Few things are more serious or longer lasting than a brain injury or closed-head injury. Traumatic brain injuries are a leading cause of permanent disability and death. Car accidents and truck accidents are among the leading causes of such traumatic damage to the human body; however, brain injuries can also by caused by industrial accidents, falls and violence.
A traumatic brain injury can be caused by direct impact or acceleration. The average human brain weighs about three pounds and is suspended in fluid. When the brain tissue is disturbed by a direct impact or acceleration, such as a car accelerating or decelerating too quickly, critical connections can be damaged or broken. A brain injury can occur without any outward signs of trauma. Traumatic brain injuries often affect a person’s physical abilities, speech and personality. In many cases, extensive rehabilitation is required.
In traumatic brain injury cases it is important to assess the long-term economic consequences. This can be very difficult because the medical, economic, scientific and technical knowledge needed are constantly evolving. Attorneys who handle cases involving traumatic brain injuries must understand the medical aspects of the injuries and stay up-to-date on the development of new treatments. They must work closely with doctors and nurses who have had years of medical training and experience dealing with traumatic brain injuries. The professionals of The Law Offices of John David Hart work with surgeons, psychologists, neuropsychologists, life care planners and economists to assess a victim’s long term needs.
If you break an arm or a leg because of an accident, the damages are relatively easy to assess. You have specific medical bills, lost a specific amount of work, and then returned to your life after the healing was complete. For a brain injury, the damages are anything but simple.
Hopefully, you or a loved one who might have suffered a brain injury has only received a mild one. The effects are temporary and soon healed, as with most concussions. However, traumatic brain injury lawyers are here to help if the damage is more severe. If the cause was someone else’s fault, they should be, and legally are, required to help you bear the consequences. Traumatic brain injury attorneys who have close relationships with medical professionals will be best able to predict the damages, but this may help you consider some consequences.
Damages Your Thinking
This encompasses most processes that you probably take for granted like memory and reasoning. If you lose memories or knowledge you already had, your life will necessarily be changed. Equally difficult, however, is if you lose the ability to think normally in the future. Being able to learn and remember new things is essential to almost every career imaginable. Losing something you potentially could have and reasonably would have done is difficult to bear, and working with a traumatic brain injury lawyer and doctors is necessary to assess what the legal implications are.
Damages Your Sensations
What happens if your sense of taste no longer functions? What if you became blind or deaf? Sometimes losing or changing a sensation makes it difficult to work. Regardless of that, it will fundamentally change your life. Can you imagine never being able to taste your favorite foods? Or tell if the milk is bad simply by smelling it?
Damages Your Language
Language refers not only to foreign languages you may have picked up, but also speaking in your native language, understanding meaning behind words, and understanding expressions. Imagine how difficult life could be if you no longer could understand the difference between laughing and crying or could not understand written words. Communication is needed almost every minute of the day in today’s society, and anything that damages that must be held legally accountable.
Damages Your Emotions
Often, this appears as a lack of self-control. You could be irrationally angry, violent, depressed, anxious, or simply have a weakened sense of social appropriateness. The practical effects of this can be devastating. Family life would be much more difficult that before the accident. Work could suffer because relating to other people and acting in ways they find appropriate could become increasingly difficult.
It is important to work with an experienced brain injury attorney who will be more able to assess the long term difficulties and the appropriate damages you are entitled to.
If you or a love one has suffered a traumatic brain injury, please contact our firm at 1-800-247-1623 or johnhart@hartlaw.com for a free consultation to discuss your legal rights.