Brain injuries are common if you hit your head, but an impact isn’t necessary for them to occur. You could suffer one from how quickly your head and neck snap one direction and back, for instance.
The type of traumatic brain injury you suffer will determine what kind of rehabilitation you need, the compensation you should seek from the at-fault party and other factors involved in your case.
What happens when you suffer a traumatic brain injury?
When you suffer from a traumatic brain injury, the brain moves back and forth inside the skull. During this movement, it may impact the skull, which may result in the shearing of the nerve fibers, bleeding and bruising.
The brain swells from that trauma, which can cause the tissue to press against the skull. Unfortunately, there is not enough room for the brain to swell, and this can cause crushing-like injuries to the brain. Blood circulation is reduced, and further bleeding may occur.
One of the most important things for patients with TBIs is to have that swelling reduced as quickly as possible. If the swelling isn’t minimized, then the brain may lose access to nutrients and be starved of oxygen, which leads to brain death.
How is the severity of a TBI identified?
Traumatic brain injuries are measured on the Glasgow Coma Scale. This scale has a total of 15 points that measure the way the patient responds to stimuli. A person with a mild TBI will score high on the test, between 13 and 15 points. Someone with a severe injury may score 4 to 8 points or fewer.
What happens after the severity of the injury is identified?
Once the severity of the injury is identified, doctors will begin focusing on a treatment plan. At this point, patients may start to see improvements as the swelling decreases. The goal is to help reduce the swelling over time until it no longer has an impact, and then to work on helping patients recover any functions that they lost from the brain injury itself or its secondary complications.
This can be expensive, which is why patients often seek compensation from those who caused their injuries.
