I am always astounded when I see reports on the number of people who suffer a traumatic brain injury each year. The statistics surrounding these injury are staggering. Today I read a press release that stated:

According to the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the most frequent cause of death in the hospital among Americans 44 years and younger is traumatic brain injury. More than 5,500 people in this age range died from traumatic brain injury in 2002.

Needless to say, this statistic grabbed my attention. This information was gathered through a database maintained by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. I went and looked around the database, ran some of my own searches and I was able to come up with some more information about brain injury related hospital admissions and deaths in New York and New Jersey. For 2003, the latest year from which data is available on the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project website, 5,916 people were admitted to a New Jersey hospital for a brain injury. Of those 5,916, 8% or 440 died. The numbers for New York were comparable. In 2003, 10,839 people were admitted to a hospital for a brain injury and 9.3% or 923 died. The HCUPnet website is a great resource that is scalable and customizable and I plan to use frequently.