Dealing with the aftermath of a car accident can be difficult under the best of circumstances. Of course, it is essential to receive the proper medical treatment. Traumatic brain injury, or TBI, can be a long term consequence following a car accident. The most common TBI types is a concussion. If you have been involved in a car accident, please follow these tips to ensure that you recognize and treat a TBI properly after your car accident:
- Not all TBI’s involve cracked skulls. In fact, your head might not have even hit anything during the car accident. Many brain injuries result from the brain forcefully impacting against the skull during the violent back and forth from the impact (whiplash), followed by brain swelling that reduces or eliminates the supply of blood to brain cells.
- Seek medical attention, even if you do not suspect an injury. Oftentimes, those involved in car accidents do not lose consciousness, or “blackout.” A victim of a car accident may initially believe that they are alright, but non-obvious injuries can worsen over time without prompt medical treatment.
- Be aware of brain injury symptoms. Note that not all brain injuries can be detected by a medical practitioner upon an examination. Frequently, brain injuries will become evident only following x-rays or MRIs. These tests are may only performed when a car accident victim presents with some brain injury symptoms, which include:
- Headaches
- Fatigue
- Difficulty sleeping
- Vision issues
- Mood changes or Depression
- Disorientation or problems with your normal ability to process information or tasks that were routine before
- Productivity at work or in other tasks drops off
- Nausea, to include vomiting
- Dizziness
- Memory problems
4. The Right Doctor: In some cases, your family doctor, or the doctor you are seeing for your back injury from the accident, is simply not equipped to recognize the brain injury. If you do not notice something, your family and friends might notice something is off about your behavior. If you experience any of the concerns or symptoms above, you need to see a neurologist who can perform more thorough testing, e.g. PET Scan or some other test just to insure that you are okay.
If you have suffered a brain injury following a car accident, even a minor traumatic brain injury, you may have difficulty obtaining compensation for your injuries. An accomplished attorney can be of great assistance in helping you document your injury and demonstrating causation between your injury and your car accident.
For more information, please contact the Law Offices of Stuart L. Plotnick in the metropolitan Washington, D.C. area at 301.251.1286.