After minor head trauma, most car accident victims can minimize their symptoms and avoid emergency room visits. They are often diagnosed with mild traumatic brain injuries, don't lose consciousness, and believe that they don't require advanced treatment or testing. However, this could be a mistake.
Even mild brain trauma could result in potentially life-threatening complications. It might not start out as a severe TBI, but the progression of the symptoms can make things worse.
Medical professionals often deem symptoms of a brain bleed as mild, but they can still have lasting and serious complications. If a victim is diagnosed with a TBI, they should seek immediate medical attention and then watch for other complications, symptoms, and lingering effects.
Intracranial hematomas, such as bleeding or brain bruising, could happen after the victim hits the head. The force and impact can rupture the brain's blood vessels, which causes blood to go into the intracranial space. With nowhere else to go, it compresses the brain and kills brain cells by cutting off the blood-oxygen supply. Patients could have internal brain bleeding without a skull fracture, lost consciousness, or external injuries.
Overall, it's crucial to recognize the signs and symptoms of brain bleeding and contact a personal injury attorney to help with the sudden loss experienced from such a traumatic event.
Common Events that Lead to Brain Bleed (Traumatic Brain Injury)
A blow to the head can happen at any time. Most patients experience head trauma after a fall, motor vehicle accident, or recreational sports events. It's crucial to recognize the common events that trigger a brain injury to help everyone identify them. Brain bleeds from any of the incidents listed below could mean the victim has the legal right to request financial compensation from liable insurers and negligent parties.
Falls
Falls contribute to about half of the traumatic brain injuries within the United States and are the cause of head trauma for 80 percent of Americans over age 65. Children also experience such head injuries more often than others. Common falls that lead to brain bleeds include:
Slipping from rooftops
Falls from scaffolding and ladders
Falling from swings and playgrounds
Falls down the stairs
Tripping over debris and toys
Falls and slips at nursing homes
Tripping on walkway or sidewalk defects
Sometimes, people can suffer from a secondary brain injury after a fall. Anytime a person hits their head, they could lose consciousness and have a secondary impact. Those traumas could combine to cause brain hemorrhages.
Some people don't realize they've suffered the second trauma after their initial impact. Falls often happen to vulnerable people, such as children and senior citizens, because of poor property management or negligent supervision. Therefore, a brain injury attorney could help caretakers and parents hold schools, nurses, and care facilities accountable.
Motor Vehicle Accidents
Typically, serious head injuries happen after truck and car accidents. From head-on collisions to pedestrian impacts, crashes can result in brain bleeds.
They can happen after a passenger's head directly impacts the dashboard, windshield, or headrest after the airbag deploys. However, traumatic brain injuries from car accidents often occur from the force of the crash.
Seatbelts are designed to save lives because the wearer's forward momentum is stopped after a car accident. However, the crash force could throw the person's head forward before the belt snaps it back, causing their brain to internally impact the skull. This often causes skull fractures and brain contusions. Such injuries don't manifest as outward trauma, such as a bump or bruise. It happens inside.
Those involved in a high-speed or direct-impact car accident should seek medical care immediately for any trauma, even if they don't experience external symptoms. This might require emergency treatment and hospital admission, but an attorney can help the victim recover those damages from negligent drivers and motor vehicle insurers. The victim should focus on the prevention of more serious injuries and deal with the reimbursement and cost later.
Recreational Sports
Cyclists, equestrians, boxers, and football players commonly suffer from head trauma. Even with a helmet, head impacts can propel the brain into the skull. Such trauma can trigger a brain injury that causes internal damage or swelling. If a person has sports injuries after an accident, such as getting struck by a ball or puck, they should watch for internal bleeding, epidural hematoma, and intracranial hematoma.
Assaults
Child abuse and domestic violence could lead to a brain injury. Thrown objects and blows to the head could cause bleeding and brain bruising. Young children can't explain their symptoms, and parents could miss the signs of brain trauma if they aren't careful.
Survivors of a gunshot wound, street assault, domestic violence, and violent shaking should demand compensation for the trauma. Brain injury attorneys could help recover money from the abuser and property insurer.
Construction and Striking Accidents
Flying roadway debris, falling materials at construction sites, and household accidents could contribute to a brain injury. Victims could seek compensation from liable state entities, worker's compensation insurers, and property owners. With that, they may recover damages from distributors and designers of dangerous products that caused the trauma.
