Proving Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)
Getting the Right Tests
Unfortunately, the best personal injury attorneys are used to having to confront the difficult problem of proving the damages for clients who have suffered serious head injuries. Whether they be closed head injuries or other trauma to the brain, traumatic brain injury is often very difficult to prove.
Of course, the best injury lawyers will use every resource available to them. At the outset, if any clients who are suspected of having suffered from serious brain trauma in an accident or other incident will have CT scans (CAT scans), MRIs, and other diagnostic testing. In addition to those tests, PET scans are also utilized in trying to gather information about the brain to determine what type of impairments or deficits have been suffered by somebody with a brain injury.
What Are Signs and Symptoms of TBI?
Brain injuries do not always result from direct trauma to the head. Although many people who suffer skull fractures will be immediately looked at for potential brain injury by their physicians, many closed head injuries do not arise out of any direct blow to the head. Instead, the damage is done through the movement of the brain within the skull. There are many signs and symptoms of traumatic brain injury that can often be ignored or missed by medical providers. In fact, the fact that it is a brain injury that has been suffered will often increase the chances that there is a failure to diagnose the problem at the outset.
There are many different signs and symptoms of traumatic brain injury. These include a decrease in muscle control, difficulty speaking, difficulty swallowing, sensory loss, seizures, weakness or even paralysis. There is poor balance, problems with short term memory, and other signs and symptoms are often looked at by neuropsychologists, psychologists, vocational rehabilitation counselors, and others in helping to diagnosis and then help those who have suffered from severe brain injury as a result of an incident.
The memory loss, disorganization, or confusion are often challenges that await those who have suffered significant brain injuries. As a result, learning to communicate and work well with loved ones, family, friends, and others can be a very real challenge.
How Can an Arizona Injury Lawyer Help? Call us to Find Out
Unfortunately, many brain injuries are not readily apparent to members of a jury. Instead, except for the most severe brain injuries, many people can have their lives completely turned upside down and lose their ability to function as they once did, but from the outside there is no apparent injury. It is this fact that makes brain injury cases a bigger challenge and makes it even more important for someone who has suffered a serious brain injury or someone who has a loved one that has suffered a brain injury as a result of an accident to try to find the best possible catastrophic injury lawyer that they can find. These cases are not as straightforward as they may appear to the family members. That is because the family members lived with their loved ones both before and after the traumatic brain injury. They know, through their experiences, that the injury is real. However, the plaintiff has the burden of proof. Therefore the person that is hurt must be able to "prove" that they have suffered a brain injury even if it is not readily apparent when they are walking down the street or when they have a short 30 second conversation with somebody.