Traumatic Brain Injury: Causes and Symptoms of TBI After a Car Accident
If you or a loved one has suffered a traumatic brain injury in an auto accident, you may be confused or overwhelmed. A knowledgeable attorney can help.

May 24, 2010 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Traumatic Brain Injury: Causes and Symptoms of TBI After a Car Accident

Driving in the comfort of a car or truck, most people do not consider the awesome forces that are at work: gas combustion, aerodynamics and complex structural engineering fights gravity and friction to provide a smooth and comfortable ride. It is usually only during and after a motor vehicle accident that drivers and passengers will feel the effects of extreme gravitational forces. But unfortunately, during auto accidents, the vehicle's occupants become vulnerable to traumatic injuries caused by sudden deceleration or physical trauma.

Among the most serious of these injuries is traumatic brain injury or TBI, sometimes referred to as Acquired Brain Injury or ABI. The Center for Disease Control reports that about 1.7 million traumatic brain injuries occur each year, and of that number, about 17 percent were caused by motor vehicle accidents. In fact, TBIs caused in auto accidents were the most likely of all causes to be fatal to the victim.

TBIs Caused by Auto Accidents

Trauma to the brain in a car accident can be direct or indirect. A driver may hit her head on the steering wheel or even the windshield if not using a seatbelt. Even air bags, which deploy at a rate of about 200 miles per hour according to the Automotive Occupant Restraints Council, could potentially cause head injury to unbelted passengers. Other occupants may suffer brain crushing injuries if a seat back fails or collapses or the roof crushes in a rollover.

Indirect injuries to the brain along with whiplash to the neck typically occur because of the vehicle's sudden deceleration. While direct physical force is not applied to the skull, these injuries, called coup and contracoup injuries, can be even more deadly than direct trauma. In a coup injury, the body suddenly decelerates, and the brain, traveling at a speed that is slower than the skull, impacts into the skull. The brain may then bounce to the opposite side of the skull, creating a contracoup injury. In these situations, diffuse axonal injury can occur where the brain's nerves shear along the skull during these rapid movements.

Along with the initial trauma to the brain, called primary injury, the brain can continue to be damaged in the days and weeks that follow as brain cells die, chemical reactions occur and other changes related to the initial brain trauma take place. This is called secondary brain injury.

Diagnosis of a Traumatic Brain Injury

Diagnosing a traumatic brain injury can be very simple or very difficult. For those patients with direct trauma to the head or obvious signs of a head injury such as coma or loss of consciousness, emergency room doctors can immediately begin a full neurological evaluation. If necessary, the patient will be tested with MRIs, X-rays and CT scans of the brain, thoroughly examined for skull fractures and asked a battery of questions to determine cognitive functioning. The patient will usually be rated on the Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) to determine the severity of brain injury.

But for brain injury victims that do not arrive in the emergency room with any symptoms that indicate brain injury, doctors and nurses may overlook neurological damage in favor of other, more obvious, injuries such as broken arms from air bag deployments or deep lacerations from broken glass. For these victims, a diagnosis of TBI may not occur for days, weeks or even months after the car accident, but eventually, they will be re-evaluated because several symptoms of traumatic brain injury are apparent to the victim or his family and friends.

Symptoms of a Traumatic Brain Injury

A whole host of symptoms can result in a brain injury diagnosis. The New York-Presbyterian Hospital provides an expansive list of the symptoms and effects that a brain injury victim might experience including: cognitive, motor, and perceptual deficits, problems with communication and language, regulatory imbalances such as sleep disturbance, and personality changes. TBI victims may struggle socially and be unable to complete functional tasks like grooming. A few really severe injuries may induce brain epilepsy as well.

Frequently, if the TBI does not present as a severe injury at the hospital, the victim may not be diagnosed with a TBI after the accident. After release from the hospital, family and friends of the victim may notice memory loss, irritability, inability to do routine daily tasks and other changes. At this point, the victim may want to be re-evaluated to determine if a brain injury is the cause.

Rehabilitation and Recovery After a Traumatic Brain Injury

Unfortunately, many victims of traumatic brain injury will never fully recover from their injuries. But with rehabilitation and time, even some seriously injured victims can live a full and active life.

Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center (RLANRC), a forerunner in rehabilitative care for adult brain injury victims in California, has developed the Rancho Levels of Cognitive Function Scale (LCFS). The Rancho Levels of Cognitive Function Scale is a widely used assessment tool to evaluate brain injury survivors and place them on a scale of recovery. As a brain injury patient progresses through treatment in a hospital, rehabilitation facility and in the home, the course of recovery can be rated using the LCFS.

If you or a loved one has suffered a traumatic brain injury in an auto accident, you may be confused or overwhelmed with the TBI, treatment, medical expenses and other issues. A knowledgeable car accident attorney can talk to you about your options to recover compensation for valuable and necessary treatment and rehabilitation, along with other damages.

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Rosenstock & Azran
Rosenstock & Azran
Accident Lawyers in LA
333 South Grand Avenue
Los Angeles, CA
90071
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