Even without losing consciousness, it's best to get medical help after such trauma. Minor bumps could lead to invisible brain bleeds that develop into a hemorrhage and cause permanent brain damage. An attorney could recover medical damages, such as medical monitoring and more.
Recognizing the Symptoms of Traumatic Brain Injuries
Most people easily miss brain bleeds from moderate or mild brain trauma after a car accident. After getting diagnosed with a concussion or a bump on the head, patients assume they can make a full recovery. Therefore, they mistake mild traumatic brain injury symptoms for post-concussion symptoms. They can include:
No loss of consciousness, or it only lasts about a minute
Immediate confusion and dizziness
light and sound sensitivity
Severe headache
Nausea and vomiting
Fatigue
Temporary anxiety and depression
Though the brain injury symptoms for a mild TBI are different than a severe TBI, people may also experience brain tissue swelling and changes to their sleep patterns.
Recognizing and Understanding Contusions and Brain Bleeding
A brain hemorrhage (bleeding) after a car accident isn't uncommon. Intracranial bleeding happens between the brain layers, skull and brain, or between the membranes and brain. Initial trauma irritates or damages the blood vessels in the brain, which causes swelling (edema). That could compress or damage other blood vessels, resulting in a diffuse axonal injury.
The blood might pool into hematomas, which reduces blood flow and kills brain tissue. Worsening symptoms can lead to strokes, where the bleeding involves a blockage of the major brain artery.
Patients can develop the symptoms of a brain bleed suddenly. They often include:
Painful and sudden headaches
Weakness, tingling, or numbness in the legs and arms
Trouble swallowing
Loss of consciousness
Seizures or hand tremors
Loss of balance and coordination
Inability to speak, write, read, or communicate effectively
General lack of awareness
Nausea and vomiting
Most brain injuries immediately cause swelling and trauma, so the TBI symptoms overlap with brain bleeding. TBIs that might be mild result in a slower bleed that increases the pressure with time. If the patient goes home and the symptoms worsen suddenly, they could be experiencing a traumatic stroke. Painful and sharp headaches with confusion are the first signs of a brain bleed. However, those symptoms also depend on the location of the bleeding.
Victims that suffered from brain trauma and symptoms that get worse could have a claim. Personal injury cases like this aren't easy to prove, so it's best to work with car accident lawyers.
Diagnosis and Treatment of Brain Bleed from Car Accidents
Sometimes, doctors miss internal brain bleeds after a car crash. Brain swelling could impact the diagnostic tests, but medical professionals might not perform the right testing. Open-head injuries are emergencies and require immediate medical care. Doctors often find a severe brain injury with an MRA, MRI, or CT scan. However, they could also lead to optic nerve swelling, so doctors may perform an eye exam.
It's best to tell the doctor about recent head trauma, even if it seems minor.
Treating a brain hemorrhage depends on how severe it is and the medical resources available. Sometimes, patients need emergency surgery to reduce pressure on the brain so that it can swell and cauterize those broken blood vessels.
Quick intervention during a stroke can reduce the risk of irreversible brain damage or even death. If the patient immediately recognizes the signs of a stroke, doctors can prescribe appropriate drugs to break up a blood clot.
Depending on where the brain bleed is, doctors could remove the hematoma through endovascular procedures. Special stroke and injury centers might insert tubes into the major arteries and guide the repair device to the bleeding. Such coils often stop major bleeding and prevent future issues by repairing blood vessel damage.
In a mild case, doctors could treat the problem with medicine. Steroids might reduce the swelling and allow the natural healing process to occur. Some patients take anti-seizure medication or pain medicine to control the symptoms.
Regardless, immediate treatment could mean the difference between serious disability, death, or a full recovery. Brain cells start dying in four minutes if they lose their oxygen supply. Therefore, doctors must work fast to restore the blood supply and prevent swelling so that the patient has a chance for recovery.
Recovering Compensation for a Traumatic Brain Injury
Victims diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury could develop long-term disabilities. They could have emotional, physical, and cognitive conditions that impact their careers and lives, depending on the area damaged.
