Unlike many other body parts, the brain cannot always heal completely on its own after sustaining severe external trauma. There is only so much that modern medical professionals can do to reduce the impact of injuries like these. Unfortunately, this means that when someone acts irresponsibly and causes someone else to suffer a traumatic brain injury (TBI), the consequences of their actions are often debilitating and permanent.
Money alone cannot erase the negative impacts of a TBI, but pursuing fair financial restitution with a dedicated catastrophic injury attorney’s help can still be key to maximizing your quality of life after sustaining an injury of this nature. From start to finish of your legal proceedings, a Trinity traumatic brain injury lawyer at Perenich Law Injury Attorneys could work tenaciously to enforce your rights and secure the best case result possible for your specific situation.
What Is a Traumatic Brain Injury?
In brief, a traumatic brain injury is any damage sustained by the brain due to an external impact against the head or body, a sudden jolt that causes the brain to move inside the skull, or an external object coming into direct contact with the brain. The lattermost type of TBI is also referred to as a “penetrating” or “open” TBI, as it involves something penetrating the skull and creating an open wound, resulting in structural damage to the brain. Unsurprisingly, “non-penetrating” injuries which involve the brain sustaining damage while the skull remains intact are also called “closed” injuries.
Many penetrating TBIs are also “focal” injuries, meaning they affect a specific area of the brain while leaving others more or less intact. Still, non-penetrating TBIs can be focal or “diffuse,” the latter of which entails trauma affecting multiple areas of the brain at once. Some of the most common types of acute TBIs that medical professionals see after traumatic accidents include:
- Concussions, which involve brain cells sustaining damage from the brain bouncing off the interior of the skull after a sudden external impact
- Contusions, or minor bruising of the brain, caused by damage to tiny blood vessels sustained either at the site of an external impact against the skull or on the opposite side of the brain—respectively, “coup” injuries and “contrecoup” injuries
- Hematomas, or internal bleeding in the brain, caused by the rupturing of blood vessels and resulting in blood pooling within one or more layers of brain tissue
- Diffuse axonal injury (DAI), which entails bundles of nerve cells called “axons” being stretched or torn in numerous places within the brain
Repeated mild TBIs like concussions may result in long-term degenerative disorders like chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).
Side Effects & Symptoms of Traumatic Brain Injuries
All forms of TBIs may produce physical symptoms as well as sensory issues, problems with cognitive function, and behavioral or psychological changes. However, mild traumatic brain damage can produce different types of symptoms along these lines compared to moderate and severe damage, as detailed below.
Mild TBI Symptoms
In addition to physical symptoms like nausea, headaches, drowsiness, and dizziness, people who suffer mild TBIs may have difficulty speaking clearly, as well as sensory issues like oversensitivity to light or a ringing in the ears. In some cases, they may also experience problems with concentration or memory, changes in mood or sleeping patterns, and disorientation.
Moderate to Severe TBI Symptoms
Moderate to severe TBIs are typically characterized by loss of consciousness for several minutes or hours at a time, as well as more extreme manifestations of mild TBI symptoms—for example, persistent headaches, worsening nausea, and substantial changes in behavior. More unique symptoms of serious brain trauma include drainage of clear fluid from the ears or nose, numbness in extremities, convulsions, and noticeably slurred speech.
TBI Symptoms in Very Young Children
Infants and young children may react to TBIs in different ways compared to adults, and they may also be unable to clearly communicate what they are feeling. With that in mind, parents and guardians who suspect their child may have suffered brain trauma in an accident should be on the lookout for persistent crying or irritability, changes in eating or sleeping habits, drowsiness, loss of interest in preferred activities, and difficulty paying attention.
A skilled attorney in Trinity could help an injured party seek compensation following a mild, moderate, or severe TBI.
Proving that Negligence Led to Traumatic Brain Damage
While TBIs are a particularly serious type of personal injury, their severity does not change any of the rules set by Florida state law that govern personal injury litigation. To hold someone else legally responsible for the effects of a traumatic brain injury, the injured person filing suit—or whoever is acting on a severely disabled person’s behalf—must establish legal “negligence” by the person or people they are suing over that injury, as an experienced Trinity TBI attorney could explain in more detail.
Someone is “negligent” if they directly cause an otherwise avoidable accident by acting carelessly, recklessly, or unlawfully in violation of a “duty of care,” resulting in another person’s injury serious enough to require professional medical care. For example, everyone who drives on public Florida roads has the same “duty” to obey traffic laws and generally act reasonably and safely behind the wheel. So, anyone who causes a car wreck by committing a traffic violation would likely be liable based on their negligence for any injuries that wreck results in.
Recovering Comprehensively Within Filing Deadlines
Someone found to have caused traumatic brain damage to another person through their own negligence can be made to pay financially for every economic and non-economic consequence that accident has. Importantly, compensable losses in a case like this can—and generally should—account for both past and future losses relative to when civil proceedings actually begin, including:
- Physical discomfort and pain
- Emotional and psychological distress
- Lost working capacity or work income
- Lost overall enjoyment of life, including lost consortium
- Short-term and long-term medical bills, plus injury-related expenses for things like assistive medical equipment, home/vehicle modifications, and in-home care
Even if a TBI is expected to last for an injured person’s entire remaining life, though, they cannot wait until the full value of their long-term losses becomes clear before filing suit. This is because the “statute of limitations” codified in Florida Statutes § 95.11 establishes a four-year filing period—beginning when an injury first occurred—for virtually everyone who intends to sue over any personal injury. Failing to start a claim within this deadline—with or without assistance from a traumatic brain injury lawyer in Trinity—will almost always lead to the court throwing that claim out for being “time-barred.”
Speak With a Trinity Traumatic Brain Injury Attorney Today
Traumatic brain damage is one of the most consequential and life-altering outcomes that any serious accident can have. When someone else’s negligence is the sole reason that an accident like this happened in the first place, you may have grounds to pursue legal action against them and demand compensation for every negative effect your TBI will have on your life.
Support from a Trinity traumatic brain injury lawyer can be crucial to obtaining fair financial restitution from this uniquely tricky type of claim. Learn more by calling Perenich Law Injury Attorneys today. We are 3 brothers with a mission of helping others.
(727) 669-2828