Each year, countless Lexington and other Kentucky residents suffer traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) at no fault of their own. Some of the most common causes of these are car, motorcycle, and truck accidents. Violent criminal activity, slips and falls, and contact sports are other common causes of this type of head trauma.
These types of injuries can be life-altering and costly to treat. Fortunately, Kentucky law allows victims to recover compensation for what they’ve been through if they can prove liability.
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How Common Are Traumatic Brain Injuries?
Data published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows that at least 223,135 individuals were admitted to hospitals suffering from TBIs in 2019. This number doesn’t account for the number of individuals who suffered suspected TBIs who went to their primary care doctors, urgent care facilities, or only visited the emergency room (without being admitted).
Additional CDC statistics show that at least 64,362 people died after suffering a TBI in 2020.
Which Populations Are Most Vulnerable To Suffer Brain Injuries?
A few different demographic indicators make some individuals more likely to suffer a traumatic brain or head injury than others. Those risk factors include:
Gender
CDC statistics show that males have a stronger likelihood of hospitalization or death if they suffer a TBI. More specifically, men are twice as likely as women to need to be admitted to the hospital after sustaining such traumatic injuries. The death among males who suffer TBIs is three times that of women.
Age
The population most likely to suffer traumatic brain or head injuries requiring hospitalizations or resulting in death are those individuals belonging to the 75 and older age group, according to the CDC. In fact, at least 28% of individuals who die from TBIs are elderly individuals belonging to this age group. At least 32% of all hospitalized victims are seniors 75 and over.
Children aged birth through 17 are also at significant risk for suffering an injury requiring admittance to the hospital for observation and further treatment or dying from this serious injury. CDC data shows that at least 16,000 children were admitted to hospitals requiring further care after receiving a TBI diagnosis in 2019. At least 2,774 children died from TBIs in 2020.
How Do Individuals Sustain Traumatic Brain Injuries?
There are various ways in which someone may suffer traumatic brain or head injuries, including if a person:
- Receives a penetrating injury, such as from a knife or gunshot wound
- Suffers a whiplash injury as their head shifts forward and back during a car crash, resulting in a concussion
- Receives a blow, punch, slap, bump, or some other forceful contact to their head, such as during a violent assault
- Strikes their head on a dashboard, headliner, or windshield during a motor vehicle accident, suffering blunt force trauma in the process
- Has something that falls or gets dropped on their head, such as an awning at an office building, a tool while passing by a construction site, or a product at a grocery store
- Falls, whether on an icy sidewalk, wet lobby, store, or public restroom floor, after encountering a pothole in a parking lot, or as a result of nursing home negligence whereby a resident had to get up and take care of something oneself despite having mobility issues
The situations above are only a few examples of ways in which individuals may sustain debilitating head injuries.
Understanding the Severities of Traumatic Brain Injuries
Three different severities of TBIs exist, each with distinct prognoses, including:
Mild TBIs
Concussions and any head injury that jolts the brain falls into this category. These injuries are serious enough in that they cause the brain to shift within the skull and have the potential to cause damage to brain cells and chemical imbalances, causing temporary emotional, behavioral, cognitive, and functional setbacks. It’s also highly unlikely for this type of injury to be life-threatening.
Moderate and Severe TBIs
Individuals who have received a penetrating injury, have been struck in a physical assault, or suffered blunt force trauma are most likely to receive a moderate to severe brain injury diagnosis. Those who suffer these brain injuries can expect their condition to go left unchanged, which often means that they’ll have some degree of lasting impairments.
Individuals who suffer moderate or severe TBIs also tend to have a poor five-year prognosis.
While CDC research shows that 26% of patients improve during the five years following their brain or head injury, the plight of 22% of TBI patients remains at status quo. At least 30% of individuals who receive moderate to severe TBI diagnoses have their condition worsen in the five years post-injury.
At least 22% of moderate to severe TBI patients die within five years of the onset of their injury.
Symptoms Traumatic Brain Injury Patients Can Expect To Endure
As mentioned above, while individuals who suffer mild TBIs may experience only temporary adverse effects, the following symptoms may be more lasting among victims with moderate to more severe cases of injuries:
Pain and Discomfort
Conditions TBI patients may have to deal with include headaches and chronic pain. That pain within the head and neck may radiate into other areas of the body.
Sleep Disturbances
Sleep challenges that individuals who have suffered head injuries may have to contend with include spending more time asleep than what is normal, having the inability to stay awake, and difficulties achieving a sound sleep.
