By Kevin Duffan, Virginia Brain Injury Attorney

A new study has revealed the dangers associated with heading balls on the soccer field. Researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine have found that repeatedly hitting a soccer ball with one’s head increases the risk for brain injury and cognitive impairment.

The researchers studied 38 amateur soccer players who had played the sport since they were children. They were asked how many times they headed the ball in the past year. Then, the researchers ranked the players based on heading frequency and compared their brains images. What did they find? That frequent headers showed brain injury akin to that of patients with concussions.

Because soccer is such a popular sport, parents across the country need to consider this study before allowing their children to play. Some 18 million Americans play soccer, and 78 percent of them are children. This news could potential affect millions of young athletes across the country.

Brain injuries cannot be taken lightly. The researchers said many of the effects of heading injuries aren’t noticed by parents, or even doctors. Because the effects can be so long term, they are often misdiagnosed. “The impairment will not be immediate and can easily be attributed to other causes like ADHD or learning disabilities,” said Dr. Michael Lipton, associate director of Einsteins Gruss Magnetic Resonance Reseach Center.

The purpose of this article is not to create panic, or have parents pull their children out of youth soccer league, but parents should be informed about all of the risks associated with the sport. Heading the ball is an essential part of the game, and is unlikely to be eliminated despite safety concerns. The study shows even heading the ball once and a while  may cause long-term damage, especially at the higher levels where the ball is traveling up to speeds of 34 mph.

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About the Editors: The VA-NC brain injury lawyers at Shapiro, Lewis & Appleton have experience handling traumatic brain injury and general head injury cases. Our head injury attorneys achieved the largest verdict in Virginia’s history for a brain-damaged client in 2000. The initial award of $46 million rose to $60 million with interest when an appeal was settled confidentially. Check out our other case results to see our track record of success in brain injury and other lawsuits. We have offices in Virginia Beach and Hampton, Virginia (VA), along with an office in Elizabeth City, North Carolina (NC). Rick Shapiro and James Lewis have been listed among the Best Lawyers in America since 2008. They have also been named Virginia Super Lawyers since 2010, an honor fewer than 5 percent of outstanding attorneys receive. To get more information about traumatic brain injury law and what to do after an accident, take a look at this free consumer guide written by a brain injury attorney who is licensed in VA and NC.

By John Cooper, Virginia Brain Injury Lawyer

Traumatic brain injury is an all-too-common among children, especially those involved in contact sports, car crashes and bike accidents. An increasing number of injured children have been coming for help to the Children’s Hospital of Richmond’s Traumatic Brain Injury Clinic, according to Richmond, VA’s NBC affiliate, Wave3. The story reports the need for getting help for young victims of traumatic brain injuries — injuries that are not always easy to detect.

According to a doctor from the TBI Clinic, concussions are an “invisible injury” and are “tricky” to diagnose.  Headaches, sleeping and memory problems can often be signs. The Brain Injury Association of America’s website says of brain injuries that they are “the start of misdiagnosed, misunderstood, underfunded neurological disease,” and those that suspect they have sustained them “must have timely access to expert trauma care.”

Earlier this year, I helped settle a case for a child client who was hit by a drunk driver. The car accident resulted in a concussion, a mild form of TBI. The concussion caused the child headaches that lasted a month. Since Virginia allows for something called punitive, or punishing, damages, our firm was able to settle with the drunk driver’s insurance company for an undisclosed, but substantial, sum that will provide funds for the boy’s college education.

No parent wants a life-altering accident to happen to his or her child.  If the unthinkable happens, and your child suffers from a TBI or experiences any sort of trauma that leads to headaches or learning issues, it is important that you get it checked out by a doctor.  Please read our firm’s guide to traumatic brain injury and know what signs to look for.

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About the Editors: Shapiro, Cooper Lewis & Appleton is a law firm whose attorneys focus on injury and accident law and have experience handling traumatic brain injury and general head injury cases. Check out our case results to see for yourself. Our primary office is in Virginia Beach, Virginia (VA) but we also have an office in Elizabeth City, North Carolina (NC). Our attorneys achieved the largest verdict in Virginia’s history for a brain-damaged client in 2000. The initial award of $46 million rose to $60 million with interest when an appeal was settled confidentially. Rick Shapiro and James Lewis were included in the 2011 issue of Best Lawyers in America. They, along with fellow attorney John M. Cooper, were also named 2011 Virginia Super Lawyers for Personal Injury Law, an honor which fewer than 5 percent of outstanding lawyers receive. Our injury lawyers also host an extensive injury law video library on Youtube. Further, our lawyers proudly edit the Virginia Beach Injuryboard, Norfolk Injuryboard and Northeast North Carolina Injuryboardblogs as pro bono public information services. While not every brain injury case meets our criteria, if you or a loved one is thinking about taking legal action against a possibly at-fault person or company that caused your injury, call our office at (800) 752-0042 for a free consultation. If you cannot get through due to high call volume, be sure to leave a voicemail. We will return your call.

