Sustaining head trauma is a life-altering event. Brain injuries impact physical and mental abilities, emotions and personality, as well as create financial distress. You could need rehabilitation or need to relearn skills for daily activities after an injury. The Cleveland brain injury lawyers at Tittle & Perlmuter are aware of how disastrous head trauma can be, and how hard it is to recover. 1.7 million people suffer a traumatic brain injury (TBI) every year. However, if your TBI resulted from the negligence of a doctor or in a car accident caused by a negligent driver, you should contact the experienced accident attorneys with our firm as soon as possible. Our team is ready to hold the negligent party accountable and fight for the compensation you deserve.
What are Brain Injuries?
There are two types of brain injuries a person can sustain. An acquired brain injury (ABI) is brain damage caused by a medical condition such as strokes, infections, lack of oxygen to the brain, etc. The second type is a traumatic brain injury. This occurs when you experience a violent jolt or blow to the head.
These injuries can come in many forms. Common types of head trauma include:
- Concussions
- Skull fractures
- Intracranial hematomas (blood clots)
- Internal damage
- Bruising, bleeding and swelling of the brain
- Brain tissue death
Not every person with a brain injury experiences the same type of symptoms. It’s important to be aware of all the possible signs for a TBI:
- Loss of consciousness
- Confusion or disorientation
- Memory loss or amnesia
- Fatigue
- Headaches
- Vision issues
- Problems paying attention or concentrating
- Sleep disturbances
- Dizziness or loss of balance
- Irritability or emotional disturbances
- Depression
- Seizures
- Vomiting
To diagnose a brain damage, a doctor will complete an assessment of the patient. Additionally, there are three diagnostic imaging tests done to evaluate head trauma. These tests are a CT, MRI or MRS. However, not all brain injuries will show up on these scans. A Cleveland attorney could help someone suffering a TBI claim damages based on the type of injury they have.
Brain Injuries and Medical Malpractice
When a doctor or medical professional fails to follow the rules all other medical providers respect, you or your loved one could suffer a brain injury as a result of their medical malpractice. When you go to the hospital, you entrust your health to the medical staff. A brain injury caused by hospital or physician negligence, error, or mistake can change your life in a blink of an eye. Our medical malpractice attorneys are ready to hear your brain damage case and fight for you.
“Hey folks, Allen Tittle here again. One common injury that we see here in our practice, as a result of car accidents, medical negligence or medical malpractice, or some other type of personal injury claim are traumatic brain injuries. 1.7 million people each year in the United States suffer from traumatic brain injuries, and as you can imagine those are life altering events that change your life forever.
Now there’s really two main causes of traumatic brain injuries that we see in our practice, our personal injury practice. It’s usually caused by blunt force trauma: you’re in a car crash, you hit your head. Or a lack of oxygen. Now when you suffer an injury from blunt force trauma, the symptoms are very similar to a concussion, because a concussion is a brain injury. So headaches, vomiting, dizziness. It’s very important if you have those symptoms to seek medical attention immediately because you may have a brain bleed, causing your brain to swell. And if the proper medical treatment is not provided, you could die.
The other type that I mentioned before, the lack of oxygen brain injury, it’s pretty much the symptoms you see in a stroke and the long-term effects are the same. So you could have one-sided paralysis, weakness of the limbs, dizziness, short-term and long-term memory loss. All these things can occur as a result of a traumatic brain injury.
And folks, I want to sort of emphasize that what makes traumatic brain injuries unique, are that you can look at the person and think oh they look fine. But in reality, they’ve suffered a traumatic injury that has changed their life. If you or a loved one has suffered a traumatic brain injury as a result of someone else’s negligence – either in a car accident, semi-truck crash, medical malpractice – please give us a call or visit our website today. Thank you, take care.”
Head Trauma Due to Oxygen Deprivation
The brain needs a continuous flow of oxygen. If not, brain tissue will die. When this occurs, you may hear two medical terms from doctors – anoxia or hypoxia. An anoxic brain injury occurs when there is a total lack of oxygen getting to the brain, while a hypoxic brain injury occurs when there is a partial lack of oxygen to the brain. As a general rule, the less oxygen the brain received, the more severe the harm to the brain will result.
When one suffers from head trauma due to a lack of oxygen to the brain, serious impairments, such as cognitive dysfunction can result. Unfortunately, these types of injuries can be caused from medical malpractice. Some common ways one can suffer a brain damage due to a lack of oxygen in the context of medical malpractice are as follows:
- Anesthesia errors during surgery
- Surgical errors
- Birth Injuries
- Medication errors
- Inadequate perfusion during coronary artery bypass graft surgery (CABG)
- Dislodgment of a trachea
- Failure to monitor very low blood pressure
If oxygen is cut off to the brain for five minutes, brain cells can begin to die. When the lack of oxygen lasts longer, it can cause a coma, seizures, and even death.
