Brain damage often stems from a complex injury both to detect and in its effects. Many people fail to recognize the signs of brain damage, as it is an “invisible injury.” Below is an overview of the symptoms and signs of brain damage, though this is not a substitute for a medical evaluation in any way. If you experience any of these signs following head trauma from an accident, always seek immediate medical care so a doctor can properly diagnose your brain injury.
Brain injuries can range widely in the way in which their symptoms manifest and impact your life, but they can cause general disruption and losses for you and your family. If you believe that someone else was responsible for your brain injury, reach out to a brain injury lawyer who can evaluate your legal rights.
What Is Brain Injury (TBI)?
Most brain injuries happen due to trauma hence the name traumatic brain injury or TBI. This is a term you likely hear when watching discussions about sports injuries, specifically football or other contact sports. However, TBIs can happen outside of the sports arena in many ways.
Brain injury occurs when the brain experiences a sudden trauma, which often involves your brain hitting the inside of your skull. While your skull is there to protect your brain, the hard bone can cause damage to delicate brain tissue when your brain moves around.
“Trauma” refers to any outside force and impact on your head. Your head might hit something or might simply jolt violently enough to cause your brain to shift inside the skull. Trauma can also involve something piercing your skull and brain or a skull fracture when a piece of bone pierces the brain.
Injuries to the brain are especially dangerous given the far-reaching implication they have on your day-to-day life. When your brain is not functioning properly, your life will forever change. If someone else caused your injury, you deserve full compensation for all of your injury-related effects and losses.
Common Causes of TBIs
The first sign that you might have brain damage is that you suffered head trauma in some type of accident or event. Many incidents can lead to TBI, including those below.
Vehicle accidents
Traffic collisions or single-vehicle accidents are a common cause of brain damage. When you are in a crash, your body can shift around in the vehicle (or fall off a motorcycle or bicycle), and you can easily hit your head on something. This impact on your head can result in varying degrees of brain damage.
Oil and gas accidents
Working on an oil rig or oil field is dangerous work, and one common risk is oil well blowouts and explosions. If you are in the vicinity of an explosion, the shock wave force is enough to cause brain damage. You can suffer more severe damage if the explosion sends shrapnel flying through the air that hits you.
Falls
Anytime you fall, you risk hitting your head. This is true whether you fall from a high place, such as a ladder or balcony, or slip and fall on level ground. If your head hits the ground or an object, it can often result in brain trauma and damage.
Sports accidents
Sports come with an inherent risk of injury. However, brain injuries can be the result of inadequate helmets or safety equipment, insufficient medical attention on the field, improper training or rules, and more. If a coach or someone else makes a mistake and someone hits their head, the athlete could face serious repercussions of brain damage.
If you are in any accident and you hit your head, this is the first sign you might have brain damage. Even without serious symptoms, it might be wise to have a medical professional check you out. If you feel anything out of the ordinary at all, such as dizziness, headache, or confusion, go right to the local emergency room for an evaluation.
Common Signs and Symptoms
It is difficult to set out the typical signs of brain damage, as everyone has a different experience. Damage to one area of the brain will lead to significantly different symptoms than damage to a different area, as each area has different functions and controls. Generally, as mentioned, if you feel anything unusual, assume that it might be a sign of brain damage just to be safe.
That said, some common signs of brain damage include:
- Unconsciousness (even for a short time)
- Headaches
- Disorientation or confusion
- Memory lapse
- Irritability
- Sleep disturbances
- Fatigue
- Anxiety or depression
- Slurred speech
- Sensory issues
- Communication problems
- Clear fluid leaking from the nose or ears (this is a sign of particularly severe brain damage)
This list is definitely not exhaustive, and your doctor can assess whether what you are feeling is brain damage or not. The important thing is that you seek medical care and a diagnosis so you know whether or not you have a brain injury. Then, you can follow the treatment recommendations of your doctor for the best possible prognosis in your situation.
Long-Term Effects of Brain Damage
Once you learn that you suffered brain damage, you can feel the effects of your injury for weeks, months, years, or even the rest of your life. Even concussions (commonly diagnosed as “mild” TBI) can lead to complications that cause symptoms for much longer than you would expect. Severe brain injuries regularly leave victims with permanent impairments. Know that brain damage might not clear up right away, and you might be feeling the effects of your injury for a long time.
Brain damage can cause cognitive, physical, and behavioral impairments. Dealing with these effects is difficult enough, but any impairments can further affect almost every aspect of your life.
