Oslo Bomb Victim, Who Had Wood Spike In Her Head, Is Back At Work

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Posted on 31st July 2011 by Gordon Johnson in Uncategorized

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The photo was horrifying, played up in bloody color in the New York City tabloids Saturday.

The image was of Line Nersnaes, a Norwegian civil servant. There is a wood spike about half-a-foot long sticking out of her bloody forehead. The Daily News described her as “looking like a bleeding unicorn.”  And she did.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/2011/07/29/2011-07-29_norway_massacre_victim_had_footlong_spike_in_her_head_after_bombing_but_now_is_b.html

Nersnaes was wounded July 22 when Anders Behring allegedly set off a bomb near her Oslo office. The frame of her office window broke into flying wood splinters. One of those projectiles, “a foot-long splinter pierced her jaw and exited through the top of her forehead,” according to the News. “Remarkably, it missed her brain.”

In fact, Nersnaes didn’t even realize she had the spike protruding out of her head until her boss pointed it out, much to her horror. She said that she did have a bad headache as she was escaping her building, but at that point didn’t realize exactly why.

Nersnaes is already back at work, wearing a bandage around her head. The News said it took 27 stitches to suture her head wound.

  

Ivy League Puts Stringent Anti-Concussion Rules On Its Football Teams

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Posted on 25th July 2011 by Gordon Johnson in Uncategorized

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Ivy League schools are taking a very smart approach to cutting down on the number of concussions that their football teams suffer, according to the Associated Press. And they’re to be applauded for it.

The Ivy League teams will only be permitting their football players to have two “full contact” practices each week, whereas the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)  permits five.

http://www.nj.com/princeton/index.ssf/2011/07/ivy_league_sets_new_standard_i.html

The eight Ivy League colleges are apparently trying to take a leadership role as far as concussion-safety measures, and their presidents signed off on a number of recommenations made by a special committee.

These recommendations will be operative this season, and will “also limit contact workouts to one during preseason two-a-day workouts,” according to AP.

As part of these brain-injury precautions, players will be instructed on correct tackling methods, the symptoms of concussions and the long-term effect of repeated brain injury.

The Ivy League also plans to crack down, and carefully scrutinize, helmet-to-helmet hits, suspending players when warranted.

The committee was co-chaired by college presidents who also happen to be medical doctors, namely Dartmouth President Jim Yong Kim and Cornell President David Skorton. That perhaps contributed to the very prudent moves that the Ivy League is making, which are more stringent than the NCAA’s guidelines.

In fact, it appears that the Ivy League may even be going a bit beyond what the National Football League has said about brain injury. Basically, the committee acknowledged that repeated hits to the head, even if they don’t cause a concussion, can lead to Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy in some players. CTE leads to memory loss, depression and other problems for those who have it.

AP then quoted Kim.

“Given the lack of data regarding the number or type of hits that may cause long-term consequences in certain individuals, the committee concluded that it is important to minimize the likelihood and severity of hits to the head,” Kim said.        

Right on, Kim.

Bret Michaels’ Lawsuit Over Tony Award Head Injury To Be Heard In New York

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Posted on 10th July 2011 by Gordon Johnson in Uncategorized

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Rocker and reality TV star Bret Michaels’ lawsuit against CBS and the producers of the Tony Award telecast will be heard in New York, according to The New York Times.  The producers had asked for the matter to be litigated in the Big Apple. 

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/07/rock-stars-lawsuit-against-tony-awards-is-moved-to-new-york/?scp=1&sq=bret%20michaels&st=cse

Michaels, the frontman for Poison and a winner of  “Celebrity Apprentice,” filed suit after he was hit in the head by a backdrop when he was leaving the stage after performing at the 2009 Tony Awards show. As The Times pointed out, Michaels at the time of the accident downplayed its seriousness, saying that he only got a fractured nose and a couple of stitches on his lip.

But in court papers, Michaels is now blaming that head injury for causing a brain hemorrhage that nearly killed him in April 2010. The lawsuit also claims that CBS shouldn’t have televised the accident, which ended up as a clip that went viral on the Internet.

Last Tuesday U.S. District Court Judge Dolly Gee in Los Angeles ruled that Michaels’ lawsuit should be handled in New York, where the witnesses and evidence in the case are located.  

 

NHL’s Paul Kariya Retires After Sustaining Brain Injury From Concussions

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Posted on 3rd July 2011 by Gordon Johnson in Uncategorized

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Anaheim Ducks hockey player Paul Kariya had some critical words for the National Hockey League when he announced he was retiring because of brain damage he’s sustained during  his career on the ice.

http://sports.espn.go.com/los-angeles/nhl/news/story?id=6716981

Kariya was a star player, from college on, by anyone’s measure. He won an award for hockey when he was at the University of Maine, and was on Team Canada in the Olympics, winning a coveted gold medal in 2002, according to ESPN.com.

But the rest of his time playing hockey was not as easy. He was forced to miss the whole 2010-2011 season because he had post-concussion symptoms. And physicians have determined that Kariya sustained brain damage from his prior concussions.

According to ESPN.com, Kariya got that bad news last season from Dr. Mark Lovell, described as a top concussion doctor. Lovell told Kariya back then he wished the talented hockey would retire on the spot.

Kariya is quoted as saying he was shocked by this bad news.

He sustained his first concussion in 1996 and then had another in 1998. He also suffered a concussion in December 2009, in a dirty play by Buffalo player Patrick Kaleta. Kaleta hit Kariya with a blindside elbow, but did not get suspended for that illegal act. 

“It’s been a little disappointing that in the time I’ve been in the league, nothing much has beendone to stop that,” Kariya told ESPN.com. “We shouldn’t be having this conversation right now.”

Best-selling author Dr. Daniel Amen has been working with Kariya to try to mend his brain. Using tools such as hyperbaric chambers and other exercises, Kariaya has “jumped from the 20th to the 80th percentile in brain damage,” according to ESPN.com.

While the NHL has made some moves to try to stop players from making illegal headshots that often cause concussions, it hasn’t done near as much as it should have. Kariya is all too right.