Different Types of Brain Injuries and How They Can Affect Your Case

Learn about the different types of brain injuries and how they affect your case. Finding the right personal injury lawyer will help you win compensation for a brain injury caused by someone else’s fault. If you or someone you love was in a car crash, slip and fall injury, or some other incident tied to someone else’s negligence, talk to an experienced personal injury lawyer today.

Brain injuries are some of the most significant injuries. They cause physical pain and often have a lasting impact that affects victims for years.

The deceiving part about brain injuries is that victims often experience delayed symptoms. Whiplash sustained from a car hitting you from behind, for example, can develop hours or even days after the collision. On the other hand, it’s normal to feel fine when the adrenaline is pumping through you after an accident.

Too many people realize they have a serious brain injury after the fact. But, of course, severe trauma to the brain is relatively easy to spot. Things like concussions, lacerations, etc., are visible.

However, brain injuries happen internally and require a close medical examination to diagnose properly.

These tests, doctor’s visits, and other medical checkups are expensive. Bearing the costs of medical bills is a lot to ask when you or someone you care about wasn’t at fault.

Knowing what to look for and learning about the different types of brain injuries will help you know how serious they are and how they’ll affect your personal injury case.

The Impact of Brain Injuries on Victims’ Lives

Brain injuries should not be taken lightly. Major sports leagues and companies go to great lengths with establishing head injury protocols. However, the impact of brain injuries can last a lifetime, and it can have some of the following effects:

• Cognitive Impairment
• Loss of Balance
• Inability to Make Decisions
• Loss of Memory
• Lower motor functions

These are just some of the ways a brain injury can affect someone. Sometimes, brain injuries stop people from working or exercising. They can keep parents from holding or playing with their children. Victims also often have to miss work for long periods to recover.

Likewise, treating brain injuries can be very expensive. It can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to find out how extensive the damage is, let alone prescribe the right treatment protocol.

You have to pay for hospital visits, psychotherapy treatments, physical therapy, and other care. Add to that the cost of fixing any car or other property damaged in the accident, and costs can quickly become overwhelming.

The Different Types of Brain Injuries

Not all brain injuries are the same. Serious head trauma, for instance, when the brain slams against the skull at high speeds in a car accident, is much different than bumping your head on a door.

There are two main types of traumatic brain injuries or TBI. They are:

Penetrating Head Injury – As you might imagine, a penetrating head injury is when an object or force breaks the skull. Typically, these types of injuries involve a lot of blood. For example, something like a gunshot wound or a blunt force object colliding with the skull can cause a penetrating head injury. These injuries are very serious, though they are easier to diagnose because the symptoms are so severe. Depending on the situation, penetrating head injuries can require surgery to repair and sometimes lead to permanent brain damage.

Closed Head Injury – A closed head injury describes a situation in which there is no puncturing wound to the head or skull. These types of injuries can be especially challenging to diagnose. However, victims suffer brain damage because their head slams against the skull wall. In addition, there could be internal bleeding and other unseen symptoms with a closed head injury.

The risk of unseen injury is high in slip and fall injuries, car crashes, construction accidents, etc. These risks are the main reason why medical professionals and personal injury lawyers alike advise people to seek medical attention after a crash or fall just in case.

You may feel fine now, but the risk of internal bleeding and other side effects is too high to brush things off. So instead, see a doctor and get your head checked to make sure you’re OK.

Learning about the different types of brain injuries and how they affect your case will help you get to a resolution faster.

Why It’s Important to See a Doctor First

There are legal and medical reasons for seeking immediate medical care after a head injury. But, first, let’s cover the medical reasons.

1. Delayed Symptoms – We’ve touched on this already, but one of the main reasons to go to the hospital after a head injury is to make sure everything is OK. If your brain is bleeding inside of your skull, you may not feel pain or any other symptoms at the moment. However, they can build or appear suddenly later.
2. Loss of Cognitive Abilities – People with concussions and other serious head injuries typically display some disruption of their normal cognitive functions. Whether it’s feeling like you’re in a daze or general confusion, brain injuries impact your ability to think clearly.
3. Long-Term Care – Many brain injuries require years of treatment. You’ll need brain scans, MRIs, and other tests to discover the full extent of the damage.

Legal Reasons

1. Expert Legal Testimony – Doctors will play an important role in your personal injury case. They will help the judge, the insurance companies, and other liable parties understand the scope of your injuries.
2. Legal Documentation – By seeing the doctor, you’re essentially creating a legal paper trail to document your injuries. This helps prove that your injuries directly resulted from the accident in question.
3. Timelines – It’s important to prove a direct tie between the accident and your brain injury. Going to see a doctor immediately after the accident eliminates whether you were injured somewhere else doing something different. It ties your injuries to someone’s negligence.

Brain Injury Symptoms

If you even suspect there might be any level of injury to your brain, you need to see a doctor. Here are some of the most common symptoms of brain injuries so you know what to look for after an accident.

• Nausea
• Trouble Sleeping
• Emotional Volatility
• Headaches
• Blurry Vision
• Difficulty Hearing
• Dizziness
• Forgetfulness and Memory Problems

If you fall at work or slip on the wet floor of a cruise ship while on vacation, don’t shrug your injury off. If you experience any of the above symptoms, get medical attention.

Brain Injury Personal Injury Cases

Now that we know a bit more about brain injuries, how do they affect a personal injury case?

Treating your symptoms quickly and following the right path to document your injuries plays a massive role in evidence gathering. The more evidence you have and the better it is, it increases your odds of either winning a judgment in court or in settlement negotiations.

Having the right personal injury lawyer with you increases the odds of success throughout the process. However, finding the right lawyer can be difficult, so making the right choice is imperative.

Here are some things you can do to ensure you’re getting the best legal help possible.

1. Look for Similar Cases – Ideally, you’ll want to hire a firm or an attorney with substantial experience representing similar cases. Get as close to your circumstances as you can. You can do this either by looking at a firm’s website or directly asking them about their history.
2. Ask About Case Outcomes – It’s not enough to simply represent similar cases. They should win the cases and earn substantial payments from liable parties. Ask attorneys about settlement amounts and what they think your case is worth.
3. The Free Consultation – Take advantage of the free consultations that many law firms offer prospective clients. It’s an excellent opportunity to feel out the relationship and set expectations.
4. Clear Expectations – Avoid any lawyers quick to promise the world. The right attorney will give you realistic expectations and update you on your claim’s progress.

Compensation After a Brain Injury

A brain injury lawyer will guide you in making the proper steps to win the compensation you deserve. In addition, they’ll talk to you about the different types of brain injuries and how they affect your case.

Remember, you need to think about more than just the medical bills in front of you. Yes, they pile up quickly, but a severe brain injury could mean you see doctors every year for the rest of your life.

Settlement negotiations need to cover the lifelong effects of a brain injury and things like lost income and pain and suffering.

With the right legal team, you and your family can win the damages required to cover your expenses and restore some sense of normalcy to your lives.