Some challenges that victims of brain damage might face include:
- Professional problems – If you have trouble processing information like you used to, it can impact your job abilities and performance. Many people with serious TBI effects need to take time away from work or they might not ever return to their prior jobs. Some victims must accept lower-paying and less demanding work, or they might have to rely on disability benefits. If a child suffers brain damage, it can affect their performance at school, which can shift their entire future career path and prospects.
- Personal problems – Brain injuries are invisible, so it can be difficult for others to understand the symptoms you deal with every day. Often, friends and family might keep their distance, as they do not realize all you are going through. Impairments due to brain damage can affect your romantic relationships, social life in general, and other aspects of your personal life you once enjoyed.
These issues can add more stress to a person already dealing with brain damage. As if the effects of your TBI are not enough, you then might have financial stress, physical and mental pain and suffering, a lost sense of self, and much more to deal with.
Know Your Legal Rights after a TBI
When you experience a brain injury in an accident, you should always determine whether someone else should be responsible for your losses. Many accidents happen due to the negligence of others, and in these situations, the negligent party should also be responsible for covering all your injury-related losses. These losses can be extensive, and ignoring a possible legal claim can leave substantial funds on the table.
These are some examples of liable parties for brain damage injuries:
- Drivers who are distracted, impaired, or otherwise in violation of traffic laws who hit your car and cause your injury
- Businesses that leave hazards on the floor that cause you to slip and fall
- Corporations that manufacture defective products that malfunction and cause your accident
- Individuals who assaulted you
- Exposure to toxic fumes
In addition to the parties that directly cause your accident, others might have liability for your losses. These parties include employers of those who caused your accident while they were on the job.
The best way to know who might be liable for your injuries is to consult with a brain injury attorney. An experienced attorney can listen to what happened and assess whether or not you have a valid injury claim.
Brain Injury Insurance Claims Present Major Challenges
You might think that bringing a personal injury claim means marching into court, but this is usually not the case. Instead, your lawyer will file claims against the insurance companies of any liable parties. You might also think that an insurance claim should be relatively simple after all, the insurer should pay for claims covered under policies, right? Unfortunately, this is also not the case in most situations, as insurance companies can make the claim process challenging for injury victims.
When seeking out a settlement for your injury, it is important to remember that insurance companies are for-profit businesses. The profit model of the insurance industry involves paying settlements as quickly as possible, for as little as possible. A quicker settlement means that the insurance company has its employees spend less time addressing the situation, but settling faster might deny you the ability to determine what the full extent of your injuries are.
The initial settlement offer you receive might look very attractive, as it could cover your immediate medical bills, repair expenses, and lost wages during recovery. Having a check in hand after only a couple of weeks sounds nice, but it is likely much less than you need or deserve. Once you accept a settlement offer, you cannot later ask for more, as you give up the right to future claims for this particular accident and injury.
This means that you should never never accept a settlement without an injury lawyer’s review and advice.
Even better, your lawyer will handle every aspect of the insurance claim for you. While you are adjusting to life with your brain damage effects, your injury attorney will be communicating and negotiating with insurance adjusters on your behalf. There is no need for you to worry about saying the wrong thing or accepting the wrong offer if you have the right legal representation.
Aside from insurance companies being difficult in general, a claim can be even more challenging when it involves a brain injury. Because of the complex and varying nature of brain damage, insurers often fail to acknowledge the full extent of losses due to TBIs.
They might:
- Claim you do not need all the treatment or rehabilitation that you received
- Insist that you should be working and refuse to cover lost income
- Significantly underestimate your physical and mental pain and suffering
- Refuse to acknowledge that your difficulties stem from your injury
Having a lawyer who fully understands the impact of brain damage presenting your claim from the start will put you in the best position to fully recover financially.
An attorney can seek a settlement that covers all of your losses, including:
- Medical bills, including initial emergency treatment and diagnostic testing, hospitalization, brain surgery, rehabilitative therapy and services, medication, psychological treatment, and more
- Future medical costs if you require ongoing treatment
- Past and future lost earnings
- Permanency of impairments or disabilities
- Mental and physical pain and suffering
Brain injury settlements are often significant because the effects you feel from brain damage are also significant.
Connect With a Personal Injury Attorney to Discuss Your Brain Injury Now
The straightest and most efficient path to the best outcome possible in your brain injury case is easy to follow when you have an experienced attorney as your guide and advocate. Brain injuries are complicated, which means the resulting claims can also be complicated. Connect with a brain injury attorney today to explore the options available to you for compensation. While money can never turn back the clock and erase your brain damage, you can move forward with greater financial stability once you receive a settlement.
There is no time to waste discuss a possible brain injury claim with a trusted legal team today.