Headline News Brain and Spine Injury Law Blog August 2010
We are almost through August and more than half way through Summer 2010. Parents, children and kids are preparing for the return to school in the next couple of weeks. In Nevada, public schools start August 30.
Meanwhile Nevada, and particularly Las Vegas, continues to muddle through the recession which for Southern Nevada has been a novel experience. The unemployment rate is close to 15% as I write. The city many thought was immune from economic storms has seen itself hardest hit. Hopefully things will improve.
We face a heated election where the Tea Party candidate, Sharon Angle, accuses Democrat incumbent, Harry Reid, for the current state of plummeted home values while Reid criticizes Angle for not making job creation a part of her job!
The Station Casino’s recent resurface from Bankruptcy with owners, Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta, manning the helm, may be a boost. Of course some creditors had to write off $4,000,000,000 – four billion dollars! But maybe the massive adjustment will re establish the local casino group and have a positive impact on Las Vegas.
Today’s report of the M Resort, opening just over a year ago, being put up for sale may result in an interesting bid; especially if Boyd gets back into the picture. Boyd’s recent failed effort to take over Station properties may be a prelude to an M resort bid. Although my sources tell me that Station may make a bid to buy M resort now that they have shaken off 4 billion in debt.
I am reporting on 2 separate topics relating to Brain and Spine Injury issues. First is a look at the Cleveland Clinic’s Las Vegas Lou Ruvo Center. Second is the recent revelation concerning veterans.
Nevada, and specifically Las Vegas, may be on its way to becoming the "go-to" place in the country for Brain Health. The Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health (CCLRCBH) provides state-of-the-art care for cognitive disorders and for the family members of those who suffer from them.
For persons with mild cognitive impairment such as early stage dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, the center offers the most up-to-date and technologically advanced diagnostic imaging services, including 3-Tesla MR, performed by one of the leading neuroimaging academic centers in the world. The CCLRCBH also offers a multimodal treatment program for persons with mild cognitive disorders, including physical exercise, cognitive rehabilitation, and cognitive enhancing medications.
Recently named to head up the Center, leading researcher and neurologist Jeffery L. Cummings, MD, will be the Director of the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health.
Prior to joining Cleveland Clinic, Dr. Cummings was the director of the Mary S. Easton Center for Alzheimer’s Disease Research and a professor of Neurology and Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.
He is past president of the Behavioral Neurology Society and of the American Neuropsychiatric Association. Dr. Cummings has authored or edited 30 books and published more than 600 peer-reviewed papers.
Misdiagnosis Hurt U.S. Soldiers
We now know that during the height of the Iraq war, the Army routinely misdiagnosed hundreds of soldiers with “personality disorder.” In doing this, the Army was categorizing veterans being dismissed from duty, with a pre-existing condition. Pre existing conditions are not covered by the military health care for veterans.
Leaving wounded veterans ineligible for military health care and with a stigma attached to mental weakness, advocates for veterans, congress and the public actively pushed for re-evaluation of veterans conditions. The Nation, published an article exposing the practice and caused the Defense Department to change its policy.
All soldiers diagnosed with Personality disorder prior to 2008 are being re-evaluated. Before 2008, over 1000 soldiers were dismissed based on personality disorder. In 2009 only 260 were dismissed for personality disorder. By 2008, 14,000 soldiers were diagnosed with brain injury or post traumatic stress disorder. The number of personality disorder cases dropped 75%. Watch this You Tube video.
The significance for those men and women that serve the country in the military is staggering. Could you imagine sacrificing life and limb only to have the U.S. government tell you that you suffered a pre-existing personality disorder? Why, you might ask, did the Army, for example, not make that determination until after my sacrifice of life and limb? How convenient for the Army to take advantage of the sacrifice and not pay the veteran when they can no longer make the sacrifice.
We now know about PTSD as it relates to war, something the Vietnam veterans did not benefit from. We also know, unlike Vietnam, that more soldiers stay alive after blast and concussion trauma due to the enhanced protective gear.
I really hope that the U.S. will be proactive in caring for its military. I think we should all support brain injury groups like the Brain Injury Association of America who are on the front lines, so to speak, in getting legislation for brain injured survivors.
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Association is holding its annual symposium on Capitol Hill this Wednesday, September 30, with the National Alliance on Mental Illness to raise public awareness of and reduce the stigma of mental illnesses.
President Obama yesterday spoke with Veterans in Arizona.
