Brain Injury

Most people who ride roller coasters will not suffer brain injuries, but more research is needed before the popular amusement rides can be declared safe, according to a new study released in Washington last week. Findings of the study, commissioned by the Brain Injury Association of America, suggest the skull jostling that riders experience on roller coasters is more dangerous than the gravitational forces that some states seek to regulate. Gravitational forces, or g-forces, are the invisible force pushing down on riders as they are propelled through sharp turns and steep plunges.

It was a typical mother-daughter disagreement -- until things went dreadfully wrong. Medrith Filley and her 15-year-old daughter, Heather, were having a heated discussion as they pulled up to their home in Mission Viejo, Calif., one Saturday morning in November 1997. Heather suddenly decided to jump out of the car, and the heel of her shoe caught on the doorjamb, flipping her backward, her head hitting the pavement hard. Filley, a nurse, knew immediately that her daughter's injuries were grave -- her teeth were clenched, a symptom of profound brain injury, and she wasn't breathing.

Could Abraham Lincoln have survived the point-blank shot to the head he suffered in 1865 if he'd had access to 21st-century medical care? And, presumably, a medevac helicopter to whisk him to an operating table in Baltimore? Thomas A. Scalea and his colleagues say yes, the 16th president could have recovered from John Wilkes Booth's attack at Ford's Theater in Washington. Scalea, the director of Maryland Shock Trauma Center, the downtown facility that has revolutionized the care of people who have suffered gunshots, accidents and other serious injuries, said the injuries that killed Lincoln are far from the worst he has seen in a decade treating gun injuries in Baltimore.

When Beth Kennedy's head hit the ice hard, she was stunned. The teen got up slowly, skated to her hockey team's bench and asked her rec league coach if she could sit out for a bit. But she returned to the heat of the tournament game a few minutes later. "As soon as it ended and I took my helmet off, I had this surging headache," Beth says of the March game. Still, no one questioned whether she had a concussion. Her mother, sitting high in the stands, didn't see what had happened when her daughter collided with another player, and she didn't recognize the warning signs of a brain injury.

Critic's Pick -- Dave Matthews (above) stars as a man whose brain injury causes him to become a musical genius on House (9 p.m., WBFF, Channel 45).

The Brain Injury Association of Maryland sponsors a brain injury support group at 7 p.m. the second Tuesday of the month at St. Joseph's Catholic Community Church, 915 Liberty Road, Eldersburg. The association will hold a bike ride fundraiser Aug. 12 at the Carroll County Agriculture Center in Westminster. A catering donation is needed for an expected 300 or more riders. Subs, sandwiches, salads, pizza and beverages are needed. Information: Eileen Rudnick, 410-448-2924.

Three former NFL players living in Maryland have filed a suit against the league alleging it hid information about the long-term health effects of concussions and endangered players' lives by "mythologizing" violent hits. The class-action suit seeks more than $600 million in compensatory and punitive damages. The players join almost 4,000 peers in filing suit against the league , according to Paul D. Anderson, a lawyer who specializes in advocating for traumatic brain injury victims and retired NFL players' rights.

It's the lightning season again. Bolts from the sky kill more than 50 Americans each year, on average. Nine have died so far in 2009. Most are young males, and a third are struck at work. Ninety percent of those hit by lightning survive, but often with chronic pain, brain injury and thought-processing problems. Hear thunder? Go inside. Stay off (and unplug) hard-wired computers, phones or games.

I have serious doubts if players and their families can truly rely upon the league to provide the protection that players are entitled to ("Heads-up on concussions," editorial, July 30). While the league should be commended for their poster and attempts to educate players on the long-term consequences of concussions, the true test of the league's commitment to the health of their players will be how they ultimately respond to players who develop long-term disabilities following any type of brain injury.

The symptoms were headaches, blurred vision and involuntary muscle twitches. Bright lights, loud noises and babies crying made him irritable. Memory lapses made his job in live television a nightmare. In 1990, two years after he retired from the NFL, former New York Giants linebacker Harry Carson picked up the tab for his 13-year, Hall of Fame career. A neuropsychologist's diagnosis: mild post-concussion syndrome. Carson didn't know what to think. "My only question was, `Am I going to live?