This can include:
Change in mental status (anxiety, depression)
Difficulty focusing while at work
Mood swings
Personality changes
Memory loss
Vision and sensory problems
Loss of fine motor skills
Speech difficulties
Seizures
Neurological damage
Movement challenges
Most patients need extensive physical and cognitive therapy after severe brain bleeds. The recovery process often requires a physical therapist and a mental health counselor. Some people might require nursing care, occupational therapy, and medications.
Overall, they may not be able to perform their work functions, enjoy activities, or take on household chores after a car crash.
Those factors add to the stress and financial difficulty the victim experiences. It's best to work with personal injury attorneys who understand what a brain injury is and what it can do to the victim. That way, they don't have to worry about future medical bills, have a good attorney-client relationship, and can get restitution from the at-fault driver.
After a brain bleed, claimants could recover money for:
Necessary home and workplace modifications
Cognitive, physical, or occupational therapy
Medications
Medical equipment
Household help
In-patient or home nursing care
Surgical and hospital bills
Lost workplace benefits (retirement and insurance)
Lost wages
While compensation can reduce the financial stress on the victim, they may also suffer from non-economic impact. These losses include the loss of enjoyment in life, depression, frustration, anger, and mental anguish. Therefore, attorneys can help victims recover non-economic damages so that people can rebuild their personal and social lives after such a traumatic experience.
Benefits of Retaining a Lawyer for Brain Injuries
After suffering a head injury to the brain, it's crucial to speak with an experienced car accident attorney from the Keating Law Firm.
A severe head injury often requires a long recovery period, so that should be the first focus. Afterward, they may want to think about how such an injury affected them and their families.
Being in a car accident is scary and can lead to widespread injury throughout the body. However, a severe injury to the brain is something that can do serious damage for the rest of the person's life.
The goal is to relieve pressure and protect the internal tissue as much as possible. However, a brain bleed injury requires a head injury attorney to assist in recovering damages. Without private counsel, it's unlikely to recover a fair compensation amount. Insurance companies want to pay the lowest cost possible. It's better to work with a personal injury lawyer. Please call the Keating Law Firm for a free consultation.
After minor head trauma, most car accident victims can minimize their symptoms and avoid emergency room visits. They are often diagnosed with mild traumatic brain injuries, don't lose consciousness, and believe that they don't require advanced treatment or testing. However, this could be a mistake.
Even mild brain trauma could result in potentially life-threatening complications. It might not start out as a severe TBI, but the progression of the symptoms can make things worse.
Medical professionals often deem symptoms of a brain bleed as mild, but they can still have lasting and serious complications. If a victim is diagnosed with a TBI, they should seek immediate medical attention and then watch for other complications, symptoms, and lingering effects.
Intracranial hematomas, such as bleeding or brain bruising, could happen after the victim hits the head. The force and impact can rupture the brain's blood vessels, which causes blood to go into the intracranial space. With nowhere else to go, it compresses the brain and kills brain cells by cutting off the blood-oxygen supply. Patients could have internal brain bleeding without a skull fracture, lost consciousness, or external injuries.
Overall, it's crucial to recognize the signs and symptoms of brain bleeding and contact a personal injury attorney to help with the sudden loss experienced from such a traumatic event.
Common Events that Lead to Brain Bleed (Traumatic Brain Injury)
A blow to the head can happen at any time. Most patients experience head trauma after a fall, motor vehicle accident, or recreational sports events. It's crucial to recognize the common events that trigger a brain injury to help everyone identify them. Brain bleeds from any of the incidents listed below could mean the victim has the legal right to request financial compensation from liable insurers and negligent parties.
Falls
Falls contribute to about half of the traumatic brain injuries within the United States and are the cause of head trauma for 80 percent of Americans over age 65. Children also experience such head injuries more often than others. Common falls that lead to brain bleeds include:
Slipping from rooftops
Falls from scaffolding and ladders
Falling from swings and playgrounds
Falls down the stairs
Tripping over debris and toys
Falls and slips at nursing homes
Tripping on walkway or sidewalk defects
Sometimes, people can suffer from a secondary brain injury after a fall. Anytime a person hits their head, they could lose consciousness and have a secondary impact. Those traumas could combine to cause brain hemorrhages.
