The lasting impact of Brain Damage

Person to undergo the trauma of force, usually due to blunt or penetrating injuries may risk everything. Since the head is the brain, permanent brain damage can result from severe head trauma.

In many cases, brain injuries can have lasting effects on people and seriously change their lives. Many of these cases occur when a single fault injuries sustained in an accident that was a different person. may include common incidents of brain damage:

Slip and fall accidents



Gunshot wounds



Car Accidents



Medical malpractice

Each of these incidents may violate an individual's head, which resulted in brain damage. Individuals who have suffered the brain injury itself may suffer a variety of symptoms. Although the brain> Injuries of varying severity, the symptoms tend to be similar factors, apart from these and may include:

Slurred speech



Trouble staying focused



Learning Disabilities



Memory loss



Loss of limb function

In severe cases, symptoms may appear immediately after the accident. In milder cases, these characters appear in weeks, months or even yearsafter the accident, especially if the injury has gone untreated. As such, it is important for individuals to help accident, a doctor, regardless of severity.

People who suffer from more serious diseases of the brain injury may remain permanently. In many cases, these disorders are related to symptoms of brain damage, but they last permanently and can not be processed.

People who are injured in accidentsdue to the negligence must be more responsible for keeping people accountable. An experienced personal injury lawyer can help the brain damage to get to a victim if he or she has a financial compensation may be right.

The Emotional and Financial Impact of TBI

Traumatic Brain Injury, or TBI, occurs frequently in the U.S. Over 1.4 million people every year suffer from TBI. The impact of this kind of injury to a person who has suffered from TBI is huge.

Normal Functions Diminished

A person who has suffered TBI may find that their usual abilities are lessened or lost after their injury.

Thinking capacity may be lowered, including memory and reasoning, and logical sequencing of events.

The sensations may also be affected - touch, smell and taste are often altered beyond recognition for a brain injury sufferer.

A patient's ability to use language as a means of expression is nearly always diminished by a TBI. Patients can't always communicate their thoughts and feelings well, and they often have trouble with non verbal communication. Sending and interpreting non verbal cues is actually tricky business, and brain trauma makes it especially difficult.

Emotions become even more complex and challenging for a person with TBI. Many times these patients suffer from depression and anxiety as a result of their injury, or even as a result of their altered circumstances.

Many experience personality changes, increased aggression in their interpersonal interactions, acting out and poor social awareness. They often behave in ways that fall outside the social norms because they no longer understand those norms in a way a person who has not suffered TBI does.

Because of all of these factors, TBI patients often need help for the rest of their lives with basic daily tasks, causing them a great deal of emotional stress and sometimes depression.

There are huge emotional tolls on the person who suffers from these severe brain injuries. These tolls come as a result of the injuries themselves and as a result of knowing that they have decreased mental capacity.

Financial Impact

Dealing with TBI has serious financial consequences for the patient and the patient's family.

Firstly, the care and treatment of the illness lasts for a lifetime. This means a that the medical costs alone can be astronomical. This is an illness that can stretch the lifetime benefits of major policies and leave families holding the bag for additional costs.

ATBI patient will need to have accommodations made for housing, transportation and education, all of which can costs thousands. These costs can also be ongoing and seemingly have no end.

One major cost of TBI that is sometimes overlooked is the loss of income suffered by the victim of the injury.

Many victims are unable to work or unable to work at their chosen careers following a brain injury. Many have to quit school or take an old job back because they are unable to learn or to function properly.

They often get fired from their previous employment because their mental functions are not able to keep up with the necessary tasks. Since many of these people never regain their jobs because the damages caused by brain injuries.

This means a long-term loss of income as a result of TBI becomes a huge factor in counting the financial impact of the illness.

Looking Through the MIST - Minor Impact Soft Tissue Injury

As a personal injury attorney in California I, or an attorney anywhere else for that matter can tell you, low impact cases resulting in soft tissue types of injuries, including whiplash, are specifically "red flagged" by the insurance industry as cases meriting special attention. Such cases have been labeled by the code word "MIST", short for Minor Impact Soft Tissue injury. The idea behind the "MIST" injury originated with insurance companies to allow for lower pay outs for claims resulting in little or no damage to the vehicles involved in an auto accident, and to also permit the insurance companies to pay less for injury claims that cannot be easily seen by the naked eye.

MIST cases are typically denied in their entirety by the defendant's insurance company. If the MIST claims are not denied categorically, the defendant's insurance company will often make an extremely low offer to settle, often not enough to even cover all the related injury expenses. This holds true even in cases where the defendant is clearly at fault in the accident. What can be even more frustrating is the fact that often, fault is admitted by the defendant in the accident. The insurance companies simply state that these "low ball" settlement offers are in keeping with what they see jury verdicts rendering in these kinds of related personal injury cases. As a result of the difficulty in litigating MIST injuries, many personal injury attorneys will no longer accept auto accident cases involving low property damage to a vehicle when the injury involved is a soft tissue injury.

The difficulty of litigating soft tissue injuries creates a quandary, leaving an auto accident victim with only two options: accepting the insurance company settlement offer or proceeding to take the defendant to court. Although one does not have to accept an insurance company settlement offer, there are a several facts to keep in mind during the decision making process. The first thing to remember is that going to court involves a substantial commitment of time for both the representing attorney and the recovering client. The second idea to consider is that bringing a case to trial and ultimately through to a verdict is often costly in terms of the expenses required to so, including but not limited to the costs of specialists, medical experts, and accident re-constructionists. Thirdly, it must also be noted that litigation can be risky and that there are absolutely no guarantees as to a successful result. It is up to the client to request their personal injury attorney to proceed through a cost-benefit analysis to determine if the case can be successfully litigated in a cost effective manner.

For victims of MIST injuries, it is important to engage in an active discussion about the possible outcomes of the options comprising soft tissue litigation. It is also important that one question their attorney about the bottom line when obtaining advice for an appropriate course of action to best resolve the soft tissue injury case.