Car Accidents and Brain Injury

Annually around two million people suffer from a brain injury due to a car accident in the United States. Of this number, 200,000 victims will die every year. Around 100,000 brain-injured victims will live in a disability institution or will stay in the hospital for a long period of time.

If you experience a sudden occurrence of physical damage to the brain you may suffer from traumatic brain injury. There are two types of brain injuries. A victim may suffer from a closed brain injury or a penetrating brain injury due to a car accident.

Closed brain injury happens when the head suffers a blunt trauma. For example, if the head crashes into another object. This type of brain injury is the most common of the two.

A penetrating brain injury is due to an object that literally goes through the skull and pierces the victim’s brain.

Due to being more of a high-risk type in behavior, males at the age of 15 years old to 25 years old are in the group most likely to suffer from a brain injury. The next age groups to fall in this category are toddlers and the elderly due to having falls.

A doctor will diagnose if you have a mild, moderate or severe brain injury. The doctor can diagnose your symptoms by checking the victims physical, behavioral, motor, psychological and cognitive trauma.

Symptoms of a brain injury after a car accident include a headache, balance difficulty, nausea and/or vomiting, vision and/or hearing loss, seizures and cognitive/behavioral problems.

The victim may not have any signs or symptoms of a brain injury immediately after a car accident. The victim may experience delayed brain damage. This is where a small hole occurs in the blood vessels of the brain. Thus, the blood is able to leak through a hole right into the brain, causing severe damage.

If a victim has suffered a brain injury after a car accident, he or she may be treated with drugs. The drugs given are supposed to protect the victim’s brain cells from damage after the head trauma has occurred. The victim may be given the drugs right at the scene of the car accident. These drugs may prevent any brain damage from occurring or at least limit the damage.

The Florida injury lawyers at Charpentier Law Firm represent those that have been injured as a result of motorcycle accidents, birth injury, spinal cord injury, slip and fall, and other accident cases.