Brain injuries resulting from either minor impacts or severe traumatic brain injuries can be life-changing. If you or a loved one has sustained a traumatic brain injury in Fort Mill, SC, you may be entitled to compensation. Contacting a brain injury lawyer is an important course of action to take to be compensated for these injuries.
What Is a Traumatic Brain Injury?
A traumatic brain injury, or TBI, is what happens when the soft tissue of the brain, which is primarily fat, nerve cells, fluid, and blood vessels, experiences a sudden impact and essentially is jostled within the protective structure of the skull.
This force can bruise the brain, and the swelling and pressure of the injury can lead to cognitive difficulties, dizziness, loss of balance, and even blacking out. The more serious the injury, the deeper the damage caused to the brain.
TBIs can include closed head injuries, where swelling within the skull continues to cause damage to the brain due to it being flooded with blood, and open injuries might mean brain matter was exposed due to severe trauma.
What Are Some Common Causes of TBIs?
People can get traumatic brain injuries in any number of ways. Here is a list of some common causes.
- Swimming/diving accidents
- Vehicle accidents
- Slip and fall injuries
- Sports injuries
- Objects falling from height
- Falling from height
What are Some Possible Symptoms of a Traumatic Brain Injury?
If you or a loved one has suffered head trauma, here are some telltale signs to watch for:
- Light sensitivity
- Loss of consciousness
- Difficulty in creating short-term memories
- Difficulty recalling or creating long-term memories
- Extreme headache
- Nausea
- Sensitivity to noise
- Vomiting
- Trouble concentrating
- Sleepiness
Brain Injury Diagnoses
There is almost no telling how severe a head injury is without sufficient testing.
The damages caused by head trauma may heal after two or three weeks, as with a concussion or more acute damage. These include a subdural hematoma or a subarachnoid hemorrhage, which result when blood vessels or arteries have been sheared off, and the resulting blood pooling in the brain, either between the dural layer and the skull or within the lobes of the sections of the brain itself creates pressure. Since there is nowhere for the blood to go, the soft tissue of the brain continues to be damaged.
This can result in coma, paralysis, permanent cognitive damage, and death. A misdiagnosed head injury thought to be mild could turn out to be something more serious, and without proper testing and imagery, what someone thought was a concussion could become a fatal aneurysm.
How Are TBIs treated?
Doctors first diagnose the type of traumatic brain injury and then treat it accordingly. The problem is usually diagnosed first with imaging equipment such as an X-ray, MRI, or CT scan to see what kind of damage has been done.
TBIs continue to cause damage due to building up pressure inside the skull, which continues to harm brain matter. To treat this, doctors surgically reduce the pressure by cutting into the brain matter and draining the blood and fluid with shunts. In other cases, anti-inflammatory medications, cold-temperature therapy, or even hyperbaric chamber therapy might be utilized, though the effectiveness of those methods is still disputed.
What are Some of the Ongoing Effects of a TBI?
As mentioned above, TBIs are serious injuries which may require extensive medical treatment, hospitalization, pain management, and can result in long-term, if not permanent, disabilities. A TBI might affect survivors’ ability to keep gainful employment and their ability to earn income or future income.
A TBI might continue to cause severe pain, such as vertigo and headaches. The hospital bills, rehabilitation costs, and extended treatment will greatly increase your cost from the outset.
It’s difficult to put a dollar amount on compensation for pain and suffering. A brain injury attorney can help you navigate this confusing and frustrating process to help you cover your damages as well as get you the compensation you deserve for such a heinous injury.
Can a TBI cause memory loss?
A TBI can greatly impact one’s cognitive function. People who have experienced TBIs might have problems creating short-term memories, which is information that is used immediately after or a short time after receiving it. They might also experience difficulty or an inability to create long-term memories.
Either way, the injury you or a loved one has sustained has robbed them of their ability to create memories as their brain has been able to do for their whole life. A brain injury attorney can help you get the compensation you need for this life-changing disability.
Contact a Fort Mill Brain Injury Attorney
Traumatic brain injuries are serious and often lead to permanent cognitive as well as physical injuries. The treatment for TBIs is long, painful, and very expensive. You should consider contacting a Fort Mill, SC, personal injury attorney if you or a loved one have been injured with a TBI.
The attorneys at Elrod Pope Law Firm can help you get the compensation you deserve to recover from these losses. Talking with an attorney about lost time at work, medical bills, and compensation for pain and suffering are all things to consider to recover damages if you or a loved one have suffered from a TBI.
Contact us today for a free consultation and take the first steps in getting your life back.
