MINOT, ND ( KXNET ) — While progress has been made in addressing brain injuries across North Dakota, medical workers say it still remains a hard issue to tackle.

According to the North Dakota Brain Injury Network, there are more than 5,000 people who sustain traumatic brain injuries every year in the state. With more than 13-thousand North Dakotans currently living with a disability from a traumatic brain injury, the problem is actually much larger than you might think.

According to the Director of the North Dakota Brain Injury Network, Rebecca Quinn, there are more than two million brain injuries reported every year in the US. While most people might associate brain injuries to young people with high contact sports like football experts say other sports can have just as much of a risk for those brain injuries.

“She just sustained her seventh concussion,” explains Quinn. “Cheerleading is a underlooked high-risk sport, so always want to throw that out there when we are talking about football. Let’s not forget that there’s other players that are involved as well.”

Currently, the leading cause of brain injury in North Dakota is falling, with car crashes coming in second and sports injuries third. While people ages 15 to 24 are most likely to sustain a brain injury, young kids under the age of four are the third most likely group. Experts tell people with children to always have safety in mind to mitigate any risk of head injuries.

“We want to make sure your always protecting those kids,” Quinn concludes. “Little things like making sure a child is strapped in the grocery cart, or that you know if a child is in a car seat that your not putting it up on a table.”

For more information on brain injuries and resources click here .

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