When someone receives a head injury, it might or might not affect the brain depending on the type of injury. But if any head injury affects the brain, it can be either Acquired Brain Injury or Traumatic Brain injury. In both cases, it affects the functioning of the brain. Acquired Brain injury occurs at the cellular level and mostly associated with pressure on the brain. It can happen from some neurological illness or tumor and stroke. But Traumatic Brain Injury or TBI occurs due to some external force applied to the brain during an accident or fall when someone receives a blow on the head. It can result in skull damage that causes the brain to move inside the skull. The shaking of the brain causes damage.
Brain injuries incapacitate a person not only mentally but also physically. It can have severe cognitive and behavioral effects, communication problems, and even executive dysfunction. In short, brain injuries can have a life-changing impact on people together with several intangible losses that can have a severe financial impact. Traumatic brain injuries or TBI can be fatal. Almost 1.7 million people in the US suffer from it every year that leads to emergency medical treatment, hospitalization, and even death. Severe brain injuries can happen from work-related accidents, sports activities, car accidents, and from fall and might also occur from some apparently innocuous incident. Any traumatic injury to the head can cause the brain to swell, tear, bleed, and bruise, which has severe repercussions on the lives of the affected persons.
Open and closed brain injuries
When someone meets with an accident or falls, the head might come in direct contact with some hard surface or object that fractures the skull and hurts the brain, thereby causing an open brain injury. But if the same incident does not fracture the brain, it can still damage it seriously due to the formation of blood clots and swelling. This closed injury can be much more damaging than open injury. Regardless of whether it is an open or closed brain injury, it can result in loss of consciousness, paralysis, and even death.
Common brain injuries
Bruising of the brain is one of the most common types of brain injury that happens from auto accidents, sports-related accidents, and fall. The impact can be so strong that it moves the brain to and fro, which causes bleeding and bruising in some parts of the brain. Tearing is another effect of Traumatic Brain Injury, which can happen due to the force of a collision. Tearing means formation of small cracks in the brain just the way it happens when you strike a block of ice with a hammer while the block remains intact. The impact of collision damages the nerves of the brain. It can have serious debilitating effects on the body by hindering movements that can even leave a person confined to the bed for the rest of life.
During TBI, the brain undergoes swelling, which is a common reaction of the body to injuries and a part of the healing process. But the problem with the brain is that the swelling remains confined as it cannot migrate. As a result, the brain experiences intracranial pressure, which impairs body functions and can even lead to death.
What the law says
Brain injuries come within the ambit of personal injury. The law is very clear that the person who suffers injury has the right to claim compensation for damages for all losses and sufferings undergone, including the anticipated financial losses in the future. However, it is imperative to prove that the injury resulted from the negligence of another party or the other party was at fault. The victim must establish the fact that had there been no lapses on the part of the other party, perhaps the accident and injury would not have happened at all.
Medical evaluation is important
Treatment of brain injuries is often costly, and besides the pain and suffering that people undergo, it puts them under huge financial stress. Moreover, the uncertain future that awaits them compounds the financial losses. It needs proper medical evaluation to determine the consequences of the injury to determine the level of impairment, which has a direct link to the amount of compensation the individual should receive. The medical evaluation will point to many other findings, such as the ability of the injured person to work. Whether the health of the victim would allow independent living and what kind of physical therapy would be necessary for health improvement also come to light. The medical evaluation will also define the eligibility of the victim for protection against discrimination.
Pursuing a legal claim
To pursue a legal claim, you must appoint a brain injury attorney Los Angeles. He or she will first study your case to understand its merit for claiming compensation. The attorney who is an expert in brain injuries will quickly asses the facts to determine whether it is possible to pinpoint the fault of the other party that caused the accident. The attorney may work based on two legal theories to establish the fault of the other party. Under the negligence theory, the attorney will try to establish the liability. He or she must prove that the other party owes a legal duty of reasonable care towards the victim and had failed to fulfill it that caused the accident and led to the injury. When someone’s action or inaction was the cause of the accident and injury, attorneys typically fall back upon the negligence theory. The other theory is the product liability theory, which is relevant when an equipment or product caused the injury.The brain injury attorney can understand the full spectrum of your injury and calculate the financial losses that you suffer from filing a lawsuit to claim compensation. The lawyer must have extensive medical knowledge of the injuries that you sustained to assign the monetary value to the damages, pain, and suffering. Their legal expertise should help to get the right compensation. Since state laws differ about awarding compensation for brain injuries, it is always better to hire a local lawyer.
