Brain injury, as the term implies, involves an injury to the brain due to trauma. As the most common cause of brain injury in the United States, trauma has led approximately 1.5 to 2 million people to suffer in this kind of injury each year. According to studies, about 70,000 to 90,000 of those with traumatic brain injury (TBI), suffer from a long-term malfunction of the brain. As widespread as it seems, an estimated 300,000 people have been admitted in the hospital annually and diagnosed with mild to moderate TBI. There have been severe cases of injury in the brain. Medical professionals and hospitals make use of the Glascow Coma Scale (GCS) to quantify the injury in acute trauma patients. This device provides assessment of the eye, verbal, and motor responsiveness, each in a separate manner. It is a very useful indicator of severe TBI. More often than not, such injury, unfortunately, leads to long-term disability.
There are two main categories of traumatic injuries that occur to the brain. One of which is called the closed head injury, which happens without penetration or breach of the skull. This type of brain injury is more frequent than the open head injury. On the other hand, medical professionals have three classifications for brain injuries: mild, moderate, and severe. For the mild type, the Glascow Coma Scale initially reads 13-15 and unconsciousness takes place for less than 30 minutes. Although an injured person won’t totally lose consciousness, some signs of the mild injury to the brain includes a feeling of daze and disorientation. A person suffering from such injury may lead to long-term cognitive deficiency without losing consciousness. The second one, the moderate type, lasts from 30 minutes to 6 hours and it has a GCS of 9-12. And if the initial reading from the Glascow Coma Scale is less than 9 and if the unconsciousness occurred for more than 6 hours, then it is already the severe type.
Classifying the injury this way may be misleading because it is only based on the initial assessment that does not actually determine the long-term consequences of the injury to the individual. Although initial evaluation could be necessary to get some indication, the classifications don’t reflect the severity of what else could happen with the individual afterwards or what he or she may encounter in time. Even “mild” brain injuries could cause patients the inability to go back to work and go through the normal daily activities they have been used to. On the other hand, anyone with the moderate or severe type of injury may have the capacity to recover enough mental functioning that could allow him or her go back to a relatively normal and productive life. Whatever the case, the final outcome cannot be predetermined and based only from the initial assessment. There are many factors involved, such as coping skills, educational attainment, employment skills, and family support that all affect one’s injury, recovery period, and outcome. Make every aspect of the injured person’s life is taken into consideration to achieve best results for an even more meaningful life.