During this week's episode of ER , Carter vows to arrange more aggressive therapy for his cousin Chase, who suffered brain damage when a heroin overdose deprived his brain of oxygen.
Brain injury is a complicated matter, whether from a lack of oxygen or from physical trauma.
Improved technology now makes it possible to save the lives of people who, if they had sustained the same injury just 10 years ago, may have died. But this ability to save those with serious brain injuries means that rehabilitation has become more important than ever before, so that brain injury survivors can regain maximum independence. The first, traumatic brain injury, or TBI, is an insult to the brain caused by an external force. TBI may impair both cognitive abilities and physical functioning and sometimes behavioral or emotional functioning are effected as well. Injury is the leading cause of mortality among Americans under 45 years of age, and traumatic brain injury is responsible for the majority of these deaths.