As you can imagine, brain hypoxia and anoxia are medical emergencies that need treatment immediately – the sooner medical attention is received and oxygen is restored to the brain, the better recovery the patient will have. While some patients can recover from these brain injuries, the determining factor is usually the length of time the brain went without oxygen.
Symptoms
Despite making a recovery, a person who has suffered a brain injury due to lack of oxygen to the brain might suffer from a long list of symptoms. While all stem from cognitive deficits, the major issues are as follows:
- Short-term memory loss
- Difficulty of performing critical tasks as reasoning and making judgments
- Difficulty with words, also known as anomia
- Visual disturbances
Some common physical deficits are:
- Lack of coordination, also known as ataxia
- Inability to perform functions of daily living involving a sequence of physical movements, like combing hair or brushing teeth
- Involuntary and abnormal movements
- Weakness in limbs
Other Types of Brain Injuries Caused by Medical Malpractice
In addition to brain injuries as a result of lack of oxygen, medical malpractice can cause additional brain injuries, such as the following:
- Brain swelling or pressure injuries due to medication mistake or mistakes during surgery;
- Anesthesia errors; and
- Failure to detect or diagnose life threatening conditions
- Stroke, aneurysm, brain tumor, epilepsy, meningitis, hemorrhage
Brain injuries are conditions that need to be addressed immediately before they cause permanent brain damage. In addition to hypoxia, common brain injuries associated with medical malpractice are mentioned below:
- Brain Bleeds (Hemorrhage): Trauma or strokes can cause bleeding in the brain.
- Blood Clots: There is an increase in the risk of blood clots after someone undergoes surgery. In the brain, blood clots form when there is bleeding between the skull and the brain, or clots can travel to the brain and cause a stroke. Blood clots can cause loss of feeling, blindness, speech issues and seizures.
Brain Injuries and Motor Vehicle Accidents
What happens to your brain when you are involved in an automobile accident? Being involved in an accident caused by a motor vehicle (car, motorcycle, truck, etc.) can cause a wide spectrum of injuries, ranging from a mild concussion to permanent brain damage.
When you are in an accident caused by a negligent driver, your brain can crash around inside your skull. This causes bruising, bleeding or tearing of the nerve fibers. Even if someone seems fine and aware immediately after an accident, the brain can experience delayed trauma in the form of swelling. When your brain swells, it pushes against your skull, which can reduce the flow of oxygen from the blood to the brain.
Motor vehicle accidents cause other brain injuries, including:
- Concussion: this is when the head experiences a violent impact or sudden momentum. A concussion can cause nerve damage.
- Diffuse Axonal Injury: this happens when the head strongly shakes or rotates and can cause nerve damage. This injury may result in permanent brain damage, a coma or even death.
- Hemorrhage: this is a type of stroke that occurs when an artery in the brain bursts and causes bleeding in the brain.
- Contusion: this occurs when the head experiences a direct impact and causes a brain bleed or bruising.
- Hematoma: when a sudden blow to the head tears blood vessels, the blood pools and creates pressure on the brain.
What are Traumatic Brain Injuries?
The Cleveland lawyers at Tittle & Perlmuter have experience in handling a broad range of brain jury cases, including those involving TBIs. A TBI is a distinct type of brain injury that can occur any time sudden physical damage happens to the brain – this can be from an individual’s head hitting an object forcefully or something passing through the skull and piercing the brain. While car accidents can cause most traumatic brain injuries, they can also occur anytime the head is struck.
Traumatic brain injuries can cause a host of problems including:
- Permanent cognitive dysfunction, such as issues with memory and concentration
- Anger management issues
- Chronic headaches
- Fatigue
- Sudden mood swings
Importance of a Cleveland Brain Injury Attorney
Medical and driving negligence can result in traumatic brain injuries, so our lawyers fight to get the victims the restitution they deserve. Brain injuries cause irreparable damages that affect you for the rest of your life. If you or a loved one suffered a head trauma as a result of the negligence of a doctor, hospital, medical professional, or driver of a vehicle, the Cleveland brain injury lawyers at Tittle & Perlmuter can help. We are ready to hear your case and advise you on your course of action as you adjust to life after your injury. We are available on weeknights and weekends, and we can come to you.
DO NOT WAIT to act! From the very first moment you pick up the phone and call us, our Cleveland TBI lawyers will guide you through the entire process and fight with everything in our power to earn you the maximum financial compensation you are entitled to. There is NO FEE until we WIN so you have nothing more to lose and everything to gain by grabbing your phone and calling us now!
Cleveland, Ohio 44113