Episode 5 - The Hollywood Myth
Las Vegas Brain Injury Law Blog
THE HOLLYWOOD MYTH
We all accept the things we see in movies and on television. That is the hope and intent of their creators. However reality and fantasy, or at least make-believe, are not the same. We need to be reminded that fact and fiction are not the same!
Traumatic Brain Injury
Traumatic brain injury will occur when the soft tissues of the brain are pushed against the boney structures of the skull in whiplash type, acceleration/deceleration movements. The inside of the skull is riddled with sharp ridges especially around the eyes.
The problem with most of us is we are desensitized to the impact of trauma and brain injury due to what we watch every day on television or in the movies. This is called the Hollywood Myth.
Most people’s knowledge and experience with the result of mild head injuries is largely the product of movie magic. Some of the funniest scenes in slap stick comedies and cartoons depict the character sustaining a single or multiple head injuries, looking dazed and then recovering immediately. In cowboy movies, detective and action stories, and boxing and kung fu films, seemingly serious head trauma is often inflicted by blows from guns and heavy objects, falls, motor vehicle injuries, fists, and kicks, all without lasting injury.
Our Experience
Our experience is minuscule compared to the thousands of simulated head injuries witnessed in the movies and on television. Because of the compelling mythology, the lawyers and physicians have a difficult job educating patients, their families, and others in the realities of mild head injuries. However, when one looks at examples of two successful boxers, Joe Lewis and Muhammad Ali, they have witnessed powerful punches resulting in dazed, disorientated boxers or knock outs. Memory loss and dementia have been a frequent finding in ex fighters.
Boxing and other Repetitive Injury
“Mild head injury typified by momentary amnesia, brief loss of consciousness, and persistent headache or mild neurological signs is more difficult to document than severe or moderate head injuries. In an analysis of 1,165 bouts: researchers found that 79% of boxers had momentary neurological signs, whereas 21% demonstrated deficits for at least 24 hours.”
And our favorite sports, football, hockey, baseball all involve serious, repetitive head injury which take their toll on athletes both now and later in life.
Television & Movies
Recall Laurel and Hardy, Abbott and Costello and the Three Stooges, all slapping each other and making us laugh. We laughed because we knew the injuries were fake; But not so in real life.
We all cheered James T. Kirk when he engaged in hand to hand combat either knocking his opponent out or being knocked out himself, only to return apparently healed and well in the next scene.
Today’s movies continue the tradition of distorting the truth about head and brain injury. And we are all caught up in it. We are conditioned to believe a little punch or two cannot really do any permanent damage. Then we see Natasha Richardson suffer a seemingly minor head injury while skiing, go on about her day, and die hours later from brain injury.
Education
Education is the key. Occasionally, a documentary or science channel special runs a series or show on brain injury, but it is our responsibility as parents, and engagers of everyday risk to know the difference between fact and fiction.
