The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reports that 214,110 traumatic brain injuries required hospitalization in 2020, while nearly 70,000 TBI’s resulted in death in 2021. These numbers equate to 586 hospitalizations and almost 200 TBI-related deaths per day.
Suffering a traumatic brain injury (TBI) can be devastating, with the aftermath impacting every aspect of your life.
From medical bills to long-term care needs, TBIs can be overwhelming, so finding the right Chicago brain injury lawyer is crucial in helping you hold the at-fault party responsible for their actions and ensuring you receive the compensation and support you deserve.
Whether your injury occurred in a car accident, workplace incident, or other scenario, understanding your legal options is essential for navigating the complexities of personal injury law. If you can prove that negligence resulted in your traumatic brain injury, you could be entitled to compensation for your losses.
Filing a personal injury claim is a complex process, but it offers brain injury victims the best chance of regaining control over their lives. Let’s look at common accidents that cause head injuries to understand the process.
Accidents Resulting in Traumatic Brain Injuries
More statistics from the CDC show that traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a significant cause of permanent disability and wrongful death in the United States. An estimated 190 people die from TBIs daily.
While some TBIs result from sports injuries, medical malpractice may be responsible for others, such as an acquired brain injury or chronic traumatic encephalopathy. TBIs often emerge after the following accidents as well:
Slip and Falls
Many TBIs result from slips and falls caused by flooring issues and poor lighting. If homeowners or property owners’ negligence causes a visitor to suffer permanent brain damage, they can be held liable through the filing of a premises liability claim.
Unmonitored fall-prone nursing home residents face increased slip and fall and, ultimately, TBI risks.
Auto Accidents
Permanent impairment brain injuries often result from car accidents when an occupant’s head makes contact with the car’s interior during a collision. Passenger car occupants’ head injuries are more likely to be more severe or fatal than truckers’ in truck-involved motor vehicle accidents due to the two vehicles’ notable size differences.
Motorcycle accidents result in many brain injuries, especially among riders not wearing helmets. Motorcyclists struck by cars often face ejections, resulting in even more severe injuries.
Workplace Accidents
Many TBI-related ER visits result from struck-by or against incidents. The following industries may be particularly hazardous, increasing the risk for brain injuries:
- Construction
- Logging
- Roofing
Although federal officials institute workplace safety standards, they’re not always enforced, and employers don’t always follow them. Employees who suffer work-related TBIs may qualify for workers’ compensation benefits.
While injuries often result in severe consequences, few are as long-lasting as brain injuries. Because the skull and brain cells are fragile, severe brain injuries are often fatal.
Diagnosing a Traumatic Brain Injury
A person’s accident will dictate how severe their head injury is. For example, worse TBIs are more likely to result from motor vehicle crashes than sports injuries. Determining the severity of a brain injury is crucial to receiving proper treatment.
Mild TBI Symptoms
A mild TBI can result in tired eyes, ringing ears, and a bad taste in one’s mouth, in addition to cognitive and emotional symptoms like:
- Behavior and mood swings
- Confusion
- Memory and concentration troubles
- Interruptions to sleep patterns
- Personality changes
Moderate or Severe TBI Symptoms
Signs of moderate or severe TBIs are generally more severe and may include:
- Unrelenting headache or nausea
- Repeated vomiting
- Dilation of one or both pupils
- Slurred speech
- Mouth fatigue
- Weak or numb limbs
- Loss of coordination
- Confusion
Anyone who experiences these symptoms from external force to the head should see a medical professional. Emergency surgery to remove a blood clot, alleviate pressure, or repair the skull may need to occur.
Common Traumatic Brain Injuries
Time is of the essence when diagnosing your brain trauma. Common injuries our clients deal with include:
Concussions
Concussions are typically mild TBIs and occur when the brain sustains a severe jolt inside the skull. Signs of concussions include:
- Painful headaches
- Slurred speech
- Dizziness
- Confusion
- Fatigue
- Difficulty maintaining consciousness for more than a few seconds
This mild form of brain injury generally disappears with rest over time.
Diffuse Axonal
The stretching, twisting, or tearing of the brain’s nerve fibers is a diffuse axonal brain injury. Patients may experience cross-regional permanent impairments and fall into a coma for at least six hours.
Contusion or Coup-Contrecoup
A contusion or bruise that results from bleeding in brain tissue is sometimes called a coup-contrecoup brain injury. A coup injury occurs when the brain slams against the skull upon impact, while a contrecoup brain injury is when the brain slides back, hitting the skull’s opposite side. Brain trauma like this often occurs in severe whiplash cases. Frontal lobe damage can:
- Diminish language skills
- Impair decision-making
- Decrease intelligence
Temporal lobe damage causes shifts in behavior, memory, and learning. Doctors best diagnose brain contusions by performing CT or MRI scans. These injuries often affect a large portion of the brain, causing permanent brain damage.
Intracranial Hematoma
An intracranial hematoma occurs when blood vessels rupture inside the skull, causing bleeding or blood clots among surrounding tissue. Blood clots may become trapped between the skull and the brain’s outer membrane or inside the brain tissue itself. Patients may require life support and surgery to avoid dying.
Penetration
It’s imperative to receive immediate medical attention if an object penetrates the brain. Open head or penetrating brain injuries don’t only disrupt bodily functions, affecting one’s ability to perform basic living tasks and creating a lengthy recovery period, but are also life-threatening in that they cause blood loss and seizures. It’s quite possible for someone who survives a penetration brain injury to require partial removal of their skull, depending on its severity.
Why You Need a Chicago Brain Injury Lawyer
Brain injury claims are similar to other personal injury actions, as are the elements of negligence that your attorney must establish to pursue a successful brain injury claim, which include:
Proving Damages
Your brain injury lawyer will need to collect the following to gain a better understanding of your economic losses:
- Medical bills
- Property damage receipts
- Employment paystubs
They’ll use medical reports to understand the future impact of your injuries on your quality of life. In cases with more complex damages, they may call on expert witnesses, including medical professionals, to provide insight, as well.
Establishing Causation
Finally, our traumatic brain injury attorneys have to establish causation, which connects the other party’s negligence to your losses.
It’s only once our law firm has established all four elements that we can begin negotiating a settlement or file a brain injury lawsuit and proceed to trial to secure a verdict.
Recovering Compensation for a Brain Injury
Because of the complexity of a traumatic brain injury, it can be challenging to determine how much compensation to seek.
Also, a traumatic brain injury can be unpredictable, causing varying short- and long-term effects for victims. Fortunately, our Chicago brain injury lawyers have extensive experience determining client compensation, so we’ll demand as much as you need when filing your personal injury lawsuit.
Damages are typically significant in brain injury lawsuit cases as they cover:
- Immediate and future medical expenses
- Property damage costs
- Compensation for pain and suffering
- Lost wages and diminished future earnings
Brain damage claims can take a long time to settle, which is why you’ll want to contact us at Thomas Law Offices for a free case evaluation immediately following your injury incident. The sooner we build your case, the better your chances of receiving the maximum compensation.
Get the Legal Help You Need from Thomas Law Offices
At Thomas Law Offices, our attorneys have extensive experience handling personal injury cases and access to the resources and experts needed to build a strong brain injury case that proves you’re owed compensation.
Filing a brain injury claim can seem intimidating, but we’ll help every step. Talk to our Chicago brain injury lawyer today.
Contact us today to schedule a free consultation to learn more about your rights, legal options, and what course of action may be appropriate to secure compensation for your future.
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