Traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) can result from a number of incidents, including contact sports, physical battery, car crashes, falls and gunshot wounds. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) notes that they can occur as a result of either a penetrating injury or simply a bump or bruise to the brain. They also refer to TBIs as the leading cause of disability and death in the world.
Oftentimes brain injury symptoms don’t set in until 24 hours after an individual was initially hurt. Some of the earliest signs that an individual has suffered a TBI is if they complain of dizziness, of confusion, of being able to taste or smell, of becoming moody, of being increasingly sensitive to sounds or light or of being easily distracted.
Other early signs of brain injury include neck pain or headaches that won’t subside. If an individual experiences an ability to walk as fast as they usually do or extreme fatigue, then these may indicate that they are suffering from a TBI also.
If an individual starts experiencing many of these symptoms, then it’s important to get him or her to a doctor right away. By the time an individual loses consciousness, vomits, slurs his or her speech or experiences convulsions, he or she has likely begun having internal bleeding inside the brain.
While some TBIs such as a mild concussion may be able to recovered from, more profound ones may impact an individual’s motor skills in the long term. Recent studies even show that a history of repeated concussions can lead an individual to develop dementia later in life. This is why it’s important to first seek medical care, then to speak with a New Haven motor vehicle accidents attorney experienced in handling traumatic brain injury cases.
