What are the Three Main Causes of Head Injuries in Tampa?

Every year, serious head injuries send about three million Americans to hospital emergency rooms. Unfortunately, most of these victims do not get the treatment they need.

Head injuries are difficult to diagnose. Not all victims have signature symptoms, like unconsciousness. Brain injuries simply daze and confuse some people. As a result, many doctors are quick to diagnose early effects, like disorientation, as shock from the accident or perhaps early-onset dementia.

Soon, these untreated victims often develop additional symptoms, such as severe headaches and personality changes. But people, including doctors, do not like to admit that we are wrong. So, if the physician said the person did not have a head injury before, the doctor is unlikely to second-guess that initial diagnosis.

This misdiagnosis problem highlights the importance of working with an experienced Tampa injury attorney. Such a lawyer can refer a victim to an injury specialist who knows how to diagnose and treat the three main causes of head injuries.

Trauma

Falls are the best illustration of a major head injury. When a person falls, the brain often begins to bleed very subtly. That brain bleeding usually causes swelling. Since the skull is so thick, the swelling brain pushes against the bone, making the injury even worse.

Trauma head injuries are usually the worst kind of head injuries. Fortunately, they’re also one of the easiest kinds of brain injuries to treat.

An experienced surgeon can operate on the person’s head to relieve the swelling. Surgical techniques are quite advanced in this area. So, while something like “brain surgery” sounds complex and scary, there may actually be some minimally-invasive options available.

After surgery, if it is warranted, a physical therapist takes over. Exercises and other techniques can reduce existing swelling. Once the brain returns to normal size, many lost functions start coming back. Then, it is just a matter of re-learning these skills. And, as the old saying goes, practice makes progress.

Motion

Some car crashes cause traumatic head injuries. But mostly, these incidents cause motion-related head injuries. Just like it’s possible to scramble an egg without cracking the shell, it’s possible to scramble the brain without breaking the skull.

High-speed car crashes usually cause whiplash. The sudden back-and-forth jerking movement does more than hurt the spine and neck. It causes the brain to slam against the base of the skull, and then against the front of the skull.

Motion does not cause many physical symptoms, like bleeding and swelling. Instead, the damage could be to an inside part of the brain. These kinds of injuries do not show up on MRIs and other common diagnostic tools.

So, physical therapy is usually the only option in these cases. Dead brain cells never regenerate. But if physical therapy begins early enough, and the therapist uses the right approach, it’s can be possible to salvage most of the injured portion of the brain.

Noise

Many witnesses say that a car crash sounds like an explosion. Sudden loud noises like these can cause head injuries in bystanders.

The loud noise triggers a shock wave, which is something like a biological electromagnetic pulse. This shock waves disrupts brain functions. Sometimes, the effect is so subtle that many victims do not know they are injured. That’s especially true since the brain is very good at concealing its own injuries.

Once again, physical therapy is usually the only treatment for noise-related head injuries. Such therapy requires a specialized touch. The therapist must usually teach non-injured areas of the brain to assume the lost function. So, progress occurs in fits and starts.

In all these cases, damages usually include compensation for medical bills and other economic losses, as well as pain and suffering and other noneconomic losses.

Work with Dedicated Lawyers

Serious brain injuries have different causes and different treatments. For a free consultation with an experienced Tampa head and spinal injuries attorney, contact The Matassini Law Firm, P.A. We do not charge upfront legal fees in personal injury cases.

Resource:

cdc.gov/traumaticbraininjury/get_the_facts.html