What is a Brain Injury – Symptoms, Diagnosis, and Lawsuit

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Brain injury symptoms and care is complex as it involved both physical and psychological health. Legal cases related to these injuries may also be complex as symptoms vary and can even manifest well after the initial accident, sometimes weeks to months. It’s important to consult an attorney as soon as possible if you feel an injury was caused either directly or indirectly by an outside party. Our brain injury attorneys can help assess your situation and determine the best course of action regarding the pursuit of rightful compensation.

Brian injuries generally fall under two categories, mild or severe. A mild brain injury can be a concussion. A severe brain injury typically means the victim is in a vegetative state. Many cases we handle involve mild traumatic brain injuries (TBI). But the term “mild” does not mean the symptoms are temporary or unsubstantial enough to effect a victim’s motor or cognitive functions. Even a mild brain injury that shows now sign of lesions on an MRI can cause permanent limitations to executive function and motor function. A person may suffer a fall or car wreck, feel and act normal for weeks, and then suddenly develop a host of symptoms. For example, we recently handled a case that involved a three-year-old child who fell from a shopping cart after the wheel of the cart broke off. The parents did not immediately take the child to the ER because she showed no signs of injury after she stopped crying and calmed down. However, approximately eight days later, the child began exhibiting abnormal body movements. A subsequent MRI revealed some white matter that was significant to her treating neurologist, but was missed by the radiologist reviewing the MRI. Over the next year, the child’s academic performance decline and she was not on par with her classmates. Her diagnosis of mild TBI with reduced executive function and severe motor tics means that she will not develop like a normal child and will need special care for the rest of her life.

Simply put, a mild TBI is more serious than it sounds. While a concussion may heal up in a matter of days, other forms of mild TBI’s can permanently alter a person’s life. Therefore, anytime you or a loved one are involved in an accident wherein the head is impacted in any way, you should seek medical treatment immediately. The defense, as they did in the case mentioned above, will try to make the jury believe that a TBI symptoms must manifest immediately after one suffers a blow to the head. While this assertion defies medical science, it resonates with many people. Without understanding the nuances of a brain injury, many people are inclined to believe that injury and symptoms need to reside next to one another on a tight timeline. That is why it is important to get an MRI and diagnosis soon after an accident, even if the victim is not showing any symptoms or displaying unusual behavior.

Stay Informed. Learn more about the impact and studies related to

Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI).

Study : Personality Change due to Traumatic Brain Injury in Children and Adolescents: Neurocognitive Correlates

Personality Change due to traumatic brain injury (PC) in children is an important psychiatric complication of injury and is a form of severe affective dysregulation. The aim of this study was to examine neurocognitive correlates of PC. The sample included children (n=177) aged 5-14 years with traumatic brain injury from consecutive admissions to 5 trauma centers were followed prospectively at baseline and 6 months with semi-structured psychiatric interviews.

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Study : Psychosocial and Executive Function Recovery Trajectories One Year after Pediatric Traumatic Brain Injury: The Influence of Age and Injury Severity

Time since traumatic brain injury (TBI) and developmental stage at injury may affect the trajectory of outcomes associated with adjustment and school success. This study prospectively enrolled 519 children with either TBI or orthopedic injury (OI) age 2.5–15 years to examine children’s psychosocial and executive function outcomes at 3- and 12-months post-injury. Outcome measures included the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL), Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), and Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF) ratings.

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Study : Long-Term School Outcomes of Children and Adolescents with Traumatic Brain Injury

The objective of this study was to better understand the impact of age at injury, severity of injury, and time since injury on long-term school outcomes of children with traumatic brain injury (TBI). Four groups of children: complicated mild/moderate TBI (n=23), severe TBI (n=56), orthopedic injury (n=35), and healthy controls (n=42). Children with TBI were either two years post injury or six years post injury.

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