By John Cooper, Traumatic Brain Injury Attorney

A simple blood test may be able to determine whether athletes or soldiers who have suffered impact or concussive (i.e., shockwave) blows to the head haved developed a concussion, which is medically defined a a mild traumatic brain injury.  Working with federal funding, researchers with the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio (OH), have begun a study in which they draw blood from football players immediately postgame to check for high levels of a protein called S100B. Blood concentrations of the protein increase when a concussion occurs.

Experts say the blood test for S100B, combined with other brain-health indicators, could help doctors track the long-term, health impacts of sports and help diagnose traumatic brain injury.

See this video about concussions:

The experienced brain injury attorneys with our Virginia (VA)-based law firm welcome any new test to diagnose head injuries from concussions suffered in sports. Recently, we reported on a college bound student wo committed suicide two days after suffering a concussion during a high school football game. Many other serious physical and mental health problems have been linked to concussions.

When coaches, parents, doctors and even injured people themselves fail to take head and brain injuries suffered while playing sports or doing any other activity seriously enough, liability for lawsuits may exist.

We recently reported that a lawsuit seeking $35 million in compensatory damages and $350,000 in punitive damages has now been filed in Norfolk, VA Circuit Court by the wife of a former police recruit who died during training after receiving numerous blows to his head.

To learn more about what you or a loved one can recover from a wrongful death and brain injury claim, check out our videos on the subject.
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About the Editors: Shapiro, Cooper, Lewis & Appleton is a law firm whose attorneys focus on injury and accident law and have experience handling traumatic brain injury and general head injury cases. Check out our case results to see for yourself. Our primary office is in Virginia Beach, Virginia (VA). Our attorneys achieved the largest verdict in Virginia’s history for a brain-damaged client in 2000. The initial award of $46 million rose to $60 million with interest when an appeal was settled confidentially. Rick Shapiro and James Lewis were included in the 2011 issue of Best Lawyers in America. They, along with fellow attorney John M. Cooper, were also named 2011 Virginia Super Lawyers for Personal Injury Law, an honor which fewer than 5 percent of outstanding lawyers receive. Our injury lawyers also host an extensive injury law video library on Youtube. Further, our lawyers proudly edit the Virginia Beach Injuryboard, Norfolk Injuryboard and Northeast North Carolina Injuryboard blogs as pro bono public information services. While not every brain injury case meets our criteria, if you or a loved one is thinking about taking legal action against a possibly at-fault person or company that caused your injury, call our office at (800) 752-0042 for a free consultation. If you cannot get through due to high call volume, be sure to leave a voicemail. We will return your call.

By Kevin Duffan, Virginia Truck Accident Injury Victim’s Lawyer

My colleague Emily Brannon has reported on our Virginia injury law firm’s website that a triathlete is training to get his body back to where it was before he was hit by a truck while riding a bike.  Emily, a Virginia personal injury attorney knowledgeable on trucking accidents and bike safety, provide tips on how to stay safe.

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About the Editors: Shapiro, Cooper Lewis & Appleton is a law firm whose attorneys focus on injury and accident law and have experience handling traumatic brain injury and general head injury cases. Check out our case results to see for yourself. Our primary office is in Virginia Beach, Virginia (VA). Our attorneys achieved the largest verdict in Virginia’s history for a brain-damaged client in 2000. The initial award of $46 million rose to $60 million with interest when an appeal was settled confidentially. Rick Shapiro and James Lewis were included in the 2011 issue of Best Lawyers in America. They, along with fellow attorney John M. Cooper, were also named 2011 Virginia Super Lawyers for Personal Injury Law, an honor which fewer than 5 percent of outstanding lawyers receive. Our injury lawyers also host an extensive injury law video library on Youtube. Further, our lawyers proudly edit the Virginia Beach Injuryboard, Norfolk Injuryboard and Northeast North Carolina Injuryboard blogs as pro bono public information services. While not every brain injury case meets our criteria, if you or a loved one is thinking about taking legal action against a possibly at-fault person or company that caused your injury, call our office at (800) 752-0042 for a free consultation. If you cannot get through due to high call volume, be sure to leave a voicemail. We will return your call.

