Unlike mild brain injuries that may only have temporary effects, traumatic ones often permanently affect the brain. From bruising and bleeding to torn tissues, such injuries may not seem like much at first, causing little to no symptoms, but eventually, they can lead to complications impacting one’s way of life or leading to death. Calling a brain injury attorney immediately after an accident can help. A brain injury lawyer at Esquire Law will help you seek compensation, especially if the incident wasn’t your fault. They’ll want to know more about the accident and collect all relevant information for insurance companies. However, the first step in handling a serious brain injury is recognizing that you have one by understanding the signs.
9 Indicators of a Traumatic Brain Injury
While most physical injuries tend to manifest immediately or soon after an accident, TBI symptoms like cognitive or emotional changes could take weeks, months, or years to appear. Those with mild TBIs and no serious physical injuries may not realize they have a brain injury at first, which is why you should always seek medical attention, whether you feel hurt or not. Below are the most common signs to watch out for.
1. Unconsciousness
According to the National Library of Medicine, when external forces like whiplash from a car accident or a blow to the head during a fight cause brain tissues to undergo stress, depolarization occurs in the nerve cells. This process lowers their negative charge, reducing stored energy and lowering the cells’ ability to function. In turn, constant fainting occurs, so you should talk to your doctor if you are experiencing this symptom.
2. Confusion/Agitation
About 30% of traumatic brain injury survivors have difficulty recollecting pre- and post-trauma memories. The brain is now more sensitive to overstimulation, becoming easily confused when sorting through ideas and dealing with multiple stimuli. Disorientation ensues, causing irritability, from restlessness and slight tension and anxiety to intense mood swings, verbal outbursts, and aggression.
3. Difficulty Speaking/Uncoordinated
Some brain injuries jeopardize one’s ability to speak, causing communication disorders. According to BrainLine, language becomes an issue when survivors cannot
find words, leading to disjointed, incoherent sentences. They may also lose their sense of sarcasm, jokes, and metaphors, taking things too literally without realizing it.
Uncoordinated speech muscles also lead to apraxia of speech. Individuals may be able to say a certain word but find it more difficult to repeat or isolate it from a sentence. Similarly, dysarthria occurs when impaired muscles cause slow or slurred speech.
4. Experiencing Seizures
A brain injury lawyer may also point out reoccurring seizures as a common sign since the Brain Injury Association of America notes about 10% of survivors develop seizures in the first week. Early seizures happen in serious cases where the brain swells or blood collects around it. Late seizures occur in the following weeks when brain cells and the chemical environment around them change.
5. Grievous Headaches
After moderate to severe TBIs, more than 30% of individuals feel grievous, long-lasting headaches, usually resulting from blood clots or fluid collection within the skull. While these migraine, tension-type, or cervicogenic headaches can come and go for more than a year, milder TBIs originating from neck injuries or stress and tension may not linger as long.
6. Feelings of Nausea
Nausea and vomiting are two common head trauma signs, especially if the incident has affected cerebral autoregulation. This process controls blood pressure within your head and easily becomes impaired from a TBI, leading to too little or too much blood in the brain. This inevitably leads to nausea, which encourages dizziness and vomiting.
7. Dilated Pupils
Your iris muscles control pupil dilation, affecting how much light enters your eyes in different environments. After a traumatic injury that harms the brainstem, the pupils may remain dilated in all lighting conditions, meaning this reflex no longer exists.
8. Clear Fluids Running From the Nose or Ears
Cerebrospinal fluid cushions your brain, provides nutrients, and extracts toxins. Severe injuries crack or damage the skull, allowing this clear interior liquid to drain through the nose and ears. The brain may lose nutrients, resulting in cell death.
9. Hazy Vision
TBIs sometimes disrupt eye and brain communication, causing visual dysfunctions that may not be evident immediately after the accident. Usually, this results in slight eyestrain, leading to reading difficulties and light sensitivity, while other times, haziness or visual focusing issues may become more frequent.
