Your Weekly Dose of #5ThoughtsFriday: A description of what we think is important at BIAMD
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  #5ThoughtsFriday
The "It's Spring, Right?" Edition
03/23/2018
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Here are the 5 things we thought were
worth sharing with you this week:
Jaelynn Willey was left brain-dead after a 17-year-old boy shot her in the head Tuesday morning, said her mother, Melissa Willey. "As of now Jaelynn is still on life support but she will not make it," Willey said. "She is brain dead and has nothing, no life, left in her."
Speaking in a hushed hospital lobby, the parents of the 16-year-old girl wounded in the  school shooting at Great Mills High School  in Southern Maryland said they would take her off life support Thursday evening.

Willey spoke to reporters at the University of Maryland Prince George's Hospital Center, where Jaelynn is being treated. She held Jaelynn's youngest sibling, who babbled as she shared the news, and her husband, Daniel, stood by her side.

Other family stood behind Willey as she spoke and a group of friends stood off to one side.

Jaelynn Willey was rushed to the hospital in Cheverly after the Tuesday morning shooting at the St. Mary’s County high school.
Authorities have said that 17-year-old Austin Wyatt Rollins, also a student at Great Mills, used a handgun to shoot Willey.  A 14-year-old boy, Desmond Barnes, also was shot in the leg.

Rollins was confronted by the school resource officer,  County Sheriff’s Deputy Blaine Gaskill , who fired at him as Rollins also fired. Rollins later died at a hospital.

For more on this heartwrenching story, CLICK HERE
On March 24th, the kids and families of March For Our Lives will take to the streets of Washington DC to demand that their lives and safety become a priority and that we end this epidemic of mass school shootings.

To Learn More about this Historic March this Saturday.

IDAHO FALLS — Paramedic Bill Arsenault cued up the training video for a group of Idaho Falls police officers.
“From the wealthy to the poor, pediatrics and geriatrics, and small towns to big cities, the opioid epidemic continues to take more and more lives,” the narrator said.

Opioid addiction is rising in rural America, the narrator said, and the old stereotypes of heroin users no longer apply. Overdoses, he said, have become the leading cause of accidental death in the United States.

Earlier in his presentation Arsenault showed the officers, who are going to start carrying the anti-overdose drug Narcan, a series of slides putting the problem in perspective by state. Overdose death numbers in Idaho are a bit less than the national average.

For more on this story from the other coast, CLICK HERE.
In 2010, the CDC reported a 70% increase in TBI-related emergency department visits over the previous decade, due in part to heightened awareness of concussion. The current “gold standard” for sports-related concussion relies largely on subjective reporting of signs and symptoms, using assessment tools such as the Sport Concussion Assessment Tool (SCAT). The subjective nature of the assessment makes diagnosis, intervention, and return-toplay decisions extremely difficult.

Current research in neuroimaging has contributed to a better understanding of the pathophysiology of sports-related concussion. Changes in “connectivity” have been demonstrated in studies of diffusion tensor imaging, providing evidence of the disruption of white matter tract integrity in concussive injury. In addition, magnetic resonance spectroscopy results demonstrate evidence of changes in brain metabolism as a consequence of concussive injury. Such changes in brain physiology are also reflected in brain electrical activity, suggesting the utility of such measures as markers of functional brain injury.

In a study comparing diffusion tensor imaging and electroencephalographic (EEG) in blast-concussed soldiers, Sponheim and colleagues11 reported a significant correlation between changes in mean fractional anisotropy of 4 major white matter tracts related to frontal interhemispheric communication and changes in phase synchrony of the EEG between frontal and frontotemporal regions. Another measure of brain electrical activity reported to reflect brain injury in mTBI is based on the “complexity” or entropy of the EEG signal, which decreases in concussive injury. Changes in the frequency spectra of the EEG, power relationships, and coherence between regions have also been associated with concussive injury. Brain electrical activity has several advantages over other functional neuroimaging methods, considering both analytic and clinical aspects. On the analytic side, the superior temporal resolution of electrophysiological data results in better precision related to neuronal transmission, and sensitivity to both functional and structural brain injury. The clinical advantages include ready availability at the point of care, rapid acquisition, ease of use with limited training, non-radiation emitting, and cost-effectiveness

What did the investigators find worked best? : CLICK HERE
2) What We're Reading We Think You Might Enjoy
Unlock the secret to lifelong happiness and contentment! Have you ever wondered why happiness comes so easily to some people? Do you want to know how you can make sure it comes easily to you?

Domonique Bertolucci believes that happiness begins with a choice, and enduring happiness is not a result of the things you’ve done, but the person you’ve chosen to be. You can unlock the secret to living your best life with these ten simple keys:- Take Charge- Let It Go- Live For Now- Expect the Best- Back Yourself- Get Out of the Way- Be Grateful- Give All You Can- Keep It Up- Be Brave. Being happy is not a privilege—it is something everyone deserves.

The Happiness Code will teach you to take charge of your life and be happy with who you are. Using real-life examples to illustrate each key, Bertolucci’s lessons are crystal clear and instantly inspiring. When you apply these principles to your life, you can feel confident that you are being the best you can be. Start living your best life today!

 To Check it out, 

  (If you decide to buy anything mentioned in #5ThoughtsFriday, don't forget to use  Amazon Smile  and select the Brain Injury Association of Maryland as your donation beneficiary.) 
1) Quote We Are Contemplating...

“First forget inspiration. Habit is more dependable. Habit will sustain you whether you're inspired or not. Habit will help you finish and polish your stories. Inspiration won't. Habit is persistence in practice.”
 
Thank you for your support.
HAVE A TERRIFIC WEEKEND. 
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