Traumatic Brain Injuries

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a complex injury with a broad spectrum of symptoms and disabilities. The impact on a person and his or her family can be devastating.

Treating Children with Traumatic Brain Injuries

When children sustain a brain injury, their lives are changed forever. A brain injury can affect movement, speech and behavior. Because children who sustain a brain injury are still developing as individuals, they need to be cared for differently than adults. Our pediatric brain injury programs are specifically designed to meet the age-appropriate needs of each child in a pediatric environment.

Our pediatric brain injury programs provide an intensive medical, nursing and neurological rehabilitation program that includes coma care, therapy and family support. We specialize in helping children who have had mild to severe brain injuries reach their full potential. We provide treatment on an inpatient and outpatient basis.

Infants, children and teens with a brain injury may be transferred to inpatient rehabilitation as soon as the child is medically stable. The child may still be unconscious or at any level of consciousness. treatment may begin while the child is still in a coma.

Our programs accept children who have naso-gastric tubes or tracheotomies, who are ventilator dependent and who have severe brain injuries. We also provide medical, rehabilitation, equipment and programming evaluations for children and young adults months or even years after an injury as their needs change.

The goal of rehabilitation is to maximize the child's functions and to help the child return as an active participant in his or her community. We place a special emphasis on helping to integrate the child at home and in school through a team that coordinates care with agencies and other care providers in the child's home community.

Traumatic Brain Injury Rehabilitation

A person with brain injury may have just a single opportunity for rehabilitation. The quality of life that follows treatment often depends on making the right placement decision.

The quality of the recovery matters most to us. Reaching the best possible outcome drives treatment planning and delivery for every client. Each member of our staff is committed to doing all it takes, no matter how challenging, to help individuals with brain injury regain as much independence as possible.

Our therapists are highly trained in working with children who are brain injured. Their first-hand experience with the ups and downs of rehabilitation gives them an invaluable treatment perspective. They bring not only knowledge and experience, but also unique talents and compassion for understanding clients and helping them regain lost living skills.

Effects of TBI

Most people are unaware of the scope of TBI or its overwhelming nature. TBI is a common injury and may be missed initially when the medical team is focused on saving the individual's life. Before medical knowledge and technology advanced to control breathing with respirators and decrease intracranial pressure, which is the pressure in the fluid surrounding the brain, the death rate from traumatic brain injuries was very high. Although the medical technology has advanced significantly, the effects of TBI are significant.

Types of Traumatic Brain Injuries

A brain injury can be classified as mild if loss of consciousness and/or confusion and disorientation is shorter than 30 minutes. While MRI and CAT scans are often normal, the individual has cognitive problems such as headache, difficulty thinking, memory problems, attention deficits, mood swings and frustration. These injuries are commonly overlooked.  Even though this type of TBI is called "mild", the effect on the family and the injured person can be devastating. 

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