Common Causes of How Brain Injuries Occur
Because your brain controls consciousness and the functionality of your entire body, anything from a minor to a major brain injury may have short- and long-term effects. Unfortunately, the causes of TBIs are almost as extensive as the signs and include the following:
Motor Vehicle Crashes
During a vehicle collision, the force causes the brain to hit the skull’s hard internal surface, which tears nerve tissues and damages brain structure. This is a leading cause of traumatic brain injuries. Filing a claim is the only way to hold the at-fault driver accountable.
Athletic Injuries
Contact sports are considered high-risk activities for head injuries. A violent impact while playing ice hockey or football can cause the brain to rattle inside the skull, resulting in a concussion or worse. For this reason, high schools and youth leagues don’t allow kids to participate in Arizona and Utah games without a liability release form signed by their parents.
Slip-and-Fall Mishaps
Slips and falls, whether due to wet restaurant floors, icy sidewalks outside a private property, or unsafe working conditions, can result in the head colliding with the ground and other objects. A traumatic brain injury lawyer in Arizona and Utah can help with liability cases on unmaintained properties.
Crimes of Violence
When individuals face violence during an assault, robbery, or attempted murder, victims may sustain blows to the head from blunt objects or even just the aggressor’s fists. A traumatic brain injury lawyer helps with state criminal persecution alongside the victim’s civil claims.
Brain Injuries From Medical Malpractice
Traumatic brain injuries are complex and may not reveal themselves symptomatically until much later, depending on the severity level. Any signs one does notice may be similar to those of other medical conditions and mental illnesses, leaving some medical professionals to assume there’s no brain damage or misdiagnose the cause.
The complexity of TBIs requires years of medical training, research, and analysis. The wrong assumptions lead to improper treatments that only worsen the problem.
Other Brain Injuries From Medical Malpractice
Unfortunately, even with the proper diagnosis, other medical mishaps cause traumatic brain injuries. Some may require assistance from brain damage legal counsel to hold the offending doctor accountable.
Anesthesia Mishaps
Anesthesia is crucial during invasive medical treatments. However, too much can cause anything from vomiting hours after the procedure to cognitive dysfunction and further brain injuries following the death of brain tissues. Therefore, the anesthesiologist is required to provide safe amounts.
Mistakes During Surgery
Open-head surgeries are some of the most dangerous; even the slightest surgical error could prove life-threatening. To avoid the need for a brain injury lawyer, the surgeon must carefully assess the issue, prepare for the procedure, and provide ample medication and care throughout.
Medication Errors
Anything from prescribing the wrong medications to incorrect dosages negatively impacts brain function by encouraging brain bleeds or cerebral hypoxia. The latter occurs when the brain’s cerebral hemispheres don’t receive enough oxygen or nutrients.
Possible Compensation Options for Brain Injuries
Brain injury lawyers in Phoenix, AZ, and surrounding areas fight for compensation for victims of TBIs. That’s because the at-fault party may have severely impacted the individual’s life, causing physical, mental, emotional, and financial strain. While monetary funds may not solve all issues, they compensate individuals for:
- Medical bills
- Assistance from a neurological injury lawyer
- Lost income and the inability to earn a living
- Pain and suffering
Frequently Asked Questions for Traumatic Brain Injuries
Below are some FAQs brain injury lawyers in Tucson, AZ, usually receive.
What Is a Traumatic Brain Injury?
A TBI is any injury sustained from an impact to the head and brain that affects one’s daily functioning. From sports and falling accidents to violent acts and car collisions, minor to severe TBIs may develop, resulting in disabilities or death.
What Can a Brain Injury Do to Your Life?
Brain injuries leave short- and long-term effects, from nausea and vision impairment to seizures. While customized medical treatments may help the affected individual get back to normal, they often require extra care from family members and hired aids. A cognitive impairment attorney helps seek fair compensation so the victim can have a better healing environment.
Brain Injury Attorneys and Law Services in Phoenix, Tucson, and Salt Lake City
At Esquire Law, our respected and reputable brain injury lawyers in Salt Lake City, UT, and Arizona are committed to clients when providing legal representation. We seek economic and non-economic compensation for automobile accidents, medical malpractice, slips and falls, or other cases. Call (602) 654-2950 for a brain injury attorney who stands ready to work tirelessly by your side