Traumatic brain injury and spinal cord injury may have another treatment to minimize injury in the future. A biotech company in Maine called Sea Run Holdings Inc. seeks to enter the blood and spinal regeneration markets using salmon-plasma proteins. The effort has been in the works for the last 12 years. One of the efforts by the company is the development of a product that shows promise in the treatment of spinal cord and traumatic brain injury. Product testing has been applied successfully on brain and spine injured animals in suppressing inflammation and pain while even regenerating neurons. The company is looking to move to human clinical trials in the next year. Salmon is rich in Omega 3 fatty acid s that are the basic building blocks for nerve tissue and brain cells. Over the past five years funding has been provided through more than $4 million in grants from the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Department of Defense.

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A new source for victims of and families suffering from a traumatic brain injury has been added to the web. With funding from the government’s Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center the public television and radio station WETA created a new website brainline.org that offers victims and their families a user-friendly source of information with one-click access. It offers such online tools as webcasting, videos, a Facebook page, font enlargement, a glossary that can pop up inside text and a one-click option that translates all text into Spanish. The site offers videos from military and sport injury patients as well as those affected by car accidents and other events. The site is aimed at patients and families as well as community health professionals who may have little experience in recognizing or treating brain injuries.

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In an effort to decrease the amount of DUI’s in Colorado the Mothers Against Drunk Driving joined the Colorado State Patrol and Phil Long’s Saturn of Denver on New Year’s Eve to raise awareness of the consequences of driving drunk. MADD asked the public to display MADD red ribbons for the campaign Tie One On For Safety. MADD volunteer and DUI victim survivor Michael Westphale was hit by a drunk driver in 2003 and sustained a traumatic brain injury as well as other devastating injuries. After regaining consciousness from 22 days in a coma, he spent months in the hospital learning how to regain normal functions again. What was especially upsetting for him during his recovery was when his mom had to watch him learn how to take his first steps a second time at the age of 21. Car accidents are one of the leading causes of traumatic brain injury.

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The clinical guidelines for traumatic brain injuries have been revised by a collaborative effort between the American College of Emergency Physicians and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The effort seeks to improve
patient outcomes for the more than one million patients who suffer from a concussion or a mild TBI every year. “People with traumatic brain injuries may appear to be normal and their symptoms may be mild, but there can be hidden dangers,” said Richard Hunt, MD, Director of the Division of Injury Response at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “TBI's can also lead to significant, life-long impairments that prevent a person's ability to function both physically and mentally. These revised guidelines can help ensure that patients with even mild TBI's are identified early and receive the care they need.” It is suspected that that number of TBIs a year is more than the reported million because many victims never get the preventative medical care due to the mildness of the injury and thus the lack of proper diagnosis.

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A 75 year-old married father of three died as a result of human error and defects in hospital procedures after being given a lethal dose of the wrong chemotherapy drug. It may be argued that Alexander Cusker was late in years and did not have as much of a financial impact on society as a senior, thus his death was not as much of a loss as someone who was gainfully employed and supporting a family, but that would be woefully disingenuous to his family. The fact remains that because of a pharmacy technician’s error a family has lost a loved one who doctors believed could have lived at least two years longer. An awful lot could have been accomplished in two years. The sheriff investigating the case concluded, “The undisputed evidence led at this inquiry has highlighted defects in the standard operating procedure, which did not prevent the release from the unit of not only the wrong chemotherape utic drug for Mr Cusker but also did not prevent him receiving about five times the appropriate dosage of that wrong drug." He further added, “I sincerely hope that this inquiry has served to give him and his family a clear picture as to how it came to be that a dearly loved husband and father received an overdose of the wrong chemotherapeutic drug”

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Ohio lawmakers have given final approval for a law that would require pharmacy technicians to meet minimum safety standards in an effort to minimize pharmacy errors. Prompting the legislation was a 2-year-old girl who was undergoing treatment for a tumor who died as a result of a pharmacy mix up at Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital in Cleveland. At the time of her death the pharmacy technician responsible for filling her prescription mixed a chemotherapy drug with a saline solution that contained 26 times more salt than normal.

