BRAIN INJURY * BRAIN DAMAGE

The brain is a most magnificent body organ because it controls our bodies. While the brain is by far the most complex object on earth, it is soft and vulnerable with a consistency of firm jell-O. There are different ways that it can be injured in an accident.





Concussion is a loss of alertness from a blow to the head. A concussion injury victim may lose concentration, get confused or even become dizzy and fall.  The brain may heal from concussion on its own.  However, if the force of the blow is hard enough, or if a head is repeatedly struck (such as in the case of a boxer). There may be permanent brain damage.

Loss of Consciousness means loss of awareness, which can run from being briefly dazed to spending days in a coma.  As a general rule, the longer an accident victim is unconscious, the more serious the injury.
 
Direct Trauma could come from a force or blow that fractures or penetrates the skull. Brain swelling or edema can occur.  A skull fracture where bone is moved out of place, or displaced, can push loose bone into the brain, causing bleeding and tissue damage. Direct trauma to the brain can occur when the skull strikes the ground in a slip/trip and fall accident or strikes a steering wheel in an auto accident.  

Even if the skull holds its shape, the forces unleashed upon the brain can cause it to bounce against the inside of the skull – which is bone. The brain being soft, this bouncing around inside the skull the brain to bruise (contusion) or bleed (hemorrhage).  Bleeding can result in a blood build up or blood clot, which can be life-threatening, because there is no room for this extra blood. The skull, being bone, does not expand. So the blood will press on softer things – like brain tissue. Brain tissue is very delicate and will stop working properly or may even die off. With large amounts of bleeding in the brain, the pressure will make critical areas of the brain stop working.

To see a professional medical drawing prepared for one of my clients showing his worsening brain clot from a car accident, click the link.  There is also a drawing depicting the surgical procedure to relieve the blood clot in that client’s brain.

The dangers posed by brain bleeding are the same in the case of brain swelling (edema).  There is no room fo brain tissue to expand, it can push against the skull and start to die off.

Indirect Trauma can cause injury without a direct low to the head.  An example from the news is a form of child abuse known as Shaken Baby Syndrome.  Severe shaking stretches and damages delicate nerve cells in the brain, causing severe injury or even death. In adults, severe whiplash injury can involve severe forces that may shake or rotate the brain enough to cause permanent brain damage.

Oxygen Deprivation or Toxic Fumes

Interruption of the brain’s oxygen supply (hypoxia) can happen during a heart attack or where breathing is interrupted. Construction workers exposed to chemicals at the job site (such as lead, benzene, toluene, carbon monoxide, and others) may also suffer brain damage, depending on the level and length of time of exposure.

Persons suffering a brain injury may suffer from:

• Post Concussion Syndrome (PCS), the symptoms that may follow a concussion are known as and include dizziness, nausea, disorientation, vomiting, forgetfulness, irritability, depression, headache, mood swings and insomnia.


• Amnesia – loss of memory for events prior to the injury (retrograde amnesia) and events following the injury (anterograde amnesia) may occur after a head injury. In general, a patient with longer periods of post traumatic amnesia tends to have more of a severe injury.


• Seizure - brain nerve cells firing out of control equals a seizure.  A "grand mal" seizure occurs when all the brain’s nerve cells rapidly fire. The resulting brain-chaos causes the patient to lose consciousness, fall down, and convulse. Smaller seizures may come from specific parts of the brain and only affect the part of the body controlled by that area of the brain.

Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) may be diagnosed when a sudden injury damages the brain. Head injury usually refers to TBI, but is a broader category because it can involve damage to structures other than the brain, such as the scalp and skull. TBI can come from a car accident where a head strikes a mirror, steering wheel, windshield, side column or even the head of another occupant of the vehicle.  Other times a falling object may strike the head, for example in a construction accident if a worker is not wearing a safety helmet. Or a person may go down in a slip/trip and fall accident, and strike their head.

Annually, more than 1.5 million people suffer TBI. TBI is a contributing factor in almost ⅓ of all injury-related deaths in the United States.  About 75% of TBIs that occur each year are concussions or other forms of mild TBI.

Symptoms of a TBI can be mild, moderate, or severe, depending on the extent of the damage to the brain. An accident victim with mild TBI may remain conscious or may experience a short period of unconsciousness. He or she may have headaches, dizziness, behavior or mood changes, and difficulty concentrating and with memory.

A person with severe TBI may show, in addition to the symptoms of mild TBI, persistent, disabling headaches, repeat vomiting or nausea, convulsions or seizures, difficulty waking up, pupil dilation, slurred speech, numbness or weakness in the arms or legs, and increased confusion, restlessness, or agitation.

TBI can be hard to diagnose. An accident victim may walk away from a head bump feeling fine, or with just a slight headache, and suddenly and shortly thereafter die. Cases in point are former Congressman and musician Sonny Bono (of Sonny & Cher fame) who died on January 5, 1998. He struck a tree while skiing in Nevada, and hit his head. He died instantly of massive brain injuries. Actress Natasha Richardson, just 45 years-old, suffered a small tumble on a ski slope in Quebec. Like Sonny Bono she was not wearing a helmet and she hit her head. She suffered no immediate symptoms, yet some four hours later her condition worsened and she died shortly afterwards.  See my blog post for a more in-depth discussion of the hidden dangers of TBI.

Treatment of TBI?

Anyone who has suffered a head injury and has symptoms of TBI should get emergency
medical care right away.

Because little can be done to reverse the initial TBI damage, medical personnel try to stabilize an individual with TBI and focus on preventing further injury. Primary medical concerns include insuring proper oxygen supply to the brain and the rest of the body, maintaining adequate blood flow, and controlling blood pressure.

After the emergency has passed, an experienced brain injury lawyer can make suggestions to help guide the client’s treatment and solidify the TBI diagnosis, while documenting the severity of the injury.  For example, many of my clients have had success from testing and treatment by a neuropsychologist, who specializing in non-invasive testing to measure brain function and the deficits that my client may be suffering from.

This kind of power-lawyering can go a long way to obtaining my client just and fair compensation if he or she can no longer work – especially since TBI can be difficult to prove objectively.

For your serious personal injury, you need legal representation from a qualified personal injury attorney.  Contact us for your free consultation.

Law Offices of Gary E. Rosenberg, P.C.

(718) 520-8787