Each year in America, one million people are seen by medical doctors due to head injuries. Of that number, 50,000 to 100,000 have prolonged problems that will affect their ability to work and/or affect their daily lives. A huge majority of these people suffered from a brain injury due to motor vehicle accident. You do not have to be traveling at a high rate of speed to get a head injury. Nor do you have to hit your head on an object to injure the brain. Even at moderate rates of speed, traumatic brain injuries can and do occur.

Among other injuries, the brain may sustain bruising (bleeding), tearing, and /or swelling due to a motor vehicle accident.

BRUISING (BLEEDING)
If a person is driving a car at 45 miles per hour and is struck head-on by another car traveling at the same rate of speed, the person’s brain goes from 45 miles per hour to zero in an instant. The soft tissue of the brain is propelled against the very hard bone of the skull. The brain tissue is “squished” against the skull and blood vessels may tear. When blood vessels tear, they release blood into areas of the brain in an uncontrolled way. For example, one might imagine a dam that breaks, causing water to flood the streets of a town.

Why do medical experts seem so concerned about bleeding in the brain? A major problem is that there is no room for this extra blood. The skull, being hard and brittle, does not expand. So the blood begins to press on softer things–like brain tissue. Brain tissue is very delicate and will stop working properly or may even die off. With large amounts of bleeding in the brain, the pressure will make critical areas of the brain stop working. Areas that control breathing or heart rate could be affected, and a life or death situation could develop within hours of the accident.

TEARING
In the case of the car accident, the brain is thrown forward, then bounced backward (remember those car commercials where the crash dummy flies forward, then comes flying backward). In this forward/backward motion, the brain can be torn. The brain can also be torn by the effects of “energy”. Tearing in the brain is very serious. Tearing in the brain “cuts” the wires that make the brain work.

SWELLING
When the body realizes that it has been injured, it sends agents to heal the injured area. The problem with the brain is that there is no extra room for these agents and the pressure begins to build up. This pressure pushes down on the brain and damages structures in the brain. If there is too much pressure, this can stop important structures that control breathing or the heart rate. Sometimes, doctors will install a “relief valve” (intra-cranial pressure monitor or ICP) to let off the excess pressure.

When an individual suffers from a brain injury, huge medical expenses may be incurred. The injured individual ability to earn a living may be severely diminished. Most likely, the injured individual will continue to expend large amounts of money in the future for medical care and treatment.

The burden is rarely only upon the injured. The family may now have to care for their loved one in ways that they never contemplated. The family of the injured individual may need to employ full time, around the clock assisted care. The injured person may need to reside in an assisted care facility.

When an individual is injured due to another’s negligent or otherwise improper conduct, that person may be entitled to receive compensation for past and future medical expenses, loss of physical capacity, pain, suffering, mental anguish, lost wages, and loss of future earning capacity, among others.

The injured individual’s family may have lack of consortium claims. These claims involve lack of comfort and society which were once provided by the injured family member.

Punitive damages may also be available to punish defendants in those cases involving particularly egregious conduct, which demonstrates a reckless or wanton disregard for the safety of the public and / or the individual.

The attorney’s at Tracy Sharpe P.A have extensive, successful, experience with cases involving brain injuries.