Brain injury can have life-changing effects that can reduce a person’s quality of life. It can affect motor and cognitive skills, speech, memory, and other essential life skills. People who suffer brain injury may be temporarily or permanently impaired and lose the ability to make a living. On top of that, they may need lifelong medication and therapy.
Having handled personal injury litigation in Los Angeles as early as 1997, our brain injury attorneys at Haffner Law have witnessed how immense the financial cost and physical and emotional toll of brain injuries can get. They affect not just the victims but also their families. People who are responsible for incidents that inflict serious brain injury in others should be held accountable for their actions.
But first, learn the basics of brain injury and when it is grounds for an insurance claim or civil lawsuit.
Types of Brain Injury
Brain injuries may be the result of trauma (traumatic brain injury or TBI) or internal factors (non-traumatic brain injury or NTBI). While both can be caused by negligence or malicious intent (for which the case will shift from civil to criminal), TBI is more often associated with negligence and used as the basis for personal injury claims.
Brain injury can be classified according to severity: mild, moderate, or severe. It can also be any of these types:
- Concussion – a mild injury that can cause a brief loss of consciousness
- Contusion – bruising of the brain tissue
- Traumatic Subarachnoid Hemorrhage – bleeding into the space surrounding the brain
- Hematoma – formation of blood clots
No matter the classification or injury type, speak to a brain injury attorney to see if there’s evidence that an accident that led to TBI is due to someone’s negligence.
Causes of Traumatic Brain Injury
TBI occurs when an external force jolts the brain hard enough that it sustains a serious injury or a foreign object penetrates the skull and damages the brain tissue. The causes can be any of the following:
- Slips and falls
- Impact from sports and recreational activities
- Motor vehicle accidents
- Assault (getting struck by sharp or heavy, blunt objects)
- Gunfire
- Explosions
Most of the time, TBI is apparent because the victim bears visible marks of injury. There may be cases, however, when victims walk away from accidents unscathed only to start showing signs of brain injury days, weeks, or even months later.
Symptoms of Delayed Brain Trauma
If you or someone you love has been involved in an accident that, in theory, should have resulted in some sort of head injury, keep an eye out for signs of delayed brain trauma.
- Memory loss
- Confusion, disorientation
- Uncharacteristic inattentiveness
- Deteriorating cognitive ability
- Deteriorating motor skills
- Deteriorating vision
- Frequent dizziness
- Loss of balance
- Vomiting
- Seizures
- Sudden emotional disturbances
Since these symptoms can emerge long after an accident, the people responsible for the accident may attempt to disconnect the symptoms from the incident. Some might even argue that the symptoms have been preexisting or the result of the victim’s own negligence.
Hire Our Experienced Brain Injury Attorneys and Claim the Compensation You Deserve
It can be a battle to prove accountability in a brain injury accident, especially since the liability claims for TBI accidents can be substantial. In 2015, Northwestern University estimated the lifetime costs of traumatic brain injury treatment at $85,000 to $3 million. Besides the post-accident treatment, the victim may need subsequent hospitalization, ED visits, physical therapy, and psychological treatments. Mind that this estimate does not yet include the cost of loss of employment.
Hiring seasoned personal injury lawyers with experience in brain injury claims can give you an edge in mediation or in court. Call Haffner Law today and schedule a consultation with our brain injury attorneys in Los Angeles.
Reach us at 213-514-5681 or fill out our contact form.
(This is an attorney advertisement by Joshua Haffner)
