Auto Accidents and Traumatic Brain Injury
Many of us have suffered minor concussions or other "rattlings" of the brain, but this article is about something much more serious: traumatic brain injuries, or TBI's.
TBI's are a leading cause of death, and can be caused by a variety of sources.
Here, I will focus on one specifically: auto accidents.
Auto accidents account for 20% of traumatic brain injuries in the United States of America, and everyone should be aware of how they are caused and what the early warning signs can be.
Traumatic brain injuries are brain injuries in which the brain tissue is damaged.
As simple as that sounds, there are even simpler ways in which you can suffer this kind of injury.
Simple falls and blows to the head can cause a TBI.
In this article specifically, we are discussing auto accidents as a cause.
rapid acceleration and deceleration can cause a traumatic brain injury quickly.
Specifically, when your brain is rapidly accelerated and then decelerated, your brain can actually strike the front or back of the skull, causing tissue damage as if the brain tissue itself had actually been struck.
I'm sure you can imagine with the number of whiplash cases caused by auto accidents, this type of scenario is actually quite possible with high speed collisions.
The symptoms of traumatic brain injury may not manifest immediately; in fact they can take some time to show themselves.
The symptoms can be as subtle as one pupil being permanently dilated, or as bizarre as personality changes or hallucinations.
Since the brain is the nerve center for the body, all kinds of systems can be affected.
This is why head injury victims should be monitored for some time after their accident, to watch for symptoms which they themselves or their loved ones might not notice without intense observation.
If you've been in an automobile accident and have suffered a head injury, get to a hospital immediately! They will most likely want to take x-rays and examine you to ensure you do not have a traumatic brain injury.
After that, if you have been involved in an accident with another person, contact a personal injury attorney to determine whether or not you need to seek damages from the person or entity you were in an accident with.
Hospital care for traumatic brain injuries can be quite expensive, and you should not foot the bill yourself if you are not to blame.