There are all types of serious injuries that drivers and passengers can sustain in a motor vehicle collision. You can break bones, get whiplash, require amputation of a limb, hurt your spinal cord or have severe internal injuries. People often suffer from lingering psychological effects as well.
One of the most significant physical problems that can arise from a car accident is a traumatic brain injury. According to Johns Hopkins Medicine, “Traumatic brain injury (TBI) happens when a sudden, external, physical assault damages the brain.” The website adds, “The severity of a brain injury can range from a mild concussion to a severe injury that results in coma or even death.”
There are two kinds of traumatic brain injury
- Sometimes the skull can be intact after a car accident or other accident, but the brain is shaken so badly that a closed brain injury results. The blood vessels and brain tissue can be damaged.
- If the skull is broken, you have sustained a penetrating brain injury.
Know the difference between primary and secondary brain injuries
- A primary brain injury takes place at the exact moment of the crash or a fall, or when a bullet enters the brain. The injury is, therefore, “more or less complete.”
- When further problems arise in the brain following an injury, they are called secondary brain injuries. They can include “cellular, chemical, tissue, or blood vessel changes.”
There are dozens of potential aftereffects when you have a traumatic brain injury. They include personality changes, tiredness, headache, traumatic epilepsy, being unable to control bodily functions, difficulty speaking, loss of coordination and coma, to list just a few.
People do recover from brain injuries, but it can take months or years of intensive rehabilitation. Complete recovery may not be possible. No amount of financial compensation can ever make up for the major changes in someone’s life after a TBI, like losing the ability to work, drive or perform simple, everyday tasks. Still, you may want to consider taking legal recourse to get what you deserve.