How many Australian children experience inflicted Traumatic Brain Injury as a result of abuse?
• Brain Injury Australia believes that there are no reliable numbers on national incidence – that is, the number of new “cases” in a given year – for inflicted Traumatic Brain Injury in children. There are, however, some guides. • Information obtained by Brain Injury Australia shows 52 children with inflicted Traumatic Brain Injury have been admitted to New South Wales’ two statewide children’s hospitals – The Children’s Hospital at Westmead and Sydney Children’s Hospital – over the last 5 years, and their numbers are increasing. Their average age was 10 months. • A review of admissions to the pediatric brain surgery unit at The Children’s Hospital at Westmead between 1995 and 2002 found 65 cases of inflicted Traumatic Brain Injury. • The most common cause of what’s called subdural haematoma (the collection of blood in the space between the outer and middle layers of the covering of the brain, caused by force applied to the head sufficient to rupture veins) in infants and effusion (the
