#5ThoughtsFriday
09/07/2018
|
|
#5ThoughtsFriday is Powered By
:
The 2018 BIAMD
Scarecrow Classic
|
|
SEPTEMBER 30, 2018
Scarecrow Classic 5k/1Mile
This year we are
Celebrating the life of Chris Burdette
|
|
|
Don't want to run but still want to help!
Join
Scarecrow Ops Team
as a
Volunteer
!
Click Below, select your Job, your Shift,
and join the fun!.
|
|
Here are the 5 things we thought were
worth sharing with you this week:
|
|
A Denver-based study exposes the strong connection between traumatic brain injury and incarceration.
|
|
DENVER — At age 14, Matthew Espinoza was shot seven times, including one bullet to the head.
After waking up from a 3 1/2-month coma, he knew something was wrong. "I wasn't like I used to be," Espinoza, now 38, says, adding that he started to experience hallucinations, migraines, dizziness and memory loss.
He was involved with a gang before he was shot, and a few months after he recovered, he was charged with murder and attempted murder in another incident; those charges were dropped, but he served time in Denver County Jail for gun possession. While in solitary confinement, known as "the hole," he says the guards beat him up, leaving him with a hematoma in his neck, a blood clot in his eye and additional brain injuries.
He was 15.
"I had a lot of problems with the sheriffs," says Espinoza, who was also diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia a few years after his shooting.
"The whole time I was (in the hole), they just heard me singing 'I Shot the Sheriff,' and they went in there and beat my ass," he says.
Espinoza was then transferred to a juvenile facility and released after a couple of years when he was around 19. He suffered yet another brain injury in 2000 during a car crash, in which he was charged with driving under the influence. After waking up from a 1 1/2-month coma, he ran for five years before serving that sentence. He has since spent time in and out of jails and had one stint in prison. Espinoza's latest charge was another DUI in 2013, after which he ran for about two years before turning himself into authorities.
For the first time in his life, he's close to successfully completing probation from this last stint behind bars. Espinoza says he attributes his recent success to his work with the
Brain Injury Alliance of Colorado
(BIAC), a nonprofit organization that provides traumatic brain injury survivors with the proper resources to thrive in society.
CLICK HERE
to learn more about this absolutely crucial issue.
|
|
CNRS-University of Bordeaux presents the urgent further need of research for paediatric traumatic brain injury, a complex brain disorder.
|
|
Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is defined as the result of an external mechanical force applied to the head, causing damage to the brain. The pathology of Traumatic Brain Injury is heterogeneous; it is, therefore, very complex and depends, amongst other factors, on the patient’s age, sex, and the location and severity of the injury.
Traumatic Brain Injury is one of the leading causes of death and disability, particularly amongst the young population. In fact, Traumatic Brain Injury is especially prevalent among children and young adults with an incidence in Europe of 235 per 100,000.
There are around seven million TBI patients in the European Union.1 It is very important to note that most TBI cases occur in the paediatric age range, and they entail long-term consequences. At least 20% of the paediatric patients hospitalised after TBI will live with lifelong physical disabilities. In addition, paediatric TBI patients often have cognitive impairments with persistent attention, memory and concentration deficits, as well as emotional disorders including anxiety and depression, which greatly influence their academic and work performance, and causes profound social dysfunction later in life. It then becomes clear that the costs for rehabilitation and educational support after paediatric TBI are an important financial burden for the European society and worldwide.
Despite the socio-economic costs for society, research in this field has been underfunded compared to the other neurological disorders.
It's not just vital in the U.S.
CLICK HERE
t
o find out more about the needs for additional research and funding in Europe.
|
|
A few months ago, Jon Wocelka moved into a new apartment.
That might seem like a ordinary rite of passage for most people. But for Wocelka, a 35-year-old Rochester man who suffered a traumatic brain injury after being struck by a car, the achievement was akin to scaling a mountain.
“It continues every day,” Wocelka said about his recovery.
Wocelka has no memory of the accident. Five years ago, he was walking along U.S. Highway 14 near Owatonna at 2 a.m. when he was stuck by a car driven by a drunken driver.
Wocelka was told by his mom afterward that his heart flat-lined five times. He was in a medically induced coma for two months.
“My brain basically said, ‘Since we have a traumatic injury, I’m just going to shut down,’” Wocelka said.
And so it did. When he was awakened from his coma, he had to relearn fundamental tasks — how to use a restroom, how to feed himself, how to use utensils — as if he were a 3-year-old.
When he arrived at ABC Ability Building Center to continue his rehabilitation, Wocelka was frustrated and angry at the world. Prior to his accident, Wocelka had worked at a factory and tasks he had once taken for granted now caused him fits.
In spasms of anger at ABC, he would storm out of the building.
“I would just walk out of the building,” he said. “I wasn’t prepared to deal with it. I was just pissed off at the world.”
CLICK HERE to remind yourself its a marathon not a sprint.
|
|
2) What We Are Reading We Think You Might Enjoy
|
|
Hey! You Can Win The Book Below
(signed by the author)!
Subject Line: I Like To Read!
and
your name and address in the email
. We will enter your name into a drawing to receive a free copy of the book mailed to you for your reading pleasure!
|
|
|
|
You know Lee Woodruff from the immediate success of her first book, In an Instant, co-authored with husband and ABC anchor, Bob Woodruff. Now Lee, a lifelong writer with a remarkable straight-from-the-gut style, digs deep in Perfectly Imperfect: A Life in Progress to give honest reflections on navigating life’s rougher pavement, imperfections, trials and triumphs.
From family and friends to motherhood and aging—Lee puts it all out there in this bold, sometimes funny, sometimes poignant, and always surprising take on life. Lee concludes it’s really not about the neck in I Feel Worse About My Knees, contemplates the tipping point when her teenagers stopped wanting hugs and started wanting space in Adolescence, painstakingly realizes she and her sisters are now their parents’ keepers in My Dad, unveils her husband’s consistently curious gift taste in Nothing With a Plug, Please, reflects on leaving a legacy for her three daughters in Jewelry Box and offers insights about what to do—and what not to do—when someone you know faces a crisis.
Perfectly Imperfect: A Life in Progress is a deeply personal look at a well lived life in progress and the many roles played by a modern American wife, mother, daughter, and friend—it is the book you’ll want to share with every woman you know.
For more on this great book:
|
|
1) Quote We Are Contemplating...
"The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing."
|
|
Hope Your Labor Day Holiday was half as good as his
|
|
Did you enjoy #5ThoughtsFriday? If so, please forward this email to a friend!
Want to find a story from a past #5ThoughtsFriday blog posts, visit the archive by clicking
HERE
.
Please let us know your requests and suggestions by emailing us at
info@biamd.org
or contacting us on Twitter.
Which bullet above is your favorite? What do you want more or less of? Let us know! Just send a tweet to
@biamd1
and put
#5ThoughtsFriday
in there so we can find it.
Thanks for reading! Have a wonderful weekend.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
