Accidents Could Cause Brain Injuries

One of the most fragile parts of our body is the human brain.  Despite a sense of extreme resilience, a traumatic brain injury can be quite damaging.  According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, over 1.7 million Americans suffer from a traumatic brain injury every year.  Of these people who have suffered a brain injury, they are caused by the following sources:

• Slip and fall 35.2%
• Traffic accidents 17.3%
• Struck by an object 16.5%
• Assault and battery 10%

As these figures suggest, traumatic events such as accidents can leave lasting impressions on a person, notably in the form of a traumatic brain injury. Because no two brain injuries are alike, the symptoms and varied trauma could produce very different consequences for accident victims.

Symptoms of Brain Injury

Brain injuries fall into a sliding scale of physical and physiological effects.  Depending on the severity of symptoms, a brain injury could be classified as mild, moderate, or severe.  A traumatic brain injury, for example, is severe.  If you have suffered an accident, you could be experiencing signs of brain injury which could include: 

• loss of consciousness
• loss of motor skills
• headache
• concentration or memory difficulties
• nausea or vomiting
• slurred speech
• numbness in your extremities
• seizures, convulsions
• fluids draining from your nose or ears (clear fluids which could be mistaken for a runny nose)

Accident victims should take special care to see a doctor immediately after an accident.  If you have experienced these symptoms, you could have suffered a brain injury, which would require medical treatment. Following a diagnosis of brain injury, you should contact a skilled personal injury attorney in order to recover the damages you need to pay your medical bills. When you contact a personal injury attorney, they can help you to recover monetary compensation to help you. 

Hope for Brain Injuries

Following a car accident, a brain injury, and especially a traumatic brain injury, can seem like a grim sentence.  How does one put their life back together when they have limited use of their body as a result of a brain injury? Or how do you go on with your life with diminished brain capacity?  Brain injuries like this can be extremely frightening, but there is hope.

One center, Brain Rehabilitation and Injury Network in Cypress, Ca, seeks to reach out to patients with brain injuries to help them to move on and live a more normal life.  One such service the network offers is a cooking class with Colt, a man who has similarly suffered a tragic brain injury.

Colt suffered a car accident, a former high school athlete whose traumatic accident caused his sports trophy to fly into the back of his head, causing a severe brain injury.  Colt has only limited use of the left side of his body as a result.  But cooking with others who have similarly been injured has been some of the best rehabilitation that Colt has ever experienced.

Brain Injuries Can Be Tragic Consequences of an Accident

The reality is that your brain is shielded by very little in your skull. In a severe car accident, there is significant risk that your brain could get knocked around inside your skull.  When this happens, your brain could be injured severely. In such instances, brain injuries could cause a number of consequences including:

• diminished motor skills
• difficulty speaking
• loss of memory
• loss of use of an entire side of your body
• inability to regulate body temperature, to hold one's bowels, etc...
• loss of sense of touch, taste, smell
• difficulty breathing 
• difficulty understanding language
• loss of awareness of big picture/ visionary thinking
• impaired cognitive functions

Brain injuries can be quite severe and living with a brain injury could mean years of potential medical care.  Over time, these costs could add up. If you've suffered a brain injury, you should call a skilled personal injury attorney today in order to gain the compensation you need to pay your medical bills and put your life back together.

New Study Suggests Brain Damage and Aggression are Result of Traumatic Brain Injury

If you follow the news lately, it seems that athletes behaving aggressively is on the rise.  Is this the case or is increased attention finally being paid to the condition these men are developing as a result of traumatic blows?

A new study has come out which may explain incidents of aggression among professional athletes and even soldiers. If the study is to be believed, successive blows to the head could cause 4 stages of brain damage which could cause both aggression and dementia.

Researchers at the Boston University School of Medicine released a study on Monday in the Journal Brain, which accounts for multiple head injuries leading to chronic traumatic encephalopathy.  Traumatic encephalopathy is as suggested, a degenerative disease characterized by a progression of dementia brought about by head injuries and concussions.  Even mild injuries could add up over time and cause serious changes to the brain.

4 Stages of Brain Degeneration

As research into the condition of traumatic encephalopathy deepens, an interesting and frightening pattern emerges that explains the brain's degeneration.

• Step 1: headaches and inattention, hard to focus
• Step 2: depression, anger issues and seemingly inappropriate outbursts, brief periods of memory loss
• Step 3: impairment of the brain's cognitive functions
• Step 4: difficulty to form words and find the words to use in speech, dementia, aggressive behavior

These degenerative stages are reportedly the effect of mild to medium concussions and blows to the head which can damage the brain over time.  For this reason, the NFL has changed its guidelines, banning helmet to helmet hits, and many school districts have new limits on the number of hits students may endure in practice and game play.

Many Athletes are Suffering

Over the past few years, a lot of press has come out about athletes who have become ill with degenerative brain problems.  Believe it or not, this is not only the result of a personal injury, but it is the result of repeated injuries on the job.  And yet the NFL seems to offer little in the way of helping these injured athletes long term care.  Perhaps with more studies like this, injured athletes can come forward and get the help that they need. If you have suffered this degenerative brain condition, please seek medical help.  And please also seek out a talented attorney who can help you gain the help you need.

Traumatic Brain Injury

Traumatic Brain Injury: The Silent Epidemic

For years, traumatic brain injury was known as the “silent epidemic” because injuries often went untreated or ignored. Though patients often complained of memory loss or gradual decline of mental abilities, accident victims were ignored or sidelined.

Many victims went uncompensated and suffered tragic impairments from accidents that could have been prevented.

However, as more research developed, victims who have suffered brain injury have acquired a voice in legal proceedings. Research revealed how an acquired brain injury can affect an accident survivor. In recent years, the need for attorneys with experience in brain injury has grown tremendously.

What is an acquired brain injury?

Brain injuries are caused by trauma, neurotoxins, vascular disorder or anoxia. These injuries can happen due to a number of reasons, most of them involving accidents. For example, potential victims can acquire damage to their brain through:

• Automobile, truck, bus, motorcycle, and other vehicle accidents
• Sports accident
• Work-related injury
• Violence
• Crime

Closed head injuries

Brain damage is classified under two different types: Primary damage and secondary damage.

Primary damage is a brain injury that results directly from the force of the trauma.

Secondary damage is injury caused by other factors, like increased pressure within the skull or reduced blood flow to the brain.

In a closed head injury, the brain is damaged without penetration or breech of the skull.

Most head injuries occur when the victim is involved in rapid acceleration such as when a car rapidly accelerates and then stops after striking an object or another vehicle.

Symptoms of brain damage

Brain damage can affect your way of living permanently and catastrophically. The symptoms that occur can be life-altering and it is best to seek medical attention and legal advice immediately after a brain damaging accident. 

Some symptoms you can look out for that will tell you whether or not you have brain damage are:

• Loss of consciousness
• Loss of memory immediately before or after the accident
• Alteration in mental state
• Loss of ability to focus

It is essential that you get immediate help if you suspect damage to your brain. Get medical attention as soon as possible.

If you think you are eligible to file a claim for your brain damage, do so as soon as possible. Many deadlines are involved in claiming compensation for injuries after an accident. Speaking to an attorney about your injury is something you must do as soon as possible after an accident so that you can receive full compensation for your injuries.