The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "Brain Damage" ...
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HBO: NCAA Head Games
Five years into football’s concussions crisis, one group of athletes may be in more danger than any other: college football players. That’s because while leagues from the NFL down to Pop Warner have sharply reduced contact in practice to limit the amount of hits to the head, the NCAA has yet to mandate any rules. A six-month Real Sports investigation found that, over the course of a year, the average college football player is exposed to 70% more hits to the head than an NFL player. All these hits can add up and make it harder for the brain to function and do the work of being a student. In other words, young men going to college purportedly to improve their minds are often doing precisely the opposite—they are damaging them. Once these athletes leave college they’re on their own to deal with the potential consequences. The NFL provides long-term medical care for its football players. The NCAA does not.
Tags: broadcast; college football; athletes; concussions; health; NFL; NCAA; medical care
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Critical Delays: Dallas County’s Response to the West Nile Epidemic
In the summer of 2012, Dallas County became the epicenter of the worst West Nile virus outbreak in American history. This investigation revealed critical delays in Dallas County’s response contributed to the health epidemic, where 15 people died and more than 150 others were left with long-term disabilities including brain damage, and muscle paralysis in Dallas County alone.
Tags: Health; West Nile virus; epidemic; Dallas
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Concussion Crisis
The stories examine the seriousness of concussions among athletes in youth and professional sports. Safety inadequacies in hundreds of thousands of football helmets have led to brain trauma and more.
Tags: football; football helmets; NFL; brain damage; Lou Gehrig's
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"Brain Wars: How the Military Is Failing Its Wounded"
NPR and ProPublica teamed up to investigate the "medical system for America's troops and veterans." Brain damage caused by "shock waves" from roadside bombs have become the "signature wounds" of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The military promised to improve the health care for this type of injury, but reporters found a lack of diagnosis and treatment for the brain damage, as well as "bureaucratic indifference."
Tags: Iraq; Afghanistan; roadside bombs; military; Walter Reed Army Medical Center; TBI; brain injury; Fort Bliss; Pentagon; Building 805
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Soldiers At Risk: Iraq Water Investigation
With temperatures rising up to “130 degrees or more” a day, why would the military be rationing water to only 2 liters a day per person? The answer is a water shortage. As a result, some soldiers are reporting from “serious physical problems with their kidneys, nerve degeneration, and even serious brain damage”. Further, some of these conditions went on for up to a year.
Tags: Iraq; Wars; medical professionals; officers; Army; Veterans Administration; defenders; troops
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Toxic Fumes, Blisters and Brain Damage
This story examines a link between the toxic fumes produced by the largest dairy farm in New York state, called Willet Dairy, and the health problems suffered by its neighbors.
Tags: toxic fumes; dairy industry; New York state; dairy farms; factory farms; cows
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Jump Street
When the former Phoenix chief financial officer jumped to his death off of the top of his moving car, his death was declared a suicide. Now, years after, his death is being called undetermined because of further looking at the mdeical records left behind.
Tags: Kevin Keogh; death; suicide; murder; medical history; brain damage
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Taking the Cuffs off at Carswell
Fort Worth Weekly reporter Betty Brink has been covering medical and sexual abuse of female inmates at Carswell Federal Medical Center, in Texas, since 1999. As a result of her coverage, and his own investigation, a retired judge, Ross Sears is asking for a Congressional investihgation into the deadly conditions at "the only prison hospital in the country for mentally or chronicallly ill or dying women who have been convicted of a federal crime."
Tags: medical negligence; sexual abuse; Carswell Federal Mediacal Center; medical records; Bureau of Prisons; FOI requests; U.S. Office of Special Counsel; Dr. Roger Guthrie; Ross Sears; retaliation; compassionate release; John Peter Smith Hospital; Tarrant County Medical Examiner; autopsies; prison deaths; women inmates; femaile prisoners; Baylor Regional Transplant Institute; Huguley Memorial Medical Center; brain damage; whistleblower complaints; medical malpractice; sentinel event; rape;
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Command Mistake
As a result of this WISH-TV (Indianapolis, IN) report, the United States Marine Corps is now issuing helmets with ballistic padding to all marines. Previously, only the Army was issuing padded helmets; and some marines were buying their own padding. The story showed that college football players' helmets were more protective than the marine helmet."The cost to care for a head-injured soldier with permanent brain damage is $2.5 to $3 million. The cost of the helmet pads is as little as $30." Story contains on-ground elements filmed in Germany and Iraq.
Tags: Traumatic brain injury research; TBI; concussion; ballistic pad testing; football helmet testing; Kevlar helmet; roadside bomb blasts; Commanding General George Casey; Baghdad; Fallujah; Landstuhl Medical Center, Germany; Riddell; Brigadier General John Kelley; Congressman Steve Buyer; Indiana National Guard; Roudebush VA Medical Center; craniectomy; aphasia; Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz; Joint Theater Trauma Registry; Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center; DVBIC; Edward Hines Jr. VA Hospital; Traumatic Brain Injury in the War Zone; Susan Okie, MD; New England Journal of Medicine; American Football Coaches Association; University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Sports Medicine Concussion Program
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Lead Jewelry
When a one-year-old baby was diagnosed with lead-poisoning, enough to cause brain damage, WMAR investigators started to test costume jewelry kids love. Results showed that all of the tested jewelry contained lead, and some contained enough to cause illness. This investigation lead the Consumer Product Safety Commission to announce a voluntary recall of more than 150 million pieces of jewelry sold out of gumball machines. This was the single largest voluntary recall of a children's product in the history of the agency.
Tags: children; jewelry; lead-poisoning; health; poisoning; brain damage