Brain injuries are much more prevalent than most people would expect. April is Brain Injury Awareness Month and Dr. Aleem Bahktiar, a Holy Family Memorial emergency room and sports medicine physician, tells Seehafer News, “In the U.S alone we have about 2.5 million visits for traumatic brain injuries a year, that’s an injury about every 9-seconds and keep in mind that’s just ER visits. It doesn’t count brain injuries which are so minor people don’t know they have them or aren’t diagnosed, so it’s a pretty prevalent problem.”
It is common knowledge that Manitowoc County does have an older population and when Dr. Bahktiar looks at TBI’s he sees.
The distribution is in younger patients, the huge number is zero to 17, and then another pretty large number from 17-to-early 30’s. Then, we see a break for a while and then you see a huge uptick of people over 65. Now in the ER, I see someone with a concern for a brain injury at least once per shift.”
Then, in his sports clinic, Dr. Bahktiar explains, “It’s not uncommon for me to be evaluating a teenager who has had a concussion playing sports- maybe every other clinic day, so it’s definitely prevalent in the community even though this is a smaller market.
The local physician said falls account for about 40% of all brain injuries.
“In the ones I see most commonly it is just that…falling while going to the bathroom, getting their walker caught on a carpet, or not using a walker, and from motor vehicle accidents. However, in our elderly population, I think it’s disproportionately more that I’m seeing falls than anything else.”
Bahktiar emphasized that “one concussion, one brain injury is too much” and as the weather warms up he cautions parents to make sure their kids wear a helmet when riding a bike or when you’re riding in a car to buckle your seatbelt.
