Often, children who sustained a brain injury showed personality problems, and their families were in financial trouble, before the injury took place. The causes of brain injuries in children vary as they get older. Child abuse and falls are common causes among the youngest children, but car crashes and injuries sustained while walking, bicycling or engaging in sports are more common as children age. The types of damage also are different at different ages. Newborns can sustain skull fractures and intracranial hemorrhages from forceps deliveries and birth anoxia.
Older children sustain skull fractures, skull penetrations and hematomas.
Signs of poor outcomes include lengthy coma and acute subdural hematoma. Because of the cost cutting in modern American health care, the period in which a person with a brain injury remains in a rehabilitation institution has been shortened. The family of a person with a brain injury must now take up the care and rehabilitation more so than previously. Because of these new responsibilities, the family must be assessed, prepared and empowered by the rehabilitation team to take its place as an integral part of the caring and rehabilitating process. This includes teaching the family about the services available to people with brain injuries and their families, about the changes that have happened to the family member with a brain injury and about possible avenues for future development for the family and the person with a brain injury.