Brain Injury
Additional Information
Legal Representation After a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)
Brain injuries change everything. Not just for you, but for the people you love and the family you need to support. If you've sustained a brain injury, you're going to need a lot of medical and legal help, and you're going to have more questions than you know what to do with.
If you suffered a brain injury due to another party’s negligence or recklessness, the injury attorneys at The Husband & Wife Law Team, can help. We are devoted to helping victims find compensation for all of their medical bills, the temporary or permanent changes to their lives, and their loss of ability to work and earn a living. If you have questions about your situation, please call The Husband & Wife Law Team of attorneys Alexis and Mark Breyer today.
What Are Brain Injuries and How Do They Happen?
Brain injuries occur when the brain is hit, shaken, or thrashed around in any type of accident. The brain is bruised, bleeding, or otherwise injured, causing the victim to act differently, lose abilities, and in extreme cases, become permanently disabled or die. Commonly known as traumatic brain injuries (TBI), they often damage the cognitive, neurologic, emotional, physical, and mental abilities of the patient.
There are two forms of TBI a victim may suffer: open head injury and closed head injury. An open head injury occurs when an object pierces the skull of a victim, entering and damaging the brain. A closed head injury is blunt force trauma to the brain, with the brain slamming against the front, back, and sides of the skull due to sudden impact.
Traumatic brain injuries (TBI) can happen any time, to anyone. As Phoenix brain injury attorneys, we are deeply concerned with the number of head injuries caused by car crashes throughout the state each year. The Arizona Governor’s Council on Spinal and Head Injuries reports that more than 50% of serious head injuries are sustained during motor vehicle accidents, followed by falls and violent acts. Statistics show that men are twice more likely to suffer head injuries than women.
How Might Someone Suffer a TBI?
According to the Arizona Department of Health Services (AZDHS), around 9,760 people are admitted to the emergency room each year for intracranial injuries. Countless more are admitted to the emergency room for TBI caused by a lack of oxygen. Some of the most common ways brain injuries happen in Arizona include:
Slip-and fall-accidents that cause the victim to hit his or her head on something hard, including a cabinet, a building, or the ground.
Car crashes that cause victims to sustain injuries via whiplash, hitting their heads on the dashboard or another part of the vehicle, or by having their heads crushed in the accident.
Swimming accidents. Slipping and falling at the pool or in the tub can cause a fracture to the skull. However, victims of drowning or near-drowning at locations with water - lakes, streams, rivers, ponds, etc. - may also sustain brain damage caused by a lack of oxygen to the brain for over 30 to 45 seconds, which is considered a significant amount of time for the brain to go without air.
Sports accidents can cause a world of hurt for victims who are hit in the head with a ball or other object, who are crushed, run into, or thrown to the ground, or who otherwise have their heads struck during the course of play.
Injuries that are inflicted on purpose during a fight or some other type of altercation, like blunt force trauma, a stab wound, or a bullet wound, can cause traumatic brain injury.
What Are Symptoms of Brain Injuries?
Because no two brain injuries are the same, they can be difficult for doctors to diagnose. If you're experiencing symptoms of a head injury, it is crucial to tell the doctor that you have hit your head. This can help your doctor determine whether you need a CT scan, ultrasound, MRI, or other test to determine if you have serious damage to your brain. Some of the most common symptoms of brain injuries include:
Mild TBI
Losing consciousness, even for just a few seconds
Disorientation or confusion after being struck in the head
Headache, dizziness, loss of balance, vomiting, or nausea
Difficulty concentrating or remembering things
Difficulty swallowing and talking
Becoming overly sensitive to light, sound, and smells
Sudden changes in mood
Problems with the senses, such as ringing in your ears, blurry vision, or a bad taste in your mouth
Changes in your sleep patterns, like sleeping too much or having an unusually difficult time going to sleep
Changes in hearing accompanied by confusion or severe headaches
Moderate TBI
Severe confusion that merits attention
Losing consciousness for more than a few minutes
Severe changes in behavior, like agitation, unusual behaviors, becoming combative, slurring speech, losing coordination, and more
Becoming weak or numb in the toes and fingers with no other cause
Headaches that will not go away
Seizures, convulsions, or shaking
Drainage from the nose or ears, especially clear liquids
Nausea and vomiting that will not cease
Coma
All additional symptoms of mild TBI
Are Symptoms Different in Children?
