According to the CDC, there were approximately 2.9 million TBI-related emergency department visits, hospitalizations, and deaths in the U.S. in 2014. (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Surveillance Report of Traumatic Brain Injury-Related Emergency Department Visits, Hospitalizations, and Deaths, United States, 2014, https:// www.cdc.gov/traumaticbraininjury/pdf/TBI-Surveillance-Report-508.pdf.)
TBI’s were identified in 25% of all injury-related deaths in 2017. (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Traumatic Brain Injury-related Deaths by Age, Group, Sex, and Mechanism of Injury, United States, 2018 and 2019, https://www.cdc.gov/traumaticbraininjury/pdf/TBI-surveillance-report-2018-2019-508.pdf.)
Depending on the severity of the injury, those who get a TBI may face health problems that last a few days or the rest of their lives. Effects of traumatic brain injury can be short-term or long-term and include impaired thinking, memory, movement, vision, hearing, or emotional functioning, such as personality changes or depression. (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Potential Effects of a Moderate or Severe TBI, https://www.cdc.gov/traumaticbraininjury/moderate-severe/potential-effects.html.)
More than 430,000 U.S. service members were diagnosed with a TBI from 2000 through 2020. (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and National Institutes of Health, Report to Congress on Traumatic Brain Injury in the United States: Understanding the Public Health Problem among Current and Former Military Personnel, June 2013, https://www.cdc.gov/traumaticbraininjury/pdf/Report_to_Congress_on_Traumatic_Brain_Injury_2013-a.pdf.)
Service members and veterans who have sustained a TBI may have ongoing symptoms and experience co-occurring health conditions such as PTSD and depression. (Id.)
The foregoing was excerpted from the House Report 117-336, 117th Congress, May 18, 2022. (https://www.congress.gov/117/crpt/hrpt336/CRPT-117hrpt336.pdf.
