Do You Have a Traumatic Brain Injury?

Serious auto accidents can cause violent jolts to your body and possible blows to your head. Either of these injuries or both of these injuries combined can cause a traumatic brain injury or TBI. In its milder form, a traumatic brain injury is often overlooked and hard to diagnose. Medical professionals might attribute your symptoms to other injuries you have incurred.

Understand what TBI is, the various forms it comes in, and its long-term effects to help you know what to look for and ask your medical professionals about your recovery.

What Is a Traumatic Brain Injury?

A traumatic brain injury is a condition that disrupts the normal functioning of your brain. A severe blow or jolt to your head or body or any accident causing an intrusion into your brain tissues can be the root of a TBI.

Common causes of a TBI include:

• Falls
• Violence
• Gunshots
• Motor vehicle accidents
• Sports-related injuries
• Military-related injuries 

Approximately one million people in the United States who report to emergency rooms for TBI-related injuries receive treatment and are released. This might be a small percentage of those who suffer an injury because some people schedule a visit to their primary care physicians or choose no treatment. Almost a quarter of a million or 230,000 people go to the hospital, receive treatment, and leave.

However, some people are not as fortunate — approximately 80,000 are released with a TBI-related disability. Around 5.3 million people in the country have some TBI-related disability.

Traumatic brain injuries can also be fatal. Approximately 50,000 die annually from their TBI-related injuries.

What Are the Classifications and Symptoms of a TBI?

Currently, three primary classifications of a traumatic brain injury exist, determined by scoring using the Glascow Comma Scale (GCS). This scale measures the extent of impaired consciousness using verbal, motor, and eye-opening responses to stimuli. Scores range from 3 to 15, with three being the worst and 15 being the best.

The categories of TBI and their responding GCS scores are:

• Mild: This is a GCS score of 13–15.
• Moderate: This is a GCS score of 9–12.
• Severe: This is a GSC score of 3–8.

Other pre-existing factors, current treatments, and other injuries can also directly impact your GCS scores. Each TBI produces signs and symptoms that can appear anywhere from immediately after the accident to weeks later.

The four categories of symptoms are physical, cognitive, emotional, and behavioral. Not everyone experiences the same symptoms or combinations of symptoms.

Mild TBI

Mild TBI might include a mild concussion. Mild cases are usually not discernable on any imaging. Symptoms may include:

• Headaches
• Blurred vision
• Nausea
• Drowsiness
• Dizziness
• Speech irregularities
• Changes in smell and taste
• Confusion
• Memory problems
• Mood swings
• Anxiety

With mild TBI, you may or may not experience a loss of consciousness following your injury. You may experience several of these symptoms at once, or they may develop over time. Some people report not recognizing some cognitive or behavioral symptoms until they return to their everyday routines.

Moderate to Severe TBI

MRI or CT scans of your brain can often catch moderate to severe TBI. You usually have had some loss of consciousness and may have some amnesia of events before or directly following the accident. Symptoms include those above but may also include the following:

• Impaired thinking and learning
• Problems with balance and coordination
• Changes in emotions and moods
• Changes in personality

Moderate and severe TBI can also lead to various other chronic health problems. Approximately 12% of patients reside in a nursing home or other institution within five years of the accident.

Your serious motor vehicle accident might have caused some degree of traumatic brain injury. Any offered settlement should cover any treatment you require. Jarve Kaplan Granato Starr LLC knows how to get you the care and compensation you deserve. Give us a call today for a free consultation and review of your case.