Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Arizona: The Young and the Brain Damaged
Arizona ranks No. 1 when it comes to young people suffering brain damage.
In a recent survey, our state ranked first out of the 12 states surveyed. Dr. Andreas Theodorou, UA professor and chief of pediatric critical care with the UA Department of Pediatrics, says that Arizona has 105 young people per 100,000 who are brain damaged, which blows all of the other surveyed states out of the water. And this number doesn’t even account for all of the brain-damaged youngsters who are unidentified because they suffer milder brain injuries.
Dr. Theodorou thinks, however, that we can all contribute to decreasing this number. By wearing seatbelts, avoiding sports injuries, opting not to drink and drive, and prohibiting young ones from acquiring access to machinery such as ATVs, Dr. Theordorou thinks many of these accidents can be prevented.