Some people don't realize they've suffered the second trauma after their initial impact. Falls often happen to vulnerable people, such as children and senior citizens, because of poor property management or negligent supervision. Therefore, a brain injury attorney could help caretakers and parents hold schools, nurses, and care facilities accountable.
Motor Vehicle Accidents
Typically, serious head injuries happen after truck and car accidents. From head-on collisions to pedestrian impacts, crashes can result in brain bleeds.
They can happen after a passenger's head directly impacts the dashboard, windshield, or headrest after the airbag deploys. However, traumatic brain injuries from car accidents often occur from the force of the crash.
Seatbelts are designed to save lives because the wearer's forward momentum is stopped after a car accident. However, the crash force could throw the person's head forward before the belt snaps it back, causing their brain to internally impact the skull. This often causes skull fractures and brain contusions. Such injuries don't manifest as outward trauma, such as a bump or bruise. It happens inside.
Those involved in a high-speed or direct-impact car accident should seek medical care immediately for any trauma, even if they don't experience external symptoms. This might require emergency treatment and hospital admission, but an attorney can help the victim recover those damages from negligent drivers and motor vehicle insurers. The victim should focus on the prevention of more serious injuries and deal with the reimbursement and cost later.
Recreational Sports
Cyclists, equestrians, boxers, and football players commonly suffer from head trauma. Even with a helmet, head impacts can propel the brain into the skull. Such trauma can trigger a brain injury that causes internal damage or swelling. If a person has sports injuries after an accident, such as getting struck by a ball or puck, they should watch for internal bleeding, epidural hematoma, and intracranial hematoma.
Assaults
Child abuse and domestic violence could lead to a brain injury. Thrown objects and blows to the head could cause bleeding and brain bruising. Young children can't explain their symptoms, and parents could miss the signs of brain trauma if they aren't careful.
Survivors of a gunshot wound, street assault, domestic violence, and violent shaking should demand compensation for the trauma. Brain injury attorneys could help recover money from the abuser and property insurer.
Construction and Striking Accidents
Flying roadway debris, falling materials at construction sites, and household accidents could contribute to a brain injury. Victims could seek compensation from liable state entities, worker's compensation insurers, and property owners. With that, they may recover damages from distributors and designers of dangerous products that caused the trauma.
Even without losing consciousness, it's best to get medical help after such trauma. Minor bumps could lead to invisible brain bleeds that develop into a hemorrhage and cause permanent brain damage. An attorney could recover medical damages, such as medical monitoring and more.
Recognizing the Symptoms of Traumatic Brain Injuries
Most people easily miss brain bleeds from moderate or mild brain trauma after a car accident. After getting diagnosed with a concussion or a bump on the head, patients assume they can make a full recovery. Therefore, they mistake mild traumatic brain injury symptoms for post-concussion symptoms. They can include:
No loss of consciousness, or it only lasts about a minute
Immediate confusion and dizziness
light and sound sensitivity
Severe headache
Nausea and vomiting
Fatigue
Temporary anxiety and depression
Though the brain injury symptoms for a mild TBI are different than a severe TBI, people may also experience brain tissue swelling and changes to their sleep patterns.
Recognizing and Understanding Contusions and Brain Bleeding
A brain hemorrhage (bleeding) after a car accident isn't uncommon. Intracranial bleeding happens between the brain layers, skull and brain, or between the membranes and brain. Initial trauma irritates or damages the blood vessels in the brain, which causes swelling (edema). That could compress or damage other blood vessels, resulting in a diffuse axonal injury.
The blood might pool into hematomas, which reduces blood flow and kills brain tissue. Worsening symptoms can lead to strokes, where the bleeding involves a blockage of the major brain artery.
Patients can develop the symptoms of a brain bleed suddenly. They often include:
Painful and sudden headaches
Weakness, tingling, or numbness in the legs and arms
Trouble swallowing
Loss of consciousness
Seizures or hand tremors
Loss of balance and coordination
Inability to speak, write, read, or communicate effectively
General lack of awareness
Nausea and vomiting
Most brain injuries immediately cause swelling and trauma, so the TBI symptoms overlap with brain bleeding. TBIs that might be mild result in a slower bleed that increases the pressure with time. If the patient goes home and the symptoms worsen suddenly, they could be experiencing a traumatic stroke. Painful and sharp headaches with confusion are the first signs of a brain bleed. However, those symptoms also depend on the location of the bleeding.
