According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), traumatic brain injury is a leading cause of death and disability among children and young adults in the United States. The risk of suffering a traumatic brain injury is high among all age groups. But the risk is highest among adolescents, young adults, and persons older than 75 years. The CDC states that falls, traffic accidents, and people being beaten are some of the most common causes of traumatic brain injuries.

Often, a traumatic brain injury occurs when an external force impacts your head, causing your brain to impact your skull. The soft tissue that is your brain floats in a liquid called cerebrospinal fluid inside of your skull’s cavity, which is then surrounded by your skull (hard bone). This is all designed to protect your brain’s soft tissue from injury. A hard jolt to your head can cause your brain to hit against your skull, that hard layer of the bone, resulting in traumatic injury to your brain. This is because when your brain hits against your skull it can strain or tear your brain’s tissues, nerves, and blood vessels. This can cause a disruption in the normal functioning of your brain. The results can be catastrophic.
 

A Traumatic Brain Injury Can Be Hard to See

A traumatic brain injury is not a single event. It represents the start of a condition that often lasts a lifetime. Each year, traumatic brain injuries contribute to a large number of deaths, and in some cases permanent disability. Traumatic brain injuries range in severity from “mild” or “moderate” to “severe.”

Some people are not aware that even a seemingly little knock on their head can actually result in a traumatic brain injury. It all depends on the circumstances. You don’t have to lose consciousness to sustain a traumatic brain injury. And signs of a traumatic brain injury might not appear instantly after your accident. You may even appear and feel normal, at least for a while. But traumatic brain injuries can affect the way you think, act, and feel.

All of the effects of a traumatic brain injury can take a bit of time to fully surface in your life to where it’s noticeable to yourself or others. Sometimes, the effects don’t take long at all to start showing. And yet, at other times, the effects might show, but you and others may try to ignore it. Or, y’all may mistake the effects of your traumatic brain injury for something else completely.
 

Common Signs of Traumatic Brain Injuries

According to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, common signs of brain injuries include the following:

• Loss of consciousness
• Chronic pain
• Headaches
• Dizziness
• Fatigue
• Mood swings
• Personality changing
• Sleeping problems
• Increased anxiety and depression
• Balance problems (vertigo)
• Paralysis
• Strokes
• Blood clots
• Personality changes
• Behavioral problems
• Cranial nerve injuries
• Brain swelling
• Vomiting and nausea
• Seizures
• Ringing in your ears (tinnitus)
• Short-term or long-term memory loss
• Cognitive deficits with thinking, reasoning, concentration, and problem-solving
• Sensory problems with vision or hand and eye coordination
• Increased risk for dementia, Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease

These and other symptoms can appear in varying degrees of severity. Someone who has suffered a traumatic brain injury may be able to function at near-normal levels, may be unable to work or care for themself, or may have some level of functioning that exist somewhere between those two points.
 

Some Types of Traumatic Brain Injuries

Coup-Contrecoup Injury: In accidents involving high-speed impacts or forceful movement of the head, your brain might hit against one side of your inner skull, then the other side, causing bruises on both sides of your brain. A brain injury survivor who is diagnosed with a coup-contrecoup injury has suffered two separate areas of internal bleeding in their brain.

Penetrating Head Injury: When a foreign object hits and breaks through your skull, it can cause an open head injury in which bone fragments or projectiles penetrate your brain’s tissue. Traffic accidents cause skull fractures and penetrating head injuries. Gunshots can also cause penetrating injuries. If not fatal, penetrating injuries can damage your ability to think, cause you to lose coordination or balance, and harm your vision.

Diffuse Axonal Injury: A diffuse axonal injury is a type of TBI that involves the stretching or tearing of nerve fibers throughout your brain. It’s caused by the forceful turning of your head, which often occurs in a traffic accidents, and results in the cutting of layers of tissue in your brain.

Closed Head Injury: A closed head injury is an internal injury that can involve your brain swelling and an increase in pressure inside your skull. This can then increase the seriousness of your brain injury. It doesn’t involve penetration of your skull.
 

Receiving Treatment for Traumatic Brain Injury

Accident victims who suffer an acute and severe head injury are often left with permanent conditions. These conditions can include confusion, disorder, memory loss, disorientation, inability or reduced ability to communicate, and inability or reduced ability to function independently. Such injuries can result in you needing a lifetime of medical treatment and care. And the results of these injuries can also have a devastating impact on your family. If you or a loved one suffered a traumatic brain injury, you could face expenses that include:

• Medical and hospital bills
• Rehabilitation and therapy
• Emergency room visits
• Surgeries
• Assistive equipment, such as wheelchairs, walkers, or other devices
• Private health aides
• Residential facility or nursing home costs
• Continuing care
• Lost wages
• Loss of earning capacity, because the traumatic brain injury decreases the income that would have otherwise been brought home

Xavier Injury Law is committed to making sure that those who harmed you are held accountable for harming you. Injuries are serious. They hurt. They can make you tired, grumpy, and less interested in doing things you used to enjoy doing. They can make you upset with life and the world. Injuries can change how you live. And sometimes injuries and pain can be so bad, it makes some people start thinking about whether they want to continue living. It can change a person. It can change you. Your pain and your injuries are worth something. When you’ve been hurt, don’t settle for less than you deserve. Reach out to us now, so we can help you.