A traumatic brain injury (TBI) can result from a severe auto accident. In terms of devastation, it is one of the worst injuries a person can suffer. Aside from the devastating physical damage done to the brain itself, there are the resulting changes in behavior, cognition, and emotional processing that so often affects the victim in a long-term or even permanent way. This blog provides a brief overview of the effects of brain damage.
Physical Effects
The brain is an organ just like any other organ in the body, and it can sustain real physical damage just like any other organ. When someone is in a serious auto accident, the physical effects to the brain can range from mild to severe. A traumatic brain injury can have very real and physical consequences. A person might experience changes in balance that cause frequent falls or difficulty with mobility. Coordination, touch, and smell might be altered after an accident. Muscle control might also be affected.
As you can see, a brain injury can be detrimental to the physical comfort of a victim, and they might require weeks, months, or years of physical therapy to recover. And some of those victims never recover and must live with the changes as best as they can. Because of this, a brain injury lawyer needs to be called immediately if a serious TBI is present after an auto accident. Medical procedures can be expensive and the ability to work may be lost forever. Only a brain injury attorney can help you recover compensation for medical bills and other damages.
Mental Effects
The mental effects of a brain injury can be just as devastating as the physical ones. Many people notice a distinct change in both behavior and cognition, and some of those changes are long-term. In severe cases, the changes may be permanent, although they may be mitigated by psychotherapy and other forms of counseling. Reaching out to other survivors who struggle with TBI might also be helpful.
Personality changes might be evident from the beginning, as many family members and friends might notice that an outgoing person is now withdrawn and quiet, a quiet person is now loud and rude, or an active person now seems lethargic. These changes are NOT unusual following a brain injury, but they do need to be investigated by therapists who can help.
A brain injury attorney can help provide the type of compensation someone with a permanent brain injury will need to afford their treatments for such personality changes. Your brain injury lawyer can help you, or someone you love, hold the perpetrator of the injury responsible for the consequences. If it was an auto accident, that means showing the negligent party what their actions have done to impact the injured party and making sure that they pay for damages, even if it means a large sum.
Emotional Effects
The emotional effects of a brain injury can really lower the victim’s quality of life. Someone who has a traumatic injury to the brain will often be depressed (this is true of half of TBI victims in the first year following their accident). Life has changed for the victim, and it’s not in a good way. Not only have they suffered a brain injury, but the coping skills they need to comprehend the damage is unfortunately damaged.
It’s the brain that helps people cope with emotionally devastating events, and TBI takes that person’s capacity to manage emotions away from them. That doesn’t mean that with therapy, they can’t improve drastically and over time come to grips with what has happened. There is always hope for someone who has ANY kind of injury, even one as tragic as TBI.
Call Our Law Offices
Our experienced brain injury lawyers have seen the effects of TBI on our clients as they struggle to cope with the injustice life has dealt them. And we’ve passionately represented them in lawsuits that helped them get the compensation they needed to live a more normal life. People with brain injuries need medical treatment on several different fronts, and we are the professionals who represent them so that they can afford this type of expensive treatment. Many people with brain injury also can’t work anymore, and it’s our job to recover their lost wages AND make sure that they are compensated for their unfair pain and suffering.
Whether you have suffered a minor or major traumatic brain injury in an accident, we can help you obtain maximum compensation for your losses—if we don’t win, you don’t pay, guaranteed. Call (800) 222-2222 for immediate legal assistance.
