What is the Main Cause of a Brain Injury?

Motion, in some way, shape, or form, is the main cause of a brain injury. Violent motion slams the delicate and unprotected brain against the inside of the hard and thick skull. That impact usually causes brain bleeding and swelling.

Let’s back up a minute. Most people assume that the brain fits snugly inside the skull, like a hand in a glove. Instead, the ratio between brain and skull is more like a fish in a fishbowl. The skull is a water tank that suspends the brain in cerebrospinal fluid. The large gap between brain and skull creates the risk of a motion-related brain injury.

Low and high-speed car crashes alike usually trigger the aforementioned motion, making auto accidents the leading cause of brain injuries in the United States. These injuries are difficult to diagnose and treat. So, a Carlsbad personal injury lawyer connects victims with doctors who focus on such injuries. This partnership is usually the foundation of a successful car accident negligence case in SoCal.

sTBIs

Severe Traumatic Brain Injuries are very common in high-speed car wrecks. Restraint systems, such as airbags, reduce the risk of head injuries. But today’s cars and trucks are so large and so fast that no restraint system, however sophisticated, can possibly absorb all the force in these collisions.

sTBI symptoms include personality changes, severe headaches, tinnitus (ringing in the ears), and depression. Dead brain cells cause these symptoms, and since brain cells don’t regenerate, these injuries are permanent.

Physical therapy manages the symptoms. However, brain injury physical therapy is much more difficult and expensive than other kinds of physical therapy. Everyone responds to some kind of therapy, but not everyone responds to the same kind of therapy. Therefore, brain injury physical therapy involves lots of expensive and frustrating trial and error.

A Carlsbad personal injury lawyer advocates for victims in these situations, to ensure that the money keeps flowing and victims have the opportunity to improve.

mTBIs

Moderate TBIs, or concussions, aren’t as serious as sTBIs. However, mTBIs are severe in their own way. Furthermore, the cumulative effects of multiple concussions causes Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), a progressive, degenerative brain disease that’s usually fatal.

Initial symptoms (soreness and confusion) usually mimic accident shock. Therefore, many victims don’t “feel” hurt and don’t immediately see doctors. As a result, they don’t get the treatment they need and their conditions deteriorate.

PTSD

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is also a physical brain injury. But a chemical change, not extreme motion, causes this injury.

Extreme stress, like the stress of a life-threatening car crash, expands the amygdala and shrinks the hippocampus, The amygdala controls emotional responses and the hippocampus controls logical responses. So, an imbalance causes symptoms like depression, anger, and hypervigilance.

Think of a cowboy and a wild horse. If the cowboy (hippocampus) holds the reins, the wild horse (amygdala) is under control. But if the cowboy lets go of the reins for any reason, the horse runs amok, hurting the cowboy and anyone unfortunate enough to be in the mustang’s path.

Count on a Dedicated San Diego County Lawyer

Injury victims are entitled to substantial compensation. For a confidential consultation with an experienced personal injury lawyer in Carlsbad, contact the Pursley Law Firm. We routinely handle matters throughout the Golden State.

Source:

cdc.gov/traumatic-brain-injury/data-research/facts-stats/index.html