baby TBI

[beckamojo]

Hi, My son and I were hit from behind whilst stationary in our car at a junction.  I sustained injuries to my back, neck, shoulder, etc etc which have left me permanently disabled.  My son who was 10 weeks old (strapped into a rear facing baby carrier) was knocked unconscious.  His head flexed onto his chest whilst being pinned back by the 5 point harness and then slammed back into the back of the baby carrier at which point he starred momentarily and then closed his eyes. (I thought he had died).  We were taken to hospital and later he was discharged without a scan or anything.  Now he is 10 and suffers debilitating migraine headaches as well as other headaches, he is in a special needs school as he is not learning as expected and despite all learning difficulties (such as dyslexia etc) being ruled out, no one will diagnose TBI.  Given the gravity of my injuries and the forces involved (being hit at 60mph whilst stationary) would out belief of TBI be a valid one and would anything show up on an MRI scan after all these years?  I do hope you can help us. Thanks

[beckamojo]

Wow! thanks for the quick reply.  It does make interesting reading and sounds pretty much like our son.  Do you think though after all this time that there would be anything to be found on an MRI scan?  Or should we be asking for a different type of scan?

I would be very interested in your opinion.
Thanks very much for your help.

[Dr. Kokil Mathur]

Hi
Thanks for writing to the forum!
Yes it could be brain injury. “In children some neurologic deficits after head trauma may not manifest for many years. Frontal lobe functions, for example, develop relatively late in a child's growth, so that injury to the frontal lobes may not become apparent until the child reaches adolescence as higher level reasoning develops. Since the frontal lobes control our social interactions and interpersonal skills, early childhood brain damage may not manifest until such frontal lobe skills are called into play later in development. Likewise, injury to reading and writing centers in the brain may not become apparent until the child reaches school age and shows signs of delayed reading and writing skills.”
“The development of the frontal lobes in a child continues until the age of around 16. Disturbances in this growth can cause subtle but profound problems. Because changes in this area of the brain effect "the executive functions" they effect basically what it is to be human. Unfortunately, some of these changes only become apparent at later stages of development (Oddy M. 1993). The child will confront challenges as he or she grows up, such as increasingly difficult math leading to Algebra, increased difficulty with higher level learning in high school, the challenges of college, and the increasingly difficult and complex social interactions expected of a person approaching adulthood. The problem facing parents is that they will not know how their child will handle these hurdles and whether or not he or she will get past them. In the study entitled "Cognitive Indicators of Vocational Outcome After Severe Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) In Childhood" it was noted that falls and motor vehicle related accidents account for over 70% of injuries of pre-school children, and often produced diffused closed brain injuries where mostly the frontal areas of the brain are damaged. As the frontal lobes develop rapidly during the first five years of life and continue to mature until late adolescence, the executive deficits caused by these injuries may be subtle and overlooked. Thus, there is the possibility of psycho-social changes becoming apparent later, when more demands are placed on the individual and when the every day situations become more unstructured (i.e. working life in general).”
You can read more on : http://www.braininjury.com/children.html

Maybe you can show this to the neurologist treating your son. You can also seek another opinion. Please let me know if there is any thing else and do keep me posted. Take care!