Remember, if your child hit his or her head and is acting strange, see a doctor right away for examination and treatment. Because children often cannot tell you what is wrong - headache, confusion, trouble breathing, or loss of hearing - it is important to watch out for the following symptoms:
Easy to irritate, crying without stopping
Change in eating habits; for babies, change in nursing habits
Inability to pay attention past the norm
Depression or being unusually sad
No longer wanting to play with toys or friends, or engage in activities
The prognosis for brain injuries depends heavily on the type and severity of injury sustained. For mild TBIs, full or near-to-full recovery with little interference is expected for the majority of victims. (However, each subsequent brain injury, no matter how small, will result in increased damage, since the brain will always be more sensitive to injuries after one has occurred.) Moderate TBIs often leave victims with both temporary injuries that last months or years, and permanent injuries that impact them forever. Severe TBIs frequently cause disabilities, coma, or death.
How Do You Recover From a Traumatic Brain Injury?
If you or someone you love has suffered a brain injury, the road to recovery will not be a short one. In fact, it will be filled with difficult days and nights over long weeks, months, and even years. For many people who suffer brain injuries, the healing process is never completed and the symptoms, pain, and suffering associated with the original injury will plague them throughout the rest of their lives.
Since brain injuries are never identical, treatment options must also be tailored to the victim who suffered the injuries. A mild concussion will receive different treatment than an intracranial hematoma, and treatments also differ for people in different age groups.
Medications. The most common medications used for brain injury treatments include diuretics, anti-seizure medications, and coma-inducing drugs; painkillers are used in very small amounts due to the risk of thinning or clotting the blood, or causing other types of bleeding injuries. These medications can be expensive, especially because insurance companies will not always cover them.
Surgery. For severe cases of brain injury, surgery may be required to remove blood clots (also called hematomas), repair skull fractures, or relieve pressure on the brain by opening the skull and draining cerebrospinal fluid or blood that has accumulated inside. Surgery has its own risks - death, permanent damage, and paralysis. This option is increasingly expensive, depending on the type of surgery necessary, and will require weeks or months of ongoing care for a complete recovery.
Rehabilitation. Rehabilitation for brain injury victims is a long, arduous, and expensive method of treatment, but is necessary for a complete recovery. Some of the most common rehabilitation services used by brain injury victims include: speech and language pathology, occupational therapy, psychology and psychiatry, recreational therapy, and vocational counseling.
When you have a traumatic brain injury (TBI), your primary treating doctor should help make calls about bringing in nurses, rehabilitation specialists, and other professionals who can help you make a complete recovery and move on with your life. You will likely have multiple doctors who make decisions about your care, treatment, surgeries, medications, and rehabilitation.
As the patient, you also have a role to play in the treatment process for your brain injury. Brain injury patients should always tell the truth about pain, suffering, numbness, and symptoms they have while in care for a brain injury. Telling the doctor you don't have a migraine when you do to avoid being poked and prodded can delay or prevent your ultimate recovery.
Who Pays for the Recovery From a Traumatic Brain Injury?
One of the biggest questions you're going to want an answer to after you or a loved one has sustained a serious brain injury is, "Who is going to pay for all of this?" If your injuries were caused by the negligent or reckless actions of another person, you have the right to seek recompense.
But when you're injured and working on your recovery, you can't build a case alone. It's also difficult to prove to a judge, a jury, or an insurance company why you need medical care and help with your expenses, especially if your injury was a closed head injury. No one can see your injuries like they can the loss of an arm. Many head injuries do not show up on an MRI, X-ray, or CT scan, and people with serious brain injuries look normal to most people around them. Insurance companies constantly try to fight brain injury cases because many times, a brain injury is not as objective as when an individual needs surgery.
Why You Need a TBI Lawyer for Your Claim
You can rely on a Phoenix brain injury attorney, like the ones at The Husband & Wife Law Team, to help the insurance companies see your injuries for what they are. With our extensive experience, the majority of our brain injury claims settle without going to court. Insurance companies know that we won’t back down, and this helps our clients get the justice they deserve - no need to face a trial!
When these cases do go to court, we also have the relevant trial experience. It is generally difficult to prove a closed-head injury in court, since most symptoms are internal. However, we know the best ways to present clear evidence to a jury and get our clients compensation, because we’ve done it hundreds of times before.
If you know someone who has a traumatic brain injury, or if you have been in an accident that caused you brain injury, please call for a free, no-obligation consultation with The Husband & Wife Law Team. We have experienced lawyers who are well-qualified to lead you through the complex legal system. We work hard to settle our clients’ cases and get them fair compensation that helps the family begin the long road to recovery.