Tuesday, January 13, 2009 by Howard Andrew Raphaelson
The Sarah Jane Brain Project is concluding its first national convention today. This foundation is working with urgency to redefine what characterizes a traumatic brain injury for a child. Surprisingly, research and knowledge about traumatic brain injuries involving children is limited.
A large reason for this is that the frontal lobe of a child’s brain does not begin to develop until seventeen. Therefore even small incidents of trauma that damage the brain may not present themselves until many years after the trauma. The goal of the Sarah Jane Brain Foundation is to support the children and their families who have sustained Traumatic Brain Injuries.
Most importantly the foundation intends to create a national standard of care for these children that will give doctors and their families a road map for the treatment and support that is necessary for these children to return to society in a productive matter.
In 1996 Congress passed a law that defined Traumatic Brain Injury. This definition is shortsighted and leaves a large class of these children without support and services that are offered to those that do fit within the TBI definition.
Without these services the children and their families are without direction regarding recovery, rehabilitation and reintegration into society. The good news is that the act does provide authority for modification of the law. It is time that our government looks to the Sarah Jane Brain Foundation as a research tool for determining how the act should be modified so that the class may be better identified.
During the National Convention that took place yesterday and today the greatest medical minds in the country gathered in New York City to discuss the necessary standard of care for TBI involving children. The founder of the Organization, Patrick D'onoghue enjoyed ringing the closing bell at the NASDAQ with his beautiful daughter Sarah Jane.
New York City personal injury lawyer Andrew Levine was honored by being present as well. Sarah Jane sustained TBI during infancy as a result of being aggressively shaken by her baby nurse. The nurse was sentenced to ten years in jail. The Sarah Jane Brain Foundation is going to ensure that Sarah Jane and others are not left behind because of poorly written laws or any other failures in our medical and social systems.