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According to the National Institute of Medicine medication errors kill about 7,000 people a year. Even though most errors are attributed to the patients’ mistake about 13 percent, approximately 900 people, die every year from prescription errors where the wrong medicine is dispensed or in the wrong dose. Dr. Deborah Nazdam, the chairwoman for the National Coordinating Council for Medication Error Reporting and Prevention said children are especially vulnerable to medication errors. “It's not just because they can't always tell you what's wrong,” she said. “They have a much more severe response to overdoses. Their kidneys aren't as developed and they can't metabolize medications as easily as adults can.” The Cox family avoided the proverbial “bullet” when they noticed that a prescription filled for their 2-year-old son Andrew for seizures looked wrong and that was only because the mother Jennifer, also takes the drug. "I noticed that the pills were extremely large," Cox said. "Then I looked at the bottle and saw that the dosage was 100 times more than it was supposed to be." Their pediatrician wrote a prescription for a 2 mg dose of Lamictal, but it was filled with 200 mg tablets. According to the drug's manufacturer, GlaxoSmithKline, an overdose of Lamictal can lead to a coma, decreased level of consciousness, delayed heartbeat, increased seizures or death.

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Ryan, 24, suffered traumatic brain injury when a driver who had been drinking and using amphetamines struck his car head-on in late July. The driver’s Blood/Alcohol level was just under the legal limit for drunken driving. The
crash left Ryan in a semi-coma, unable to speak or control his muscles. His parents watch helplessly by not knowing what the future holds for Ryan and themselves. The driver who caused the head-on was charged with causing great bodily harm while intoxicated with a maximum 12 ½ sentence and a $25,000 dollar fine on November 4th. So where does that leave Ryan and his parents financially in the long term?

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A doctor’s mantra is “First, do no harm,” but when it comes to those who fail to honor this promise the medical establishment comes back with, “Thou shalt not speak ill of thy fellow physician.” Doctor’s feel, “There but for the grace of God go I. Do I want to take away this guy’s livelihood?” according to Arthur Levin of the Center for Medical Consumers. A recent survey of 1,600 physicians by Columbia University’s Institute on Medicine as a Profession revealed that 46 percent of the doctors surveyed had witnessed “serious” medical errors performed by their colleagues and did not report them. A whopping 93 percent knew they should have. Compounding the issue is that only 16 states make available malpractice payouts made by doctors on public websites for consumer use. Dr.
Sidney Wolfe of the non-profit consumer advocacy group Public Citizen said, “There isn't an adequate system to catch these doctors after they've done one or two things, as opposed to just letting them go on and on. ” Even after sanctions made against an errant doctor are made, they usually keep practicing. In an effort to limit bad doctors from continuing to practice steps have been suggested. One step provided would be for doctors to admit fault and
apologize because recent research showed remorse could fend off a medical malpractice suit. Research also shows that doctors who had been disciplined by their state medical boards had a threefold increase in unprofessional behavior as medical students. “The tradition of professionalism must begin in medical school,” says study author Dr. Maxine Papadakis, a professor of clinical medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Susan Dorr Goold believes that a doctor’s ethics education needs to continue even after medical school. These steps may curtail some bad doctors from surfacing and seeking to practice medicine, but remember the joke, what do you call a medical student who graduated last in his class? . . .Doctor.

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In September 2001, Michael Skolnik passed out. His mother Patty Skolnik, took him to a Denver doctor who said the 22 year-old had a tiny brain cyst and that it could be removed in a three-hour surgery. Six hours later, no cyst was found and Michael was left paralyzed, partially blind and psychotic. After three years in the hospital he died at the age of 25. State authorities found the surgeon faultless, but his mother wasn’t satisfied, “The doctor basically killed Michael that day.” Later she learned that the physician had a malpractice case pending against him in Georgia. In response she, lobbied the state legislature, met with lawmakers and testified for a proposed statute requiring physicians seeking or renewing a Colorado medical license to report all malpractice settlements or disciplinary actions against them. Last May she joined Governor Bill Ritter as he signed House Bill 1331, known as the Michael Skolnick Medical Transparency Act.

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