Visits to the emergency room for brain injuries caused by sports activities in children and adolescents has risen 60 percent since 2001, according to recent news sources.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that most injuries were related to bicycling, football, basketball, soccer, and playground activities.
Seventy-one percent of the visits were by males and 70.5 percent were by kids ages 10 to 19 years.
In 2001, there were 153,375 traumatic brain injuries, compared to 248,418 in 2009.
According to the durect of the CDC’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, “one reason for the increase in emergency department visits among children and adolescents may be a result of the growing awareness among parents and coaches, and the public as a whole, about the need for individuals with a suspected traumatic brain injury to be seen by a health care professional.”
Research has shown that a child’s developing brain is more vulnerable to long term consequences of brain injury than that of an adult.
As a Los Angeles personal injury lawyer, I encourage you to take your child to a medical professional if he or she has received a blow to the head. While they may brush off the injury, effects can linger for a long time and it is best to have them checked out. As a personal injury lawyer, I hope that you will invest in safety gear that may prevent serious injuries.