Common Brain and Head Injuries After a Car Accident
In the best-case scenario, a car accident is a shocking event that leaves those involved shaken up but physically unharmed. Unfortunately, crashes can sometimes result in more severe long-term injuries, including catastrophic damage to the skull and brain.
From both a medical and legal perspective, it is important to know the symptoms, effects, and implications associated with the various head and brain injuries that can happen as a result of Virginia car accidents. Our experienced car accident attorneys at Cooper Hurley Injury Lawyers can assess your injuries and determine what legal options may be available.
What is Head Trauma?
Different types of car accidents can lead to various head injuries. A head-on or rear-end collision can cause someone’s head to whip forward or backward in a violent motion. Additionally, a side-impact wreck may cause a driver or passenger’s head to hit the window or frame of their motor vehicle. Depending on the circumstances, the head trauma someone sustains may vary in terms of its nature, treatment, and ultimate consequences.
It is important to know that, a brain injury can occur during a car wreck in Virginia even if the person’s skull does not physically hit anything else. When a person experiences a rapid and jarring impact, he may suffer a concussion that stems from the brain striking the interior of the skull. This type of injury is generally mild but repeated or particularly severe concussions can lead to loss of consciousness, long-term problems with memory, and other cognitive issues.
Car collisions also can result in blunt trauma to the head caused by a physical and sometimes penetrative impact directly to the skull. This typically results from a driver’s head striking the steering wheel, windshield, or side window of their vehicle. However, broken glass or other large components on an involved automobile can have the same dangerous effect. Since these injuries commonly result in open wounds and sometimes direct external damage to the brain, they often have devastating consequences and can be fatal.
Common TBIs in Car Wrecks
Experienced car wreck attorneys are familiar with various forms of harm an individual may suffer. Any damage to the head or brain following a Virginia car wreck should be taken seriously, but some are more common in these kinds of incidents than others.
Diffuse Axonal Injury
Axons are the long branches of nerve cells in the brain through which electrical impulses travel. Therefore, a diffuse axonal injury involves these slim nerve fibers tearing throughout the brain, generally due to severe shaking or turning of the head. A mild concussion can be a minor form of diffuse axonal injury.
Skull Fracture
Blunt trauma against the skull may result in either an open or closed fracturing of the bone. This depends on whether the impact breaks or does not break the skin covering the skull. This injury results in localized pain, as well as fluid discharge from the nose or ears and bruising around the eyes. In certain cases, skull fractures do not necessarily need specialized treatment, but in others fragments of the skull may penetrate the brain, leading to traumatic damage.
Hematomas
A hematoma is localized internal bleeding caused by an external impact to the body. When it comes to head injuries associated with car wrecks, epidural and subdural hematoma are particularly common.
Epidural hematomas involve blood collecting between the outer covering of the brain and the interior of the skull. These injuries may result in loss of consciousness after several hours of no symptoms. Subdural hematomas can be even more dangerous, as they involve blood penetrating the brain’s outer cover and gathering on the surface of the brain itself. Symptoms may take weeks to become apparent.
5 Signs of a Traumatic Brain Injury
- Blurred vision: This can include double vision, difficulties seeing close up, blurred vision, issues with peripheral vision, and loss of sight in one or both eyes.
- Confusion and memory loss: This may include difficulty communicating, and issues with judgment and decision-making
- Headaches: These may be acute and/or long-lasting
- Insomnia: Poor and interrupted sleep may be a symptom of a traumatic brain injury. Fatigue may also affect memory.
- Ringing in ears: This may be a sign of a traumatic brain injury
Talk to Legal Counsel About Brain Trauma Following a Car Wreck in VA
Time is always of the essence when treating brain damage of any kind, and when that treatment mixes with the chaos of seeking civil compensation, it may be beyond any person to handle all of their needs alone. If you experienced a head or brain injury in a Virginia car accident, get in touch with an attorney at Cooper Hurley Injury Lawyers today and schedule your free case consultation. We can help you protect your legal rights and fight for fair compensation.
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