ROBERT PIERCE
• Leader & Times
Traumatic brain injuries, or TBI, occur when the brain experiences sudden trauma or damage to it.
TBI can result from a closed injury, namely some kind of force or impact but the skull remains intact, or open injury such as force impact that pierces the skull and damages brain tissue directly.
It is estimated 1.7 million people experience TBI annually, and in 2020, there 64,632 deaths from TBI across the U.S.
March is TBI Awareness Month, and officials with Liberal’s Southwest Medical Center work to educate the public about TBI throughout the year.
March is also National Poison Month, and March 15 through 21 was Poison Control Week, and SWMC likewise looks to bring awareness to this issue year-round.
SWMC Trauma Program Coordinator Katie Coleman said TBI often is seen in sports such as football even when helmets are worn, and they can also happen in basketball.
“You see a lot of that with football injuries or basketball if they fall and hit their head,” she said.
Coleman said many people are unware of what TBI involves.
“They don’t process or think the same,” she said. “Their personalities can change after they have a TBI like stroke patients. When they have a stroke, it affects certain parts of the brain. I think there’s a stigma around it in general because they don’t really understand this disease process or the injury.”
Coleman said this is similar to other conditions such as autism and ADHD.
“There’s that stigma around those types of disease processes and illnesses we don’t really understand, and I think that’s the big stigma around it,” she said. “People don’t know how to handle those patients and don’t know what it is.”
Coleman said caregivers also need care in order to make sure they can take care of a TBI patient, and this includes adapting to seemingly bothersome noise or light levels.
Coleman said there are a few questions medical professionals ask before determining TBI has occurred, including if the patient remembers what happened to cause it.
“Those questions determine for the physician when they do come in if they need to have a CAT scan to see if there’s damage,” she said. “Our goal nationwide is to decrease those scannings, that radiation scanning, especially in children. They have an algorithm they follow, especially for children, and if the answer to those questions are no, we don’t scan you. If there’s concern, especially if they’re over the age of 65 and they’ve fallen, they’re going to scan them depending on the circumstances around what has happened.”
With TBI, Coleman said the Centers for Disease Control and SWMC have much in the way of good information, particularly for children, regarding the signs of symptoms and what to do, as well as when to come to the emergency room if needed.
As to the number of cases of TBI seen at the local hospital, Coleman said this depends on the season.
“August, September, October is football season, so we have an increase in head injuries from tackling,” she said. “In the summer, it’s scooters, bicycles. It varies depending on the season. We normally see in a month maybe 20.”
Coleman said TBI likewise can be caused by vehicle accidents and simple falls.
“If you have a fall, those all can be included in that head injury, and we have quite a bit of falls in a month we see,” she said.
For a rural hospital, Coleman said SWMC does a good job helping with TBI, utilizing resources such as a level one trauma center at Wichita’s Wesley Medical Center.
“They guide us into how we need to play in or if we need to ship a patient,” she said. “We have the CT capabilities. We have the MRI capabilities during the week Monday through Friday. A lot of the physicians are really knowledgeable in that area, and they utilize that knowledge so we can provide better care for TBIs that come in.”
As for Poison Control Week and National Poison Month, Coleman said the main focus is on medications and household items and making sure they are stored safely and put up properly.
Coleman said for those who take much in the way of medicine, these are often placed together in one container, and it is important to know what these medicines are and keep them in their original containers, especially around children.
“Medicine looks like a lot like candy,” she said. “Ibuprofen looks a lot like M&Ms.”
Coleman too said making sure medicines are stored properly out of reach and making sure household cleaning items are in the right container instead of an off labeled container is important, as is having access to the poison control number, where knowledgeable people can be found.
“There are 55 poison control centers in the United States, and they take thousands of calls a year,” she said. “Just having access to that phone number readily so if you are concerned, you can call them, and they have a lot of knowledge and resources available.”
Coleman said SWMC treats cases of poison usage, and she said often this involves a child getting into a parent’s or grandparent’s medicine. She estimated 90 percent of all poisonings happen at home.
“Most of the time, either the parent or the guardian will call poison control, and they’ll have them come in or they’ll just bring them in so we can get them checked out,” she said. “We do utilize the poison control center as well. If someone does come into the ER, we call them and see what the recommendations are, and we go from there.”
Coleman said cases can range from a short stay to allow a patient to be monitored before going to more serious cases that require admission or even shipment to another hospital.
As a trauma coordinator, Coleman said both TBI and poison safety are important, but she said TBI is dear to her heart.
“We’ve had a lot of accidents with kids with traumatic brain injuries from the scooters and bicycles,” she said.
Coleman said poison control often involve a child eating medical gummies or taking a grandparent’s prescription for blood pressure medicine.
“They don’t understand what’s going on,” she said of children. “It’s not their fault. It’s really important to educate and continue to educate. Hopefully, as we progress throughout the year, we can have more educational opportunities for both in place.”
