Your morning commute almost turns deadly when another driver runs the red light and slams into you at nearly 60 miles per hour. You don’t see it coming. You don’t even remember it after the fact.
Fortunately for you, emergency crews cut your seat belt, get you out of the wreckage of your motor vehicle, and rush you to the hospital. Medical professionals give you immediate medical care and extensive medical treatment. They save your life. You only remember bits and pieces from when you had a loss of consciousness of the process, but you know what they did for you.
The tragic downside is that your brain injury is serious, despite being considered one of the common car accident injuries. They warn you that you may never fully recover. You’re lucky to be alive. The car crash caused severe injuries in the form of a head injury known as a traumatic brain injury (TBI).
You are aware that head trauma like this could still change your life. You know personal injury of this nature can reduce brain function, affect brain cells, require years of ongoing medical attention and that the severe TBI from your auto accident could affect parts of the brain causing memory loss and more.
It will never again be the same as it was a few seconds before you drove into that fateful intersection. Beyond the medical bills, hospitalization and ongoing medical care, how you and your family members will deal with this traumatic brain injury (TBI) will affect the rest of your lives.
While having a healthcare professional such as a neurologist perform x-rays, Computer Tomography (CT scans), Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and other tests during hospitalization, there are symptoms you can watch out for to determine if you or a loved one has suffered a brain injury.
What types of symptoms and changes might you experience from a head injury like a traumatic brain injury (TBI)?
Changes to the Senses
Brain damage can impact your major senses, such as sight, hearing and even taste. These senses can be altered or lost completely. For instance, this impairment may cause you to have blurry vision or find yourself unable to see at all. It could clear up with treatment and recovery, as your brain heals, or the changes could last forever from the TBI. When the brain is damaged, and axons, which connect nerve fibers in the brain, become damaged then signals can not find the right path. This can happen from violent shaking, or even the brain rotating during a skull fracture under extreme external forces, potentially leading to an internal hemorrhage.
The Loss of Abilities
You could also lose some of your learned abilities, even if they seem like basic abilities that you take for granted, depending on what areas of the brain were affected by the traumatic brain injury. For example, some people struggle with their balance and find it hard to walk. They certainly cannot run or participate in other complex activities. Others have trouble speaking. They may not be able to find the right words or they may not be able to speak at all. Reduced brain function in these areas may or may not return, and further life threatening conditions such a hematoma (blood clot) may occur.
Cognitive Problems
As you probably expect when you hear about brain injuries, it is a common cause for memory loss, and you may struggle with cognitive problems in the wake of the crash from the violent shaking experienced. Your brain just does not work as smoothly as it did before. For instance, you could have trouble problem-solving or making decisions. Things that were easy to you before are now complex and difficult to grasp. You feel like your abilities have regressed. These come from as little as a mild concussion or from a severe TBI. This can also lead to someone slipping into a coma, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) rates on the Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS).
Mood Changes
One thing that many neurologists, neuropsychologists and caregivers note is that people’s moods and even their personalities tend to change after traumatic brain injuries. You could go through mood swings that keep everyone else on edge. Simple things could make you far more angry than they should. Your fundamental personality — just the way you handle yourself and interact with others — may be so different that family members feel like they don’t even know you anymore.
When is Legal Help Necessary?
Living with catastrophic injuries is not easy. After an accident, make sure you know what rights you may have to financial compensation.
The injury attorneys at Townsend Law have been fighting for serious injury victims for years, and have experience in traumatic brain injury cases.
Call today for a free case evaluation and let our personal injury lawyers help you and your family.