Medical Science Advances Brings Hope to Those with TBI
Scientists, doctors and technicians are encouraged as medical science advances in the treatment of traumatic brain injuries. A number of them are meeting in Connecticut to map future treatment for victims of TBI beginning with the veteran population. “The purpose is to bring together a collection of experts from around the country and other nations to develop an effective, state-of-the-art treatment program,” said Col. Michael Jaffee, director of the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center. One neuroscientist has found that many of TBI victims once thought to be permanently lost are responding positively to different stimuli and treatments. “The severely injured brain may go through a longer period of recovery than we previously imagined,” Joseph Giacino of the New Jersey Neuroscience Institute said, recalling the case of a resident of Arkansas, who spontaneously regained fluent speech in 2002 after 19 years in a coma. Giacino said scientists are seeing improved recovery by using electrical impulses for deep brain stimulation. A pilot program centralizing the latest breakthroughs, technologies and research to one place, the Memorial Medical Center, will open new possibilities in treatment and recovery for the severely injured veterans and ultimately the nation.
