Tracking Traumatic Brain Injury

New Jersey Democratic Rep. Bill Pascrell has introduced a bill to track traumatic brain injuries nationwide in an effort to bolster research. The legislation is called National Traumatic Brain Injury Research and Treatment Improvement Act of 2014.

Under the bill which is co-sponsored by U.S. Rep. Thomas Rooney, R-F.L., the Center for Disease Control would be required to create a national system to keep track of how often brain injuries happen. The idea behind the data collection is to help researchers develop ways to prevent and treat brain injuries.

"Dealing with the unexpected hardships brought on by a traumatic brain injury takes a tremendous toll on millions of victims and their families each year," said Pascrell in an emailed press release.  "We need to ensure the individuals that sustain these devastating injuries have every resource available to them.”

The CDC estimates that roughly 2.4 million traumatic brain injuries happen every year across the country and over 5 million Americans are forced to live for the rest of their lives with a disability caused by the injury.