Traumatic Brain Injuries from Accidents in Florida
When you suffer a blow to your head or any kind of trauma that causes impact to your brain, it’s possible for you to suffer a traumatic brain injury or “TBI.” People usually think about concussions when they think of a traumatic brain injury. However, traumatic brain injury is a term used to describe many different types of brain injuries.
Unfortunately, brain injuries often go untreated or they are incorrectly treated because people often do not know what they’re experiencing when they are experiencing TBI symptoms. With a brain injury, it’s critical to get proper treatment as soon as possible to minimize long-term damage. Thus, a precise diagnosis soon after you suffer a TBI can be very helpful to your recovery. A proper diagnosis with proper documentation is also helpful to your Florida brain injury attorney in pursuing maximum compensation for your injuries.
To help you better understand if you or a loved one has suffered a traumatic brain injury, download our free Traumatic Brain Injury Checklist and go through it with a loved one if you can. People suffering from a TBI often cannot recognize all the symptoms that a loved one may have noticed. Thus, it's helpful to walk through the checklist with someone who is around your regularly.
The Most Common Types of Traumatic Brain Injuries in Florida Accidents
As we briefly talked about, there are many different types of head injuries and brain injuries that could be classified as a traumatic brain injury or TBI. Every TBI could be caused in a number of ways, including impact, jolting movement, or whiplash. We often see people suffering traumatic brain injuries as a result of car accidents, semi-truck accidents, slip and falls, pedestrian accidents, and motorcycle accidents. Below, we will talk more about several specific types of TBIs we see as a result of accidents in Florida.
Concussion
A concussion is often called a “mild traumatic brain injury” or MTBI. Although the name implies that a concussion is a less serious type of TBI, the symptoms often feel much worse than what a person would describe as “mild.” In other words, concussions can have devastating effects on a person’s life, and a concussion can cause lifelong complications. The permanent damage of the first concussion is compounded with each subsequent brain injury.
Closed Head Trauma
Closed head trauma can present more complex issues than other types of injuries because there may be no indication of damage on the outside of the head. Everything may look completely fine, and you may look healthy. However, hidden beneath the surface, your brain is injured and causing problems. Often times, this causes difficulty in relationships, and the injured person and that person’s loved ones may not understand what is going on. The injured person may have difficulty speaking or communicating normally, or they may have difficulty with memory and focus. As a result, a person with a closed head brain injury may lose their job or withdraw and stop socializing with friends and family.
Open Head Injury or Penetrating Injury
An open traumatic brain injury is another way to describe a skull fracture resulting from an impact to the head. Unlike a closed head injury, a penetrating head injury is usually visible because of the localized damage to the tissues around the area of impact. Thus, an open head injury often involves bruising, swelling, and bleeding. Depending on the location of the impact, an open head injury could cause a variety of problems. For example, an impact to the front of the head could cause damage to the frontal lobe, which could impair decision making and cause depression or emotional volatility. On the other hand, an impact to the back of the head may affect vision or coordination.
Brain Contusion Injuries
A brain contusion occurs when the brain is bruised due to an impact. The bruising occurs as a result of the blood vessels in the brain being crushed by the impact to the head and the bleeding inside of the brain. Not every brain contusion is severe. Some minor brain contusions can get better within a few days with proper rest and medication. However, some brain contusions can take months to heal. Furthermore, a serious brain contusion can cause permanent damage or death if swelling or bleeding is left untreated.
Coup-Contrecoup Brain Injuries
A coup-contrecoup brain injury occurs when the brain hits the skull at the point of the impact to the head and then hits the inside of the skull again when it rebounds to the opposite site. Thus, a coup-contrecoup brain injury is actually two contusion injuries that occur on opposite sides of the brain as a result of a violent impact or rapid change in momentum. This is a common brain injury in car accidents and truck accidents because the driver or passenger will often suffer head impact and whiplash. A coup-contrecoup brain injury often involves serious damage to two or more areas of the brain.
Diffuse Axonal Injury (DAI)
A diffuse axonal injury (DAI) is another type of traumatic brain injury that occurs when the axons of the brain are stretched or torn. This is often caused when the brain is rapidly shifted or jolted inside the skull. When the brain rapidly accelerates, decelerates, or rotates within the hard boundaries of the skull, it causes shearing of the axons. Because axons are responsible for communicating messages from one neuron to another neuron in another part of the brain, shearing can cause many life-altering complications, including loss of circulation to the brain and loss of brain cells. Moreover, diffuse axonal injuries usually cause coma and injury to many different parts of the brain.
Anoxic Brain Injury
An anoxic brain injury occurs when the brain is deprived of oxygen. When the brain is deprived of oxygen, brain cells die. Thus, anoxic brain injuries can cause serious and lifelong problems. Anoxic injuries are usually caused by downing or suffocation. Basically, anything that restricts oxygen could cause anoxic injury to the brain.
Schedule a FREE Consultation with a Florida Brain Injury Attorney
If you have suffered a brain injury as a result of another person’s negligence or carelessness, you may be entitled to compensation. The person that hurt you, as well as their insurance company, may be responsible for compensating you for your damages, medical bills, pain, suffering, and more.
We offer FREE legal consultations with a real attorney. At our firm, only lawyers do the consultations, not intake people or customer service reps. Once you schedule your consultation, you will get to speak with an Orlando brain injury attorney. You can count on it.
To get some guidance or learn more about what's involved with filing a brain injury claim, please don’t hesitate to contact us on our website, or you can call our Orlando, Florida personal injury law firm today at (321) 352-7588 to schedule your free consultation by phone. If you need a South Carolina personal injury lawyer, don’t hesitate to reach out to us at (843) 638-6590. We have at least one lawyer licensed in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina. So, if you’ve been injured in the Southeast, we may be able to help you. Don’t hesitate to reach out to us.
For more information on personal injury cases in general, you can download our free personal injury guide: P.I. 101: Your Quick Guide to Personal Injury Claims.