San Diego Brain Injury Attorney
Serious traumatic brain injury, inflicting nearly 1,000,000 individuals each year, is one of the most heartbreaking and difficult injuries to suffer. Especially in serious cases of traumatic brain injury (TBI), victims are left with little chance of living a normal life.
The brain is left in various stages of debilitation, affecting a number of cognitive, physical, and psychological skills. Physical limitations may include a lack of balance, coordination, fine motor skills, strength, and endurance. Serious traumatic brain injury cases may completely immobilize the victim, with no control over movement. Limitations to cognition include problems with memory, language understanding, language production, information processing, and consciousness. Psychological problems associated with serious traumatic brain injury cases include bipolar disorder, depression, mania, a desire to withdrawal from the world and everyday activities, and anxiety.
An incredibly complicated and delicate instrument, the brain manages billions of processes in the body each second. Damage to this organ affects all operations of the body, and may even be fatal. When physical trauma inflicts the skull, the brain’s normal brain function is temporarily interrupted. Trauma may be induced by a physical blow, disease, lack of oxygen, or poisoning. Open wounds on the skull can cause even more severe damage to the brain and its functions.
Some types of traumatic brain injury include:
- Tearing—This injury occurs when the delicate brain tissues are torn apart. This is usually caused by swift impact to the head, as in getting hit by a baseball bat. What is most frustrating, is that these tears are not always picked up by x-rays and MRI scans, and may go unnoticed for weeks, months, or years.
- Bruising—This injury is also caused by particularly heavy impact to the skull. The soft tissue of the brain in forced into the hard skull, causing considerable damage. Small blood vessels are ruptured, allowing blood to escape to areas of the brain unsuitable for such blood. A great deal of pressure in the brain results, potentially causing paralysis and other permanent damage.
- Swelling- This injury can be life-threatening to the traumatic brain injury victim. Unlike skin, where swollen tissues may expand relieve pressure, the brain is surrounded by a hard skull which disallows expansion. The injured brain is forced against the hard inside of the skull, causing more injuries.
If you or a loved one have been seriously injured in a traumatic brain injury accident, it is integral to contact an experienced TBI attorney as soon as possible.