"When we first brought him home it was like having a new baby," says his mother, Geri. "You feel like you're starting over with a new relationship. You're listening for every sound, looking for every movement. We were hoping we'd get the quick miracles. But now we keep getting the little ones -- like the first time he smiled, the first time he turned to look when you said something to him, the first time we gave him a comb and he knew to take it up to his hair."

He is not a new baby. He's a 19-year-old who should be a college sophomore now, pitching a game of his beloved baseball, goofing around with one of his five siblings.

Mr. Uribe, however, has suffered a traumatic brain injury, sustained 20 months ago in a car crash that left the driver and the other passenger, his old high-school buddies, dead. The lives of Mr. Uribe's entire family changed at the moment of impact.

Brain injury is a devastating intrusion into the lives of many Americans. For survivors, it can wreak havoc on concentration, memory, judgment and mood. It might rob its victim of strength, coordination and balance, and compromise senses such as vision and touch. It might bedevil the survivor with emotional difficulties ranging from instability to impulsivity.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 1.5 million people nationwide sustain a traumatic brain injury, via an external force such as a car crash or fall, every year. Two percent of the population -- 5.3 million people -- have suffered consequences of that injury severe enough to classify them as disabled. Millions of others are permanently disabled by other types of acquired brain injury, such as strokes and tumors.

As further insult, brain injury blights families, devastates personal finances and exhausts community resources.

Though it occurs more frequently than breast cancer and AIDS, brain injury is not recognized as a massive public-health problem, says Allan I. Bergman, president and chief executive officer of the Brain Injury Association of America, a nonprofit organization based in Alexandria.

12345678Next »

Post a comment

There are comments on this article, submit your opinion!

Commenting is disabled for this entry.
If you feel there is still something worth mentioning about this entry please contact the author or the site admin.

Ask a Question

You Report

Do you have another point of view, photos, audio, video or more information about a story?

Top Stories

Most Read

  1. KELLNER: New Apple mouse really is 'Magic'
  2. EXCLUSIVE: Warner: Obama misplayed health care debate
  3. EXCLUSIVE: Rare virus poses new threat to troops
  4. PRUDEN: Fatal reluctance to see evil
  5. Families meet as sniper's execution nears
More Top Stories »
  1. Deer dies after leap into D.C. zoo lion exhibit
  2. Federal Reserve opposed as big bank savior by odd allies
  3. Court refuses to halt sniper's execution
  4. High court refuses to halt sniper execution
  5. Parents buying homes for kids at college

Most Shared

  1. PRUDEN: Fatal reluctance to see evil
  2. KELLNER: New Apple mouse really is 'Magic'
  3. Defense nominee won't reveal potential conflicts
  4. 'Fuzzy math' could drive health bill cost higher
  5. EDITORIAL: Too scared to recognize terrorism
More Top Stories »
  1. The siren call of Shariah
  2. EXCLUSIVE: Rare virus poses new threat to troops
  3. Deer dies after leap into D.C. zoo lion exhibit
  4. Parents buying homes for kids at college
  5. Sinking dollar fuels new gold rush

Most Commented

  1. PRUDEN: Fatal reluctance to see evil
  2. 'Fuzzy math' could drive health bill cost higher
  3. Defense nominee won't reveal potential conflicts
  4. EDITORIAL: Too scared to recognize terrorism
  5. Lieberman vows probe of Hood rampage
More Top Stories »
  1. Jihadists in the military
  2. Health bill faces roadblocks in Senate
  3. 'Anti-vaccine' attitude hampers H1N1 effort
  4. Hood suspect earlier came under FBI scrutiny
  5. The siren call of Shariah

Listen to Washington Times Radio

  • America's Morning News

    with John McCaslin and Melanie Morgan

Blogs & Columns

  • POTUS Notes

    New Dem talking point on Obama approval doesn't wash

  • The Back Story

    12 arrested at Pelosi's office

  • Belief Blog

    New Vatican constitution released

  • Out of Context

    Foods that might kill libido

  • Technology

    Facebook wins round against phishing spammer

  • On the Fly

    United lifts some 'award' blocking

  • Redskins 360

    Hall, Portis on radio

  • Tara's Two Cents

    On their way to summer vacation..

  • SNOBlog

    Beyond 'Woody'

Videos

Advertising Links
TWT Store
  • e-edition
  • Print Edition
  • Weekly Washington Times
TWT Affiliates
  • Middle East Times
  • Golf
  • UPI
  • Arbor Ballroom
  • Washington Times Global
  • About TWT
  • Press Room
  • F.A.Q.
  • Work for TWT
  • Advertise
  • Sponsors
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Site Map

All site contents © Copyright 2009 The Washington Times, LLC.