What is Traumatic Brain Injury?
Traumatic brain injury (TBI), a form of acquired brain injury, occurs when a sudden trauma causes damage to the brain. TBI can result when the head suddenly and violently hits an object, or when an object pierces the skull and enters brain tissue. Symptoms of a TBI can be mild, moderate, or severe, depending on the extent of the damage to the brain. A person with a mild TBI may remain conscious or may experience a loss of consciousness for a few seconds or minutes. Our San Diego auto accident attorney details further.
Other symptoms of mild TBI include headache, confusion, lightheadedness, dizziness, blurred vision or tired eyes, ringing in the ears, bad taste in the mouth, fatigue or lethargy, a change in sleep patterns, behavioral or mood changes, and trouble with memory, concentration, attention, or thinking.
A person with a moderate or severe TBI may show these same symptoms, but may also have a headache that gets worse or does not go away, repeated vomiting or nausea, convulsions or seizures, an inability to awaken from sleep, dilation of one or both pupils of the eyes, slurred speech, weakness or numbness in the extremities, loss of coordination, and increased confusion, restlessness, or agitation.
More serious head injuries may result in stupor, an unresponsive state, but one in which an individual can be aroused briefly by a strong stimulus, such as sharp pain; coma, a state in which an individual is totally unconscious, unresponsive, unaware, and unarousable; vegetative state, in which an individual is unconscious and unaware of his or her surroundings, but continues to have a sleep-wake cycle and periods of alertness; and a persistent vegetative state (PVS), in which an individual stays in a vegetative state for more than a month.
Working with an Experienced San Diego Brain Injury Lawyer ![woman holding up xray after a traumatic brain injury in California]()
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During this challenging time, you and your family need to focus on your recovery while an experienced San Diego personal injury lawyer or San Diego spinal cord injury lawyer handles the complicated legal aspects of filing and defending your personal injury claim.
This also means that all TBI victims will be left with unique symptoms, strengths, and challenges that must be addressed through a personal injury claim. Treating the permanent or long-term consequences of a brain injury can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, funds you likely do not have and should not be responsible for when another person's negligence caused your condition.
Friends and relatives can help you cope with the immediate emotional and practical issues of a traumatic brain injury. However, in order to address the medical, financial, and legal problems of such a catastrophic event, you need to have a San Diego brain injury lawyer on your side who can go head-to-head with the insurance companies and advocate for the compensation you need and deserve.
What Are the Treatments?
Anyone with signs of moderate or severe TBI should receive medical attention as soon as possible. Because little can be done to reverse the initial brain damage caused by trauma, medical personnel try to stabilize an individual with TBI and focus on preventing further injury. Primary concerns include insuring proper oxygen supply to the brain and the rest of the body, maintaining adequate blood flow, and controlling blood pressure. Imaging tests help in determining the diagnosis and prognosis of a TBI patient.
Patients with mild to moderate injuries may receive skull and neck X-rays to check for bone fractures or spinal instability. For moderate to severe cases, the imaging test is a computed tomography (CT) scan. Moderately to severely injured patients receive rehabilitation that involves individually tailored treatment programs in the areas of physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech/language therapy, physiatry (physical medicine), psychology/psychiatry, and social support.
