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.

The Hidden Cost of the Flu: Costly Workplace Accidents

This flu season has already claimed the lives of 20 children.  Hospitals are overcrowded with patients seeking treatment and are turning people away in droves. The media has dubbed this an epidemic, encouraging people to get vaccinated, especially if they happen to be in a high risk group.  But what of the hidden costs to business, the workplace injuries that are the result of workers who are weak, who trudge to work because they can't afford to stay home and rest?  These workers are not dying of the flu.  But they could be at risk for traumatic injuries as a result of their flu.  They could be putting other coworkers at risk for traumatic injuries as the result of careless mistakes and negligent behavior. 

Being Sick Can Cause Workplace Injuries

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that flu season costs businesses an estimated $10.4 billion in direct healthcare costs each year.  But that does not take into account lingering injuries as a result of accidents on the job.  

Workplace accidents are sometimes unavoidable realities.  Despite a worker's intention to pay attention and to carefully perform their job, sometimes accidents can happen.  When workers are sick with the flu, they can make careless mistakes because their mind and body are tired, or because they may be under the influence of a drowsy antihistamine or other medication. These accidents can cause the following injuries to workers:

• traumatic brain injury
• spinal cord injury
• back and neck injury
• knee injuries
• broken bones
• soft tissue damage
• concussions
• hearing loss
• blindness
• severed limbs
• paraplegia
• quadriplegia
• amputation
• death

According to the American Journal of Public Health, 1 in 3 American workers does not have paid sick days available.  This lack of sick days causes workers to go to work, whether they are sick, tired, stressed, and other conditions.  These people often cannot afford to take a day off because they are sick and this may cause an accident.  

If You've Suffered a Workplace Accident

All businesses are required to have Worker's Compensation insurance, which protects companies from being sued by the worker for their injuries.  Instead, the state maintains a worker's compensation fund that is intended to provide for employees' injuries. If you have suffered a workplace accident, you have rights.  And you may be able to collect compensation for your injuries.  You should seek out the advice of a skilled worker's compensation and personal injury attorney to help you navigate the complicated system of collecting worker's compensation for your injuries.  If you attempt to file the paperwork and collect on your own, there's a very real possibility that you can be denied money you desperately need for medical bills, or that you could receive pennies on the dollar for your injuries.  Call a skilled worker's compensation attorney today for the help you deserve.