A traumatic brain injury (TBI) can significantly complicate your life and your entire family. You may no longer be able to work and support yourself and others or handle important everyday living tasks.

Although some people’s TBI problems are temporary, others must spend significant time obtaining medical treatment and rehabilitation before returning to their prior life activities. Of course, other individuals with severe injuries may need to stop working permanently and simply concentrate on learning new ways to handle their lives while mastering various coping skills.

While you and your family adjust to your new medical treatments, you’ll need a law firm to help you handle the complicated medical and insurance company paperwork that often follows a severe accident. Our firm takes pride in assisting clients to manage these needs.

When speaking with your doctors, you’ll notice that they often interchange the terms “head injuries,” “brain injuries,” and “traumatic brain injuries” (TBIs). All these terms simply refer to the physical harm your head and brain sustain when your head is struck by some type of solid force or trauma.

Doctors often classify head traumas as “open” or “closed.” An open head trauma indicates that an object like a bullet or knife pierced through the skull into the brain. In contrast, a closed head injury refers to the harm your skull and brain may sustain when something on the outside profoundly impacts your head with moderate or severe force.

A considerable percentage of people develop head injuries after being in serious car accidents. However, even violently shaking an adult or child can also cause significant head injuries. Other causes of traumatic brain injuries include:

• Falls on the job or elsewhere while handling daily tasks
• Sports-related impacts
• Physical assaults

Remember that after someone suffers a severe head jolt, he may not fully realize how important it is to see a doctor. It’s common for an injured person to still feel somewhat normal. However, it’s always best to insist that your friend or loved one see a medical doctor soon since it can take hours for some of the most critical warning signs of a brain injury to appear. Crucial physical or emotional functioning changes may be missed if the injured person is not surrounded by those who know all about his typical behavior. Also, any delay in obtaining professional treatment after a head injury can significantly increase the chances of severe complications and lower the injured person’s chances for a full recovery.

Please take the time to review the various symptoms listed below that can indicate that the injured person needs to obtain an immediate medical exam. Be sure to remind the wounded person that just being in a vehicle accident can often cause a person to suffer a bruised brain due to the sudden change in the vehicle’s speed during impact. Bleeding in the brain can start quickly – without producing clear signs of its presence.

Soon after the head injury – or later, after an hour or more – you may start noticing some milder symptoms after you or someone you’re spending time with has suffered a head injury.

• Dizziness or vertigo
• Ringing in the ears
• Nausea
• Confusion

If the head injury was quite severe or if significant time has passed since it occurred, you or the injured person may also experience one or more of the following symptoms:

• Vomiting
• Serious disorientation
• A horrible headache
• Mood changes
• Blacking out
• Problems controlling various muscles
• Difficulties with just standing or walking
• Seizures
• Problems with your vision, including unusual eye movements
• Memory loss
• Paralysis
• Death

Given the seriousness of the medical issues listed, always get help immediately if these events or experiences happen. This is especially true if you or the injured person live alone or won’t quickly obtain help if the head injury complications promptly worsen.

The following video explains how some doctors treat patients with traumatic brain injuries.

We are a long-standing member of the Brain Injury Association of America and adequately assessed and handled severe TBI cases for many years. We can thoroughly investigate your case and isolate the facts indicating that your injury was caused by another party’s intentional negligence.

Your immediate need is to obtain the medical treatment your doctors suggest while our firm acts to fully protect all your legal rights once we accept your case. You can count on us since we have extensive experience handling brain injury cases like yours.

In addition to speaking with your doctor, you may also want to do some more reading about traumatic brain injuries at one or more of the following websites:

• Brain Injury Association of America
• Brain Injury Survivors’ Perspectives

If you or someone you love has suffered a traumatic brain injury, we hope you’ll call our experienced Thousand Oaks brain injury lawyers for free, friendly advice. We can be reached at 805-372-0200 or 800.404.5400. As experienced Thousand Oaks Brain Injury lawyers, we’re ready to provide clear advice and information so you can understand all your current options for pursuing your lawsuit.

^{Editor’s Note: updated [cha 10.12.23] eBs bw [cs 890] Image by Kohji Asakawa from Pixabay}