Doctor On Call: Understanding Traumatic Brain Injuries & Symptoms To Watch For

The doctor is in and this time it is Dr. Yashar Kalani with Ascension Saint John Medicine. Dr. Kalani joined News On 6 to talk about Traumatic Brain Injury Awareness.

Reagan: So speaking of traumatic brain injuries, tell us a little bit about what that is and what that can look like.

Dr. Kalani: Traumatic brain injury is an injury to the brain that results in dysfunction of the brain. And it can really affect any age group. You see it in young, young people, you see it actually often people who play football, for example, in high school level, you see it in girls who participated in tumbling, and cheerleading. And then you see it all the way into older adults who may experience falls.

And as a result of the fall, they may hit their head resulting in bleeding or dysfunction in the brain. And really, the treatment for it in most cases is conservative treatment, meaning we take care of them, we support them, we allow time for the brain to recover from the injury, but really requires a multidisciplinary team to do the proper long-term care because patients are going to need physical therapy, sometimes occupational therapy, in the most severe cases like our ash, they require admission to a dedicated neuro Intensive Care Unit where you've got trauma doctors, neurologists and neurosurgeons taking care of them.

Reagan: When should someone get checked out if they think it's possible they could have a TBI?

Dr. Kalani: Sometimes it could be subtle personality changes. So you know, if there's been an injury to the brain, for example, athletes in the high school level have a concussion and they're not behaving correctly. Maybe they're being forgetful, if their speech is impacted, if they've got arm or leg weakness, those are all signs that you want to get checked out and you want to get the care that you need.

Reagan: Are there some misconceptions about TBI and when it comes to recovering from them?

Dr. Kalani: Often people think that traumatic brain injury is something that you may never recover from or on the other end of the spectrum. They think that their recovery may be pretty prompt and quick. Often, this is something that, especially if it's repetitive, is going to require long-term recovery and long-term support from people's loved ones' engagement with you know, folks who work with physical therapy and occupational therapy, as I mentioned, and also speech therapy, helping them reintegrate back into their back into their daily lives. So really, recovery is a long-term process for these cases.

Reagan: But it is possible for someone to get back to normal life?

Dr. Kalani: Yeah, I mean, again, I think [someone like] Officer Zarkeshan is a great example of it. I mean, when he presented to Ascension, St. John's after the shooting, we were able to rush him to the operative theater to get the hematoma taken out under reconstruction done. But then over the next two years, it required really a multidisciplinary team of folks to allow him to recover enough that he's not back working at Tulsa police department. And that really is a great example of a save that's possible through interdisciplinary care of these patients.

Reagan: One thing I want to touch on; How important is it to not rush back to the activity after you suffer one of these injuries?

Dr. Kalani: Hugely important. Again, I think we mentioned football a few times. I know football has a huge following in the state of Oklahoma. But if you don't allow for adequate recovery, the second injury can be more devastating and significantly worse and more difficult to recover from.

So you really want to allow time for the patient to recover before they resume activity, especially activity that's going to potentially result in more injury.