Increasing Awareness Of Concussions Leads Bryn Mawr Rehab Hospital To Expand
By Lynne Adkins
MALVERN, Pa. (CBS) - Listen to the sports report and you'll likely hear about another athlete with a concussion. The rise in the number of patients seeking help has prompted a local rehab center to expand.
Bryn Mawr Rehabilitation Hospital in Malvern is spending $1-million on an expansion program and one part of that is more space and new facilities for its outpatient center for brain injuries and other neurological disorders.
Marketing Director Leighton McKeithen says in the past year, the number of patients suffering post concussion symptoms has increased 35 percent.
"We are actually currently treating 148 patients at the present time for concussions. People as young as 11 and up to their 70's."
McKeithen doesn't believe there are more brain-injured patients.
"I think, with the tremendous growth and awareness of concussion as a serious brain injury, more and more people are being aware of the need to get treatment, so we are needing to expand."
The expansion to the outpatient center for patients with brain injuries, he says, will allow the hospital to treat more people with better equipment and facilities.
"They need to start out in an environment that won't over stimulate them, so the rooms that we'll be providing will be specially sound deadened so the room noise level can be brought down and the lights can be brought down."
Another part of the expansion includes a physical therapy facility opening this spring on Andrew Drive in West Chester.