Victims that suffered from brain trauma and symptoms that get worse could have a claim. Personal injury cases like this aren't easy to prove, so it's best to work with a lawyer.
Diagnosis and Treatment of Brain Bleed from Car Accidents
Sometimes, doctors miss internal brain bleeds after a car crash. Brain swelling could impact the diagnostic tests, but medical professionals might not perform the right testing. Open-head injuries are emergencies and require immediate medical care. Doctors often find a severe brain injury with an MRA, MRI, or CT scan. However, they could also lead to optic nerve swelling, so doctors may perform an eye exam.
It's best to tell the doctor about recent head trauma, even if it seems minor.
Treating a brain hemorrhage depends on how severe it is and the medical resources available. Sometimes, patients need emergency surgery to reduce pressure on the brain so that it can swell and cauterize those broken blood vessels.
Quick intervention during a stroke can reduce the risk of irreversible brain damage or even death. If the patient immediately recognizes the signs of a stroke, doctors can prescribe appropriate drugs to break up a blood clot.
Depending on where the brain bleed is, doctors could remove the hematoma through endovascular procedures. Special stroke and injury centers might insert tubes into the major arteries and guide the repair device to the bleeding. Such coils often stop major bleeding and prevent future issues by repairing blood vessel damage.
In a mild case, doctors could treat the problem with medicine. Steroids might reduce the swelling and allow the natural healing process to occur. Some patients take anti-seizure medication or pain medicine to control the symptoms.
Regardless, immediate treatment could mean the difference between serious disability, death, or a full recovery. Brain cells start dying in four minutes if they lose their oxygen supply. Therefore, doctors must work fast to restore the blood supply and prevent swelling so that the patient has a chance for recovery.
Recovering Compensation for a Traumatic Brain Injury
Victims diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury could develop long-term disabilities. They could have emotional, physical, and cognitive conditions that impact their careers and lives, depending on the area damaged.
This can include:
Change in mental status (anxiety, depression)
Difficulty focusing while at work
Mood swings
Personality changes
Memory loss
Vision and sensory problems
Loss of fine motor skills
Speech difficulties
Seizures
Neurological damage
Movement challenges
Most patients need extensive physical and cognitive therapy after severe brain bleeds. The recovery process often requires a physical therapist and a mental health counselor. Some people might require nursing care, occupational therapy, and medications.
Overall, they may not be able to perform their work functions, enjoy activities, or take on household chores after a car crash.
Those factors add to the stress and financial difficulty the victim experiences. It's best to work with personal injury attorneys who understand what a brain injury is and what it can do to the victim. That way, they don't have to worry about future medical bills, have a good attorney-client relationship, and can get restitution from the at-fault driver. This is especially the case if it's about getting an average settlement for a hit-and-run car accident.
After a brain bleed, claimants could recover money for:
Necessary home and workplace modifications
Cognitive, physical, or occupational therapy
Medications
Medical equipment
Household help
In-patient or home nursing care
Surgical and hospital bills
Lost workplace benefits (retirement and insurance)
Lost wages
While compensation can reduce the financial stress on the victim, they may also suffer from non-economic impact. These losses include the loss of enjoyment in life, depression, frustration, anger, and mental anguish. Therefore, attorneys can help victims recover non-economic damages so that people can rebuild their personal and social lives after such a traumatic experience.
Benefits of Retaining a Lawyer for Brain Injuries
After suffering a head injury to the brain, it's crucial to speak with an experienced car accident attorney from the Keating Law Firm.
A severe head injury often requires a long recovery period, so that should be the first focus. Afterward, they may want to think about how such an injury affected them and their families.
Being in a car accident is scary and can lead to widespread injury throughout the body. However, a severe injury to the brain is something that can do serious damage for the rest of the person's life.
The goal is to relieve pressure and protect the internal tissue as much as possible. However, a brain bleed injury requires a head injury attorney to assist in recovering damages. Without private counsel, it's unlikely to recover a fair compensation amount. Insurance companies want to pay the lowest cost possible. It's better to work with a personal injury lawyer. If you experience other injuries or if your back hurts after a car accident, please call the Keating Law Firm for a free consultation.