Each year in the United States, around 100,000 people suffer serious brain injuries. These brain injuries usually require treatment on a regular basis for the brain to properly work. Getting serious brain injuries is not merely a result of driving a car in such a fast speed. Serious brain injuries can result from falls, car accidents, sports activities, and work-related accidents. Any kind of trauma to the head or neck region can cause the brain to bruise, bleed, tear, or swell.

Types of Brain Injuries: Open and Closed

Head injuries can either be open or close. An open injury means the skull has been fractured, and this kind of brain injury usually results from falls or other accidents in which the head comes in direct contact with a hard surface or object. A closed head injury, on the other hand, does not involve a fracture, but can be more serious than an open injury due to the possibility of brain swelling and the formation of dangerous blood clots inside the skull. Whether the injury suffered is close or open, this can lead to loss of consciousness, paralysis, or death if the impact is serious.

Serious Brain Injury: Warning Signs

It may be hard to know whether a loved on has suffered an injury, right after an injury. This is because there is usually no visual signs of the injury. Here are some things to look out for when evaluating an accident victim’s potential for brain injuries:

• Getting confused and having difficulty remembering recent events
• Being unusually tired or sluggishness
• Nauseated and dizzy
• Having a severe headache
• Being weak or feeling numb

You should immediately seek medication if any of the above enumeration is present.  It is even possible to suffer from a brain injury and still feel fine. Some victims have suffered serious brain injuries in an automobile accident, yet have been able to get out of their car and direct traffic away from the scene. Thus, if there will be uncertainty as to the status of the person involved, it is best to simply go to the hospital to make sure. Otherwise, you might be risking the life of a loved one.

Common Brain Injuries

Bruising of the brain is a common injury that results from automobile accidents, falls, and sport-related accidents. The force involved in such occurrences can force the brain forward and then backward, or vice versa. The effects of this can either be bruising or bleeding.

Tearing is another effect of trauma to the brain. An example that can cause tearing is force of collision. Tearing is similar to what happens if a block of ice were to be struck with a hammer; small cracks form, yet the block remains intact. When the nerve cells of the brain are damaged, they can really cause the functions of a person to totally change.

When the brain suffers the type of trauma described above, swelling usually occurs. Swelling is caused by the natural healing process of the body. What results is called intra-cranial pressure, which can be deadly or cause severe impairment of body functions.

Serious Brain Injuries: Medical Evaluation

Victims of brain injuries usually need financial aid from various institutions. Medical evaluation of the degree of an individual’s impairment can have a huge impact on the level of compensation the individual will receive, from all sources. The medical evaluation would also affect the findings of the following:

• Ability to work by the person injured
• The economic compensation and the right to receive of the person
• Eligibility of the person to fight discrimination
• The possibility of living independently
• Type of physical therapy that might improve health

Significantly, such an evaluation should include the significant changes an individual will undergo as he/she progresses through acute hospitalization, then returns to the home and community. An individual will likely experience the best possible outcome with rehabilitation that offers an interdisciplinary approach and coordinated care.

Pursuing a Legal Claim for Brain Injuries

If you think that the suffering of your loved one has been caused by the fault of another person, you should always make sure that you will take the legal remedies. To give an example, you cannot just sit behind your back if you know that there is a person who should be accountable of what is happening.

Should you decide to pursue a legal claim, your attorney may proceed under two distinct legal theories in order to prove that you were injured because of someone else’s carelessness. Under the theory of negligence, even if the person did not have a deliberate intention to harm you or your loved one,  he can still be held accountable. A negligence theory of liability is used most often when someone’s action (or failure to act) was the main cause the injury, as opposed to a product or piece of equipment.