Mental Health Issues
Emotional and behavioral health concerns are common among individuals who have suffered head injuries. Depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are only a few of the many different mental health diagnoses a TBI patient may receive after suffering a moderate to severe injury.
Mood changes that evolve into angry outbursts, an inability to concentrate, and the development of addictions to drugs and alcohol resulting in a substance abuse disorder diagnosis are all commonplace among TBI victims. Children who suffer TBIs may experience developmental setbacks or learning disabilities following a serious brain injury.
Cognitive and Communication Setbacks
Someone who has sustained a severe or moderate injury may find it challenging to learn new things due to having difficulty processing what others say or may experience significant memory loss. Verbalization may also prove challenging for some TBI victims, depending on what part of their brain has been damaged.
While most individuals who suffer traumatic brain and head injuries expect to know what types of long-term impairments they are facing from the onset of their injury, this seldom happens. Signs and symptoms of a brain injury may initially seem non-existent. However, the severity of the brain damage may quickly become apparent within hours, days, and weeks after its onset.
You’ll often hear Lexington brain injury lawyers like ours at Thomas Law Offices encourage you to see a doctor as soon as possible after a potential injury incident instead of waiting on symptoms to set in.
Lexington brain injury attorneys like the ones at our Kentucky law firm do this because they’ve seen what happens when injury victims fail to seek immediate medical care after they experience a personal injury accident or fall victim to a violent crime. Many individuals make the mistake of assuming their condition will go left unchanged, without realizing they’re actually putting themselves at risk of life-altering injuries.
Therefore, take our experienced brain injury attorneys’ word for it. See a doctor after Lexington, KY car accidents, medical malpractice incidents, sports injuries, or any other type of accident that can result in a similar outcome. The peace of mind that you’ll derive by doing so is invaluable.
What Type of Care May I Need After Sustaining a Traumatic Brain Injury?
Our Lexington brain injury lawyers’ specializations in practice areas like this have afforded them a wealth of knowledge about what clients go through after sustaining TBIs. They often find themselves needing to visit the doctor, take medications, and undergo surgeries to repair brain damage after getting injured.
The injury lawyers at our Lexington law firm also often see where many clients who suffer a moderate TBI end up needing to undergo speech, occupational, or physical therapy to regain some of the functionality lost when they got hurt. When our law firm’s attorneys develop an attorney-client relationship after a free consultation with a new client, they often find that those same clients might also need to see a mental health therapist to help them cope with the emotional, cognitive, or behavioral impacts associated with their brain damage.
No amount of any type of therapy is sufficient for some clients with head injuries. They end up being bound to a wheelchair for the rest of their lives.
Sometimes those clients’ injuries are so profound that they must be taken care of at long-term care facilities where they can receive around-the-clock care. As you might imagine, this type of dedicated care and associated medical expenses can be costly. It can easily reach into the realm of hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars in medical bills across a lifetime.
Why Thomas Law Offices in Lexington, KY Fights for Brain Injury Victims
One of the reasons our Lexington brain injury lawyers at Thomas Law Offices fight so aggressively to recover damages in the form of full and fair compensation for our clients is to ensure they’re not financially devastated when a traumatic brain injury occurred unexpectedly due to someone else’s negligence.
The loss of income an injury victim sustains if they are unable to work following a traumatic brain injury can make covering this dedicated care seem impossible. This is often what motivates brain injury victims or a loved one to solicit the services of attorneys to file a Kentucky personal injury claim aimed at recovering fair compensation that they can use to pay off medical bills, reimburse lost wages, and use to pay for long-term care.
When To Schedule a Free Brain Injury Case Evaluation With Thomas Law Offices
If a TBI claimed the life of a loved one, your Lexington brain injury lawyer from Thomas Law Offices may advise you that you may be eligible to take legal action on your deceased family member’s behalf. It can be helpful to sit down for a free consultation with a Lexington personal injury attorney experienced in handling Kentucky brain injury cases and wrongful death claims to guide you through the entire process in situations like this.
There’s no risk in scheduling a free case evaluation with a Lexington brain injury lawyer to learn relevant information about your right to compensation, including punitive damages, when motor vehicle accidents and other incidents end your ability to live a fulfilling life. Know that injury lawyers like ours often take on cases like this on a contingency basis. This means you don’t owe anything for the legal representation our injury lawyers offer unless we recover compensation for you.
Reach out to schedule a free consultation with a Lexington brain injury attorney at Thomas Law Offices today. It’s your first step in the right direction toward recovering compensation and getting your life back on track.
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