July 7, 2021
Of all the injuries you can suffer in a car crash or other accident, a traumatic brain injury is one of the most serious. It is also one of the most costly, both in terms of your actual monetary costs for medical care and treatment and your non-economic costs for such things as your pain and suffering and having to contend with lingering symptoms that may well last for the remainder of your life.
TBI Definition
By definition, a traumatic brain injury occurs when you hit your head against a hard surface – or a hard object hits your head – with such force that your head and neck violently jerk forward and backward. This violent motion causes your brain to likewise jerk back and forth inside your skull, consequently injuring its delicate tissue.
TBI Symptoms
One of the scariest aspects of a traumatic brain injury is that you may not show any symptoms immediately after your accident. In other words, you could be seriously injured and fail to realize it. This is why it’s so critical that you seek immediate medical treatment any time you suffer a head injury, no matter how minor you think it is.
No two TBIs are ever exactly the same, even when the accidents that cause them are similar in nature. Despite this fact, however, common TBI symptoms, which may not show up until days or weeks later, include the following:
- Severe headaches
- Nausea and vomiting
- Problems with your vision
- Problems with your hearing
- Problems with your balance
- Problems with your speech
- Problems with your memory
- Sleep disturbances
- Feeling like you’re in a fog
- Inability to fully understand what’s going on around you
- Inability to control your emotions, especially the negative ones such as anger, irritation, despair, etc.
Financial Aftermath
If you sustain a reasonably severe TBI, your medical costs likely will quickly skyrocket. As a brain injury lawyer can elaborate on, statistics show that your hospital and other medical bills can exceed half a million dollars in the first six months after your accident. In addition, you may well need to take significant time off work, thereby losing income at precisely the time you need it most. In a worst case scenario, your TBI could leave you permanently disabled, thereby precluding your ability to obtain and maintain any type of gainful employment.
For all these reasons and more, you would do well to seek the advice, counsel and representation of a local personal injury lawyer who has a history of handling brain injury cases. He or she can not only file a lawsuit on your behalf against the person or entity whose negligence caused your injuries, but also become your chief ally and champion in getting you the compensation you deserve.