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CDC Injury Center and Lifetime Television Partner to Raise Awareness about Traumatic Brain Injury

In a July 2010 episode of Lifetime Television’s show Army Wives, lead character Joan, played by Wendy Davis, was diagnosed with a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) sustained from a bomb blast while on active duty in Iraq.  The leading cause of injury among U.S. forces serving in Afghanistan and Iraq is TBI.

CDC's Injury Center helped to provide TBI information for this show. CDC subject matter experts consulted with Army Wives writers and producers on prevention strategies and the importance of early diagnosis and treatment for TBI survivors. The resulting storyline is an example of the partnership between CDC and Hollywood Health & Society, which exists to provide entertainment industry professionals with accurate and timely health information, like TBI, through consultations with experts for their scripts. Lifetime television ran this story line in July 2010 and showed how Joan and her loved ones coped with the challenges of treatment and recovery for TBI.

From 2002-2006, an estimated average of 1.7 million people in the U.S. annually sustained a TBI; that’s more people than the populations of Dallas and Miami combined.