The fund will focus on clinical investments that improve outcomes for children with traumatic brain injuries, as well as support research and training efforts that prevent injury and improve outcomes. Children’s is actively recruiting additional donations from the community; the fund has now collected over $60,000 in donations.
When a head-first fall left 14-year-old Jessica Jones with a life-threatening traumatic brain injury in 2002, physicians estimated that there was less than a 5 percent chance she would survive. But after emergency surgery by Reisner and extensive rehabilitation, today Jessica is a graduate of Stanford University and in medical school at the Cleveland Clinic, following in the footsteps of her mentor, Reisner.
The Joneses are not the only family to have benefited from Reisner’s lifesaving work at Children’s. Over a career spanning 25 years helping children recover from traumatic brain injuries, he has earned a large network of grateful families.
“I am deeply honored to receive such a generous gift from these special families through the establishment of this fund,” said Reisner, who sees patients at both the Scottish Rite campus in Sandy Springs and the Egleston one in DeKalb County. “Stories like Jessica’s of triumphing over life-threatening traumatic brain injury inspire my work every day. Through this fund, more children will be afforded the opportunity for second chances at life like Jessica had.”
Trauma is the leading cause of death in children and teenagers, according to the DeKalb County-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Children younger than four years old and teenagers ages 15 to 19 are at the highest risk for traumatic brain injuries.
Every year, traumatic brain injuries in children and teens result in more than 2,100 deaths, 35,000 hospitalizations and nearly 500,000 emergency department visits.
Information: visit www.choa.org.
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