Brain Injury
For a young football player looking forward to college, it was swerving to avoid something on the road. For a young father hanging Christmas lights and realizing his dream of owning a home, it was falling off a ladder. Brain injuries can be caused by both traumatic and non-traumatic events. All events can be life-altering, and a reported one and a half-million people are affected by some form of brain injury each year.
There are more than five million Americans who need long-term or lifelong assistance with daily living activities because of a brain injury, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A brain injury can affect cognitive, physical, behavioral, and emotional function.
Brain injury is one of the main areas of focus at the UPMC Institute for Rehabilitation and Research. The IRR at UPMC South Side has a 20-bed unit dedicated to rehabilitation for patients with brain injury.