A traumatic brain injury can refer to many types of injuries to the brain, skull, or scalp.
A traumatic brain injury always requires immediate medical care. The complications that result from the injury will depend on how the injury occurred, the location of the injury, and the severity of the brain damage.
If you have suffered a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) due to an accident, you will need to speak to a brain injury lawyer soon after receiving medical treatment.
This type of injury typically results in enormous damages, and an injury lawyer will make sure you get the compensation you deserve after your accident.
In the article below, we will discuss the types of brain injuries and the levels of severity of brain injuries to help you understand your personal injury case involving a brain injury.
What Is A Traumatic Brain Injury?
A TBI is a brain injury caused by a blow or jolt to the head from blunt or penetrating trauma.
TBIs can be closed or penetrating injuries.
The injury that occurs at the moment of impact is the primary injury.
Primary injuries can involve a specific brain lobe or the entire brain.
The skull can be fractured sometimes but not always.
During the impact of an accident, the brain crashes back and forth inside the skull causing bruising, bleeding, and tearing of nerve fibers.
Immediately after the injury, you may be confused, have trouble remembering what happened, suffer from blurry vision and dizziness, or lose consciousness.
You may feel fine at first, but your condition can decline rapidly.
After the initial impact occurs, the brain can swell, pushing itself against the skull and reducing the flow of oxygen-rich blood.
This is a secondary injury, and they are often more damaging than the primary injury.
Traumatic brain injuries are classified according to the severity of the damage.
With a mild TBI, you are awake with your eyes open.
A mild injury may cause you to be confused, disorientated, struggle with memory loss, headaches, and brief loss of consciousness.
If you suffer a moderate TBI, you will be lethargic with your eyes open to stimulation.
You may lose consciousness for 20 minutes to 6 hours.
Some brain swelling or bleeding is common, causing sleepiness, but you’re still arousable.
A severe TBI will leave you unconscious, and your eyes will not open, even with stimulation.
You will experience a loss of consciousness lasting more than 6 hours.
Causes Of TBIs
A traumatic brain injury is caused by a blow or other traumatic injury to the head.
The damage you sustain depends on several factors, including the nature of your injury and the force of impact.
The most common events that cause traumatic brain injuries are:
- Falls: Several types of falls are common causes of traumatic brain injury overall.
- Motor Vehicle Accidents: Collisions involving cars, motorcycles, or bicycles are another common cause of traumatic brain injury.
- Violence: Domestic violence, gunshot wounds, child abuse, and other assaults are common causes.
- Sports injuries: Traumatic brain injuries may be caused by several sports. Football, boxing, soccer, baseball, lacrosse, skateboarding, hockey, and other high-impact sports can all lead to a TBI.
Traumatic brain injury can also result from penetrating wounds or a severe, direct blow to the head.
What Are The Different Types Of Traumatic Brain Injuries?
In addition to mild, moderate, and severe, there are several other types of TBIs.
However, these head injuries are severe and should be taken seriously.
A few other types of TBIs are:
Uncomplicated TBI: With an uncomplicated TBI, your head CT/brain MRI is normal, regardless of mild, moderate, or severe grade.
Complicated TBI: A complicated TBI shows a head CT or brain MRI with changes, such as bleeding.
Closed Head Injury: The majority of TBIs are closed. This means an outside force causes a blow or jolt to the head that didn’t penetrate the skull. This impact causes injury and swelling to the brain.
Open Head Injury: An open brain injury can also be referred to as a penetrating TBI. This injury occurs when something penetrates your skull. If the object goes into the brain, it directly damages brain tissue.
Nontraumatic: These are also known as hypoxic/anoxic brain injuries. These result from strokes, seizures, or events like choking or near-fatal drownings. These incidents deprive the brain of oxygen.
What Are Symptoms of TBIs?
Depending on the type and location of the injury, the person’s symptoms may include:
- Loss of consciousness
- Confusion
- Disorientation
- Loss of memory
- Amnesia
- Blurred vision
- Double vision
- Slurred speech
- Fatigue
- Headaches
- Visual problems
- Loss of coordination
- Poor attention
- Trouble concentrating
- Sleep disturbances
- Dizziness
- Blood clot
- Loss of balance
- Irritability
- Emotional disturbances
- Feelings of depression
- Seizures
- Vomiting
Any of these symptoms can keep you from performing your normal activities.
Diffuse injuries like a concussion or diffuse axonal injury typically cause an overall decreased level of consciousness.
Focal injuries like an ICH or a contusion have symptoms based on the affected brain area.
Can Your Brain Heal After A TBI?
Many studies have found that once brain cells have been destroyed or damaged, they cannot regenerate.
But accident victims can recover after a brain injury, especially in younger people.
In some cases, other areas of the brain can make up for the injured tissue.
Or, the brain can learn to reroute information and function around the damaged areas.
It’s impossible to estimate the exact amount of recovery at the time of injury.
It could be months or even years until complete recovery has been made.
Recovering from a severe brain injury is unique to each victim.
Recovery from severe injuries often involves prolonged or lifelong treatments and rehabilitation processes.
Consequences of a Traumatic Brain Injury
If you’ve suffered a traumatic brain injury, there’s a good chance you will suffer from various debilitating symptoms, permanent brain injury, or even be at risk of losing your life.
Traumatic brain injuries involve direct physical damage to the brain, so there are horrible physical and mental consequences.
Physical damage to the brain can affect your cognitive function, personality, and mental state.
This can take the form of memory loss, emotional issues, speech problems, sensory impairment, psychological disorders, and more.
And unfortunately, the damage caused by traumatic brain injuries can often be permanent.
As we mentioned above, not much can be done to repair the damaged tissue of the brain.
You may struggle with the effects of a brain injury for the rest of your life.
But, there is still a light at the end of the tunnel, and many things can be done to manage symptoms and help you live with the effects of a severe traumatic brain injury.
A Traumatic Brain Injury Attorney Can Help You Determine Your Options
No two traumatic brain injuries are the same.
Many require specialized care and rehabilitation services.
If you think you’ve sustained a minor TBI like a concussion, you should know that new symptoms can develop in the weeks following the accident.
These symptoms should not be ignored and need to be addressed by a healthcare professional right away.
After seeing a doctor, you should speak to a brain injury lawyer to help you get the treatment you need while also helping with your TBI case.
An attorney who focuses on TBI law will be able to look out for your best interests.
Let Us Fight For You!
Alexander Shunnarah Trial Attorneys fight to ensure accident victims get the compensation they deserve.
With the Alexander Shunnarah Trial Attorneys, you will receive prompt and personal service.
Whether you have been in a motor vehicle crash or a truck accident, the most crucial thing is not to ignore your physical or emotional symptoms and see a health care provider afterward.
Traumatic brain injuries after a traumatic accident may show themselves long after an incident occurs.
If you have suffered from a car crash that has caused debilitating conditions, contact our injury attorneys for assistance.
We’ve been helping people bring their claims to court for the last decade and continue to fight to get the compensation our clients deserve.
Call us today to schedule your free consultation so that our Traumatic Brain Injury Attorneys can start helping you with your personal injury claim.