Brain Injury: Thousands Take Place Annually In The United States

On behalf of Lovett Law Firm posted in Brain Injury on Thursday, July 30, 2015.

As someone who has suffered a brain injury in Texas, you may be wondering how uncommon your injuries are. It’s important to understand that you’re not alone, and there is significant data to show when people are most likely to suffer these injuries and why.

Information provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows the estimated average numbers of traumatic brain injuries resulting in hospitalization in the United States between 2002 and 2006. The newest study is still collecting data, so the older information is used to represent the annual expected number of TBIs from external causes or motor vehicle accidents for statistical purposes.

The information shows many factors of brain injuries, like the ages of those victimized and what kind of accident they were involved in. For example, those between the ages of newborn and four had traumatic brain injuries caused by being occupants in a vehicle 1,426 times in the survey. The same age group had 744 brain injuries due to being involved in pedestrian accidents.

Those over 75 also had a high number of injuries. As occupants in a car or truck, these elderly people suffered injuries 3,009 times annually. The same group suffered 741 injuries caused by pedestrian accidents. None of them were injured when on a bicycle.

The group most at risk of traumatic brain injuries annually was between the ages of 15 and 19. These school-aged teens may walk more often and are starting to learn to drive, which could explain why they’re more likely to be injured as occupants in motor vehicles. The age group including people between 25 and 34 were most likely to suffer brain injuries due to motorcycle accidents, and those between 35 and 44 were most likely to be injured during a pedestrian accident.

Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “Traumatic Brain Injury,” accessed July 30, 2015