Car collisions are one of the most frequent causes of traumatic brain injuries. These wounds can range in severity from a mild concussion to a devastating, even fatal injury. The way that a traumatic brain injury impacts your life will depend on multiple factors.
You want to talk to a Chicago personal injury attorney if you or a loved one suffered a head injury in a motor vehicle crash. Let’s spend a little time understanding the effects of traumatic brain injuries from car accidents.
An Overview of Traumatic Brain Injury
The Mayo Clinic says that a blow to the head can cause traumatic brain injury. The injury can be temporary, with the patient achieving a full recovery over time. More severe wounds can involve permanent tissue damage to the brain, with bleeding, bruising, and other consequences.
Symptoms of a Mild TBI
Symptoms can appear immediately at the scene of a collision or could take days or weeks to develop. People with mild traumatic brain injury (TBI) could experience any combination of these symptoms:
- Headache
- Loss of balance
- Difficulty speaking or enunciating
- Nausea or vomiting
- Drowsiness
- Brief loss of consciousness
- Intolerance of sound or light
Symptoms of a Severe TBI
More severe TBI can result in:
- A longer interval of being unconscious, lasting several minutes or hours
- More severe headache
- Continued nausea and ongoing vomiting
- Changes in the pupils of the eyes
- Seizures
- Slurred speech
- Coma
Children with head trauma will often have similar symptoms but have difficulty expressing what they are experiencing. If you suspect head trauma in an adult or child, you will want to seek emergency medical care. Bleeding could be going on in the brain, causing damage to tissue.
Factors That Can Impact the Effect of a TBI on Your Life After a Car Crash
Some of the factors that can make a difference in how a TBI affects your life include:
- The speed and velocity of the vehicles involved in the collision
- The force of the jolt to the head
- Whether the patient had previous head injuries
- Whether the patient has a bleeding disorder or takes a medication that could result in more bleeding than usual
- How quickly the patient received professional medical attention
- Complications from the head injury or other injuries the patient sustained in the accident
These are but a few of the things that can increase or decrease the severity of the patient’s experience in the short-term and long-term.
Complications of a TBI from a Collision
A person can develop these complications after a traumatic brain injury:
- Altered state of consciousness, including coma, vegetative state, minimally conscious state, or brain death. Coma and minimally conscious state are usually temporary conditions, lasting a few days or weeks. A vegetative state can be a permanent or transitional state.
- Physical complications can include seizures that can go on over a period of many years. Hydrocephalus, which is a buildup of fluid in the brain, can cause swelling that can damage brain tissue. Many people experience headaches for months or longer. People who experience penetrating wounds or skull fractures can develop infections from bacteria entering the brain.
- Damage to the cranial nerves can cause loss of sight or hearing, double vision, ringing in the ears, facial paralysis, dizziness, and changes to the sense of smell or taste.
- After a TBI, some people struggle with memory, planning, learning, and other intellectual functions. Also, a person can experience communication, behavioral, personality, emotional, and sensory challenges.
Contact Our Chicago Attorneys to Discuss Your Personal Injury Claim
The Chicago personal injury attorneys of Hale & Monico can help you go after compensation for your wounds and losses if you suffered a TBI from a car accident. Contact our office today for legal help, we gladly offer a free consultation.