By Rick Shapiro, VA Brain Injury Attorney

Inadequate facilities and a lack of supervision at a Virginia Tech basketball camp in Blacksburg, VA, contributed to the severe head injury sustained by a camper.

At least that’s the claim made in a Virginia personal injury lawsuit brought by Gary Schuler, whose teen-aged son, Austin Schuler, was injured in 2009, according to a report in the Roanoke Times. Injury lawyers acting for the family are suing the Seth Greenberg Basketball Camp and Virginia Tech for $2.5 million in a civil action brought last month in Montgomery County Circuit Court.

Austin Schuler was 15 when he fell or was thrown from the basketball court during a game and hit his head on a wall, suffering a brain injury, fracture, bruises, a cut and other wounds, according to the personal injury lawsuit, filed March 28.

Although Austin Schuler, who now lives near Staunton, Virginia, has recovered, but the lawsuit states he is at greater future risk of future injury and health issues. The personal injury lawsuit says the facilities at Blacksburg were inadequate to protect Schuler. Specifically it states the wall in a gym at Virginia Tech should have been padded near ground level where the boy struck his head.

The lawsuit further argues the distance between the end of the playing surface and wall, which was 33 inches, should have been greater; while the game official was not sufficiently trained and qualified.

We recently reported how baseball is taking extra precautions to protect players against brain and head injuries. Major league baseball has adopted a new joint policy related to concussions, which includes the creation of a seven-day disabled list.

Increasingly, schools and sports authorities are taking action to learn more about the symptoms of concussion and other sports injuries. Major steps have been taken in Virginia (VA) in recent months to improve the safety of baseball, including a ban on high performance aluminum bats.

These high performance metal bats make the baseball travel faster. A metal bat may have been linked to a traumatic brain injury suffered by a high school baseball player who was hit in the head by a line drive and sent into a coma last year.

Our Virginia personal injury lawyers have handled cases involving baseball and have handled other major Virginia brain injury personal injury cases as well. In one baseball related case, which we recently concluded, the manufacturer and the seller of a baseball pitching machine had improperly designed their product in such a way as to cause a facial injury to the athlete who was using the equipment.  Our injury attorneys (based in Virginia) developed substantial evidence and were able to obtain the settlement for our injured client.

The Virginia Tech lawsuit asks the significant questions of whether schools and colleges are doing enough and if sports facilities require fundamental redesigns to achieve greater safety for our athletes.  The court of public opinion seems to be demanding more.  This is exemplified by head and brain injuries suffered by our military in Iraq, as well as how active the NFL has been recently on brain injury and concussions.

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About the Editors: Shapiro, Cooper Lewis & Appleton is a law firm whose attorneys focus on injury and accident law, and we have experience handling traumatic brain injury and general head injury cases. Check out our case results to see for yourself. Our primary office in Virginia Beach, Virginia (VA). Our attorneys achieved the largest verdict in Virginia’s history for a brain-damaged client in 2000. Our injury lawyers also host an extensive injury law video library on Youtube. Furthermore, we proudly edit the Virginia Beach Injuryboard and Norfolk Injuryboard as pro bono public information services. While not every brain injury case meets our criteria, if you or a loved one is thinking about taking legal action against a possibly at-fault person or company who caused your injury, call our office at (800) 752-0042 for a free consultation. If you cannot get through due to high call volume, be sure to leave a voicemail. We will return your call.

By Rick Shapiro, Brain Injury Attorney

Companies that make helmets for young athletes could have just nine months to improve their standards if new legislation is passed.

If the companies failed to improve their standards, the Consumer Product Safety Commission would be required to set standards aimed at reducing the number of brain injuries sustained by athletes under the age of 18 , MedPage Today reported.

A bill was introduced last week in the House by Rep. Bill Pascrell, D-New Jersey (NJ). who is the co-founder and co-chairman of the Congressional Brain Injury Task Force, and in the Senate by Sen. Tom Udall, D., New Mexico (NM).

The bill would direct the CPSC to determine within nine months whether the voluntary safety standards for helmet-makers are adequate to result in reduction of the risk of injury. If the voluntary standards are found to be not good enough, the CPSC would have 30 days to set new standards for all football helmets that manufacturers would be required to follow.

The bill also would require manufacturers to post warning labels on helmets noting their limited protection capabilities, a date of manufacture, and the date the helmet was last reconditioned.

It would increase potential penalties for using false injury prevention claims to sell helmets and other sports equipment.

The bill notes that a football helmet’s ability to protect athletes from injury declines over time as the helmet receives hits. Many football helmets are more than a decade old, the bill said.

Sports are the second leading cause of traumatic brain injury (TBI) for Americans ages 15 to 24, according to the bill. Every year, 3.8 million U.S. athletes suffer sports-related concussions, and football is responsible for more concussions than any other sport.

Defective and worn out sport equipment as well as conditions at a sporting facility can be a leading cause of injury and lawsuits against manufacturers.

Our firm has handled a number of interesting cases where parties were held accountable for sports equipment defectst. In one case in Virginia (VA) the manufacturer and the seller of a baseball pitching machine had improperly designed their product in such a way as to cause a facial injury to an athlete using the equipment.

Although high school football programs often take every precaution possible to protect their players, some programs may fail to protect players who have received concussions from playing in upcoming games. In other instances, players may not have sufficient helmets or could be put in a dangerous situation. If your child has been seriously injured while playing high school football due to a preventable event not connected with the sport, you should speak to a Virginia head injury lawyer.

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About the Editors: Shapiro, Cooper Lewis & Appleton is a law firm whose attorneys focus on injury and accident law, and we have experience handling traumatic brain injury and general head injury cases. Check out our case results to see for yourself. Our primary office  in Virginia Beach, Virginia (VA). Our attorneys achieved the largest verdict in Virginia’s history for a brain-damaged client in 2000. Our injury lawyers also host an extensive injury law video library on Youtube. Furthermore, we proudly edit the Virginia Beach Injuryboard and Norfolk Injuryboard as pro bono public information services. While not every brain injury case meets our criteria, if you or a loved one is thinking about taking legal action against a possibly at-fault person or company who caused your injury, call our office at (800) 752-0042 for a free consultation. If you cannot get through due to high call volume, be sure to leave a voicemail. We will return your call.

By Emily Mapp Brannon, Head and Brain Injury Attorney

A roundup of recent insights into how how reduce the numbers, as well as lessen the toll, of brain injuries ranging from sports-related concussions to car accident-caused TBIs on our firm’s website highlights simple and complicated answers. Resting after experiencing concussion symptoms can prevent further damage to brain tissue, as may taking fish oil supplements. A more advanced approach involves reinventing football helmets and other protective equipment to protect athletes’ heads.

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About the Editors: Shapiro, Cooper Lewis & Appleton is a law firm that  focuses on injury and accident law, and we have experience handling traumatic brain injury and general head injuries. Check out our case results to see for yourself. Our primary office  in Virginia Beach, Virginia (VA). Our attorneys have handled numerous head injury and brain trauma cases, and achieved the largest verdict in Virginia’s history for a brain damaged client in 2000. Our injury attorneys also host an extensive injury law video library on Youtube. Furthermore, our lawyers proudly edit the Virginia Beach Injuryboard and Norfolk Injuryboard as pro bono public information services. While not every brain injury case meets our criteria, if you or a loved one is thinking about taking legal action against a possibly at-fault person or company who caused your injury, call our office at (800) 752-0042 for a free consultation. If you cannot get through due to high call volume, be sure to leave a voicemail. We will promptly return your call.

By Randy Appleton, Head and Brain Injury Attorney

Virginia Tech mechanical engineering professor Stefan Duma has issued a call for an online, searchable database of information on how bicycle, football, hockey and other helmets get tested. The proposed database would also present test results for the products and allow users to compare different companies’ helmets, Duma said in an article summarized on our firm’s website. Duma noted the information he wants to collect and make public is currently controlled almost entirely by manufacturers and generated using standards that are in some cases nearly five decades old.

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About the Editors: Shapiro, Cooper Lewis & Appleton is a law firm that  focuses on injury and accident law, and we have experience handling traumatic brain injury and general head injuries. Check out our case results to see for yourself. Our primary office  in Virginia Beach, Virginia (VA). Our attorneys have handled numerous head injury and brain trauma cases, and achieved the largest verdict in Virginia’s history for a brain damaged client in 2000. Our injury attorneys also host an extensive injury law video library on Youtube. Furthermore, our lawyers proudly edit the Virginia Beach Injuryboard and Norfolk Injuryboardas pro bono public information services. While not every brain injury case meets our criteria, if you or a loved one is thinking about taking legal action against a possibly at-fault person or company who caused your injury, call our office at (800) 752-0042 for a free consultation. If you cannot get through due to high call volume, be sure to leave a voicemail. We will promptly return your call.