What You Need to Know about Brain Injury

A Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) is often a medical emergency and should be treated as one. Even a mild injury is serious and requires prompt diagnosis. On the other hand, brain injury caused by malpractice is usually a Non-Traumatic Brain Injury.

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Causes and Diagnosis of Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)

A jolt to the head can result in a closed TBI, while an object that enters the skull is a penetrating TBI.

A penetrating TBI may occur from a bullet or shrapnel wound to the head, a violent attack with an object such as a knife, baseball bat, or hammer, or any injury where a bone fragment pierces the skull. A closed TBI can be caused by sports injuries, falls, vehicle collisions, combat injuries, and malpractice. Explosions can be responsible for either a closed or penetrating TBI. Abuse is the single biggest culprit for TBI in children under four years of age.

TBI should be treated as a potential emergency. The situation can rapidly degenerate. The Glasgow Coma Scale can be used to assess head injuries. A CT scan is used in emergency rooms for the diagnosis of TBI. This may be followed with an MRI if the person does not respond to treatment.

Mild andModerate to Severe Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)

Mild TBI will produce physical symptoms such as headaches, dizziness, nausea or vomiting, drowsiness, and speech problems. Sensory symptoms include blurred vision, ears ringing, change in taste and smell, and light or sound sensitivity. Mental symptoms consist of a short loss of consciousness or disorientation and confusion, trouble remembering or concentrating, mood swings, insomnia or sleeping too much, and anxiety and depression. It is not necessary for all the symptoms to occur.

Moderate to severe TBI will usually involve a loss of consciousness for minutes or hours, an unceasing headache that continues to get worse, nausea, recurring vomiting, convulsions, numbness in toes and fingers, lack of coordination, not being able to be woken, pupil dilation, and clear fluids egesting from the ears and/or nose. Mental symptoms include confusion, agitation, aggression, slurred speech, and coma.

In both cases, symptoms may only be noticed weeks after the injury occurred.

Mild TBI can usually be treated with rest and headache tablets. More severe TBI may require surgery, anticoagulants, anticonvulsants, antidepressants, and rehabilitation.

Brain Injury Caused by Malpractice

Malpractice that results in brain injury can be caused by not recognizing and treating an infection, tumor, or blood clot. A patient’s brain may be deprived of oxygen as a result of mistakes with intubation or anesthesia. Diseases such as meningitis, rabies, and toxoplasmosis that are left undiagnosed, or sepsis from a failure to sterilize the hospital setting properly, can all lead to a brain injury condition.

Pay attention to symptoms such as difficulty concentrating, problems with short-term memory or long-term loss, a lack of coordination, slurred speech, blurry vision, hearing loss, paralysis, weakness in the arms and legs, failing to make sense of conversation, unusual aggression, depression, and mood swings.

If you have experienced a brain injury as a result of malpractice, a brain injury attorney Chicago such as Romanucci and Blandin can assist you in a compensation claim for medical expenses, the loss of workplace compensation, and pain and suffering.

Always treat a head injury or symptoms such as those outlined here with utmost seriousness.

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