While car accidents are leading causes of personal injury worldwide, one of the more severe injuries sustained from road collisions is brain injuries. Unfortunately, the severity of brain injuries can leave road collisions victims in life-long recovery, with full recovery often out of reach.
Because of this, you should pay attention to your brain injury treatment and recovery. This could mean working with an experienced neurologist in your area to make the healing process as manageable as possible. Given their experience and expertise, they assess, quantify, and treat your injury correctly. They provide a proper treatment plan to speed up your recovery and help you regain your normal life as soon as possible.
However, receiving proper treatment for your brain injury can be costly and financially draining. As such, filing a claim to recover compensation is highly advisable. When involved in a road accident that caused a brain injury, it is best to consult brain injury claim specialists to handle your case for you and ensure you are fairly compensated for all your damages.
These common brain injuries from vehicle collisions all require immediate and ongoing medical attention. Suppose you have one of the following injuries. In that case, you should consider seeking compensation for your unfortunate experience as soon as possible as there are time restrictions on car accident lawsuits and personal injury claims.
Concussions
Concussions are prevalent in car accident victims. What’s more, concussions can range in severity, and the subtle symptoms associated with a minor head concussion can often hide this injury. Unfortunately, even a minor untreated head concussion can be fatal if not treated by a medical practitioner. Patients with concussions can fall asleep and slip into a coma unknowingly, rendering minor instances as severe as a severe and notable concussion. It is best to be assessed by a healthcare practitioner following a car accident, even if the accident was a minor bump.
Diffuse Axonal Injuries
Diffuse axonal injuries are brain injuries caused by a significant bash to the head. The brain moves around rapidly within the skull, causing fibers and the delicate brain stem to shear or tear. In most cases, diffuse axonal injuries leave patients in a coma while the brain attempts to recover from the severe injury. This injury threatens the connection between the brain and the rest of the body, often leaving patients with a long road to recovery if they are fortunate enough to emerge from a coma state.
Contusions
Contusions refer to bruises on the brain and are caused by significant head trauma. This type of brain injury can be minor or life-threatening, and contusion symptoms are often not blatant but instead hidden. Contusions are most common when the head is hit by sharp or blunt objects that result in bruising or even bleeding. Patients with contusions require immediate medical attention as the brain can swell in severe cases, and the injury can be fatal. Because hidden injuries such as contusions can be medically severe, victims of car accidents should always opt for a medical assessment as soon as possible to be sure there are no unseen injuries that can be life-threatening. Internal bleeding is another prominent example of hidden injuries common in car accident victims and can be fatal.
Open Head Injury
Open head injuries refer to skull cracks and fractures that result in brain injury. A penetrating injury to the brain is often blatant, and it can often be fatal. This type of brain injury usually occurs in severe car accidents as projectile objects in a vehicle can easily penetrate the head, causing an open head injury. Penetrating and open head injuries are pretty easy to identify, although a medical practitioner can only assess the severity. Immediate medical intervention is crucial as these brain injuries are severe. Patients can bleed out on the scene if emergency treatment is not administered soon enough. Medical practitioners will need to remove the object and often perform a wound debridement carefully. Open head injuries can often lead to secondary head injuries or acquired injuries as the excessive loss of blood starves the brain.
Coup-Contrecoup
Coup-contrecoup is another type of traumatic brain injury that is generally caused by the impact of an object, although two places categorize this type of injury; coup is the impact site while contrecoup is on the side of the brain. Therefore, coup-contrecoup injuries occur when the brain moves around within the skull during the impact. Because the brain is moving, it usually collides with the skull on the opposite side of the victim’s head, leaving the patient with two simultaneous brain injuries. This type of traumatic brain injury can result in a coma, and it is often fatal.
Acquired Brain Injuries
An acquired brain injury is significantly different from the other types of brain injuries. This type of injury occurs from within the body rather than an external impact force. Hypoxic and anoxic injuries are both examples of acquired brain injuries. These injuries result in a lack of oxygen or blood to the brain, hindering its ability to function as it should. Because a lack of blood or oxygen can starve the brain enough to leave a patient permanently brain damages, or worse, dead, these injuries are severe. Unfortunately, dead brain cells do not regenerate, which is why patients with acquired brain injuries are often left with lifelong functional issues.
Secondary Brain Injuries
Secondary brain injuries are caused by any of the above primary brain injuries. If the brain is then starved of blood or oxygen for prolonged periods, the patient can develop secondary brain injuries which do not stem from an external force. Therefore, a secondary brain injury is caused by the body’s inability to feed enough blood and oxygen to the brain, and the results can be devastating. Patients with secondary brain injuries often also suffer additional problems. Unfortunately, the development of a secondary brain injury often worsens the patients’ prognosis as brain damage and death are anticipated in most cases.
Hematoma
Depending on its impact, a car accident may cause a hematoma. It’s a type of brain injury characterized by blood clotting outside the blood vessels. It usually happens when the blood vessels burst due to a car accident.
Moreover, a hematoma can be a severe injury due to the pressure buildup inside your skull. When there’s too much pressure from a hematoma, it can result in loss of consciousness and severe brain damage.
Hemorrhage
Hemorrhage is also one of the brain injuries that occur from a car accident. It refers to internal bleeding from an open or cut wound on the head. When the bleeding occurs in the brain tissue, it’s called an intracerebral hemorrhage. But if it takes place in the space in the brain, it’s called a subarachnoid hemorrhage. Hemorrhage caused by bleeding in the brain has symptoms such as loss of consciousness, headaches, and vomiting.
Brain injuries can be minor or life-threatening. Regardless of how insignificant a blow to the head may seem, it is essential to remember that your adrenaline will kick in and suppress your pain receptors when involved in a car accident. There are numerous instances of accident victims who have been involved in accidents and later passed away at home after refusing medical attention under the pretense that the injuries are minor. Be sure to seek immediate medical care and contact your automobile injury accident lawyer as soon